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Ashes
“Authentic and poetic, lyrical and believable . . . a raw, rip-roaring depiction of life” from the author of In Bloom and Another Place (Mark Piggott, author of the Forever Avalon series).
A lawless land of violence and deprivation, The Meadow Well Estate is a no-go area for police and non-residents alike and a hotbed of ritual violence. No one dares enter of their own accord, and few make it out alive. But Jack was one of the good ones. Recently released from prison, he is determined to turn his life completely by getting out.
When, however, rumors spark of the police’s involvement in the death of two young joy riders, the anxieties of the estate flare into a week-long riot, causing burnt out wrecks at every turn and capturing the attention of the local and national media. Can Jack resist the call of the indiscriminate fury, or will the desperation of Meadow Well claim him once more?
Praise for Matthew Crow’s In Bloom
“ The Fault in Our Stars meets Adrian Mole. Moving, funny and brilliantly narrated.”— Metro
“Wow. Read In Bloom right now. It will improve your life.”—Matt Haig, international bestselling author
“A moving and wonderfully witty tale . . . This excellent book is worth anyone’s time.”— Daily Telegraph
A lawless land of violence and deprivation, The Meadow Well Estate is a no-go area for police and non-residents alike and a hotbed of ritual violence. No one dares enter of their own accord, and few make it out alive. But Jack was one of the good ones. Recently released from prison, he is determined to turn his life completely by getting out.
When, however, rumors spark of the police’s involvement in the death of two young joy riders, the anxieties of the estate flare into a week-long riot, causing burnt out wrecks at every turn and capturing the attention of the local and national media. Can Jack resist the call of the indiscriminate fury, or will the desperation of Meadow Well claim him once more?
Praise for Matthew Crow’s In Bloom
“ The Fault in Our Stars meets Adrian Mole. Moving, funny and brilliantly narrated.”— Metro
“Wow. Read In Bloom right now. It will improve your life.”—Matt Haig, international bestselling author
“A moving and wonderfully witty tale . . . This excellent book is worth anyone’s time.”— Daily Telegraph
288 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 27, 2006
14 people want to read
About the author
Matthew Crow
40 books32 followersMatthew was born and raised in Newcastle and began freelancing for newspapers and magazines whilst still at school, writing about the arts and pop culture.
He has written four novels, Ashes and My Dearest Jonah - the second of which was nominated for the Dylan Thomas Prize for Literature - and one book for young adults, In Bloom, which was nominated for the Carnegie Medal and the North East Teen Book Award, and listed in the Telegraph's Best YA of 2014 List.
His fourth book, Another Place, will also be for young adults and was published by Atom in August 2017.
He has written four novels, Ashes and My Dearest Jonah - the second of which was nominated for the Dylan Thomas Prize for Literature - and one book for young adults, In Bloom, which was nominated for the Carnegie Medal and the North East Teen Book Award, and listed in the Telegraph's Best YA of 2014 List.
His fourth book, Another Place, will also be for young adults and was published by Atom in August 2017.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 19, 2018
I've wanted to read this book for a while and wasn't disappointed.
Having vivid memories of the local riots in Meadowell and Newcastle it was interesting to read a story from the heart of the estate's perspective.
Having vivid memories of the local riots in Meadowell and Newcastle it was interesting to read a story from the heart of the estate's perspective.
November 3, 2010
The opening image of Ashes is a powerful one - a group of kids trying to stone a cat to death. The reason? "Something to do".
The tone is set for the rest of the novel. Bleakness, lack of hope, pointless violence, misdirected anger, innocent victims. The setting is Meadow Well council estate in North-East England in the early 1990s, site of a real-life riot which Crow fictionalises in this debut novel.
One interesting technique in the book is the way that characters are drawn almost with equal weight. There is a central character, Jack, and the main narrative is driven by the question of whether he'll turn his life around after his recent prison release or get sucked back into crime. But there's also an array of other characters who get quite a bit of space on the page. And even passers-by or shop-owners are given names, backgrounds, miniature stories of their own.
It's quite unusual in the way it's done - almost as if Crow is trying to make the estate itself into a character by describing all the individuals in it. The strength of this approach is that there are no cardboard cutout characters. Everyone in the book is three-dimensional and believable. The downside, for me, was that sometimes the story lacked focus. You end up with a large cast of characters and it can be hard to remember who Sean and Dean are, or Alex and Ashley and Johnny and Paul...
Generally in a novel there's an expectation that characters are introduced for a reason. When they aren't, it leaves you feeling a bit let down. Nathalie, for example, gets a lot of time and attention, but her impact on Jack's life is not as big as I thought it would be. In my opinion the novel would have worked better if it had focused more sharply on Jack's story, not the story of the whole estate. Still, as I said it was an interesting approach, and in some ways it worked.
Overall I enjoyed the book and thought the writing, though uneven in places, was very lively and fresh. Matthew Crow is still only 22 and I think Ashes is a promising debut.
The tone is set for the rest of the novel. Bleakness, lack of hope, pointless violence, misdirected anger, innocent victims. The setting is Meadow Well council estate in North-East England in the early 1990s, site of a real-life riot which Crow fictionalises in this debut novel.
One interesting technique in the book is the way that characters are drawn almost with equal weight. There is a central character, Jack, and the main narrative is driven by the question of whether he'll turn his life around after his recent prison release or get sucked back into crime. But there's also an array of other characters who get quite a bit of space on the page. And even passers-by or shop-owners are given names, backgrounds, miniature stories of their own.
It's quite unusual in the way it's done - almost as if Crow is trying to make the estate itself into a character by describing all the individuals in it. The strength of this approach is that there are no cardboard cutout characters. Everyone in the book is three-dimensional and believable. The downside, for me, was that sometimes the story lacked focus. You end up with a large cast of characters and it can be hard to remember who Sean and Dean are, or Alex and Ashley and Johnny and Paul...
Generally in a novel there's an expectation that characters are introduced for a reason. When they aren't, it leaves you feeling a bit let down. Nathalie, for example, gets a lot of time and attention, but her impact on Jack's life is not as big as I thought it would be. In my opinion the novel would have worked better if it had focused more sharply on Jack's story, not the story of the whole estate. Still, as I said it was an interesting approach, and in some ways it worked.
Overall I enjoyed the book and thought the writing, though uneven in places, was very lively and fresh. Matthew Crow is still only 22 and I think Ashes is a promising debut.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews