Ketchup Clouds by Annabel Pitcher
Zoe stays up late at night and writes to her pen pal, a Texas death row prisoner who murdered his wife. He is the only one with whom she can share her dark secret: she too killed someone. Zoe slowly reveals her story, including her own role in a boy’s death and living with the aftermath of having done it. Zoe’s story is one of being drawn to two boys, using one against the other, and the startling result of her betrayal. It is a story of love that is beyond the expected, first romance that is tortured but desperately real, and the wounds left behind that are impossible to heal.
Pitcher, author of My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece, has returned with a beautifully written second novel. She lays bare Zoe as a character, giving her the space to reveal herself in all of her remorse and conflict. Here is one of my favorite passages in the book:
I’d do anything to forget. Anything. Eat the spider or stand naked on top of the shed or do math homework every day for the rest of my life. Whatever it took to wipe my brain clean like you can with computers, pressing a button to delete the images and the words and the lies.
But perhaps what Pitches does best in this novel is to build tension and doubt. Throughout the book until the final reveal, readers do not know which of the boys died. Pitcher writes in a way that lets readers fall for both of them for different reasons, so that either one’s death is a grand tragedy and something to destroy lives.
This is a book that is burning and compelling. It is a book that is beautifully honest, vibrantly written. This is Zoe’s heart on a page in all of its wounds and glory. Appropriate for ages 14-17.
Reviewed from digital copy received from Little, Brown Books for Young Readers and Edelweiss.
Waking Brain Cells 