Books For Keeps
  • Home
  • Reviews
  • Articles
  • Past Issues
  • Latest Issue
  • Authors and Artists
  • Latest News
  • Search
  • Menu Menu
November 17, 2023/in 14+ Secondary/Adult /by Andrea Reece
BfK 263 November 2023
Reviewer: Val Randall
ISBN: 978-1915071422
Price: £8.99
Publisher: Little Island Books
Genre:
Age Range: 14+ Secondary/Adult
Length: 264pp
Buy the Book

Grapefruit Moon

Author: Shirley-Anne McMillan

Drew has just been accepted by Cooke’s, the most prestigious school in the area and where he will study for his A-levels.  The odds were doubly stacked against him as he comes from one of the most deprived and notorious estates in the city. He remains an outsider when the academic year begins, struggling to deal with his family’s poverty when kit is needed for school and knowing that his only chance to be the first person in his family to go to university, the first to make a change in his destiny, is to adhere to the extreme codes of masculinity expounded by the toxic Stewards, led by the poisonously powerful Adam. This student freemasonery, feared by staff and students alike, can influence who receives the scholarship which will pay university fees.

Charlotte – at the other end of the social and financial spectrum to Drew – is also finding school punishingly difficult. A star student with a controlling mother who has relentlessly mapped out her life for her, she is also Adam’s ex-girlfriend. He has pursued her cruelly and continuously since she ended their relationship and is now blackmailing her by threatening to release a sex tape of the two of them together unless she agrees to resume their relationship.

Two very different students but under very similar pressures – forced into doing what parents and peers expect but which neither of them are sure they want. They have something else in common – a love of and talent for poetry, something Charlotte’s mother has expressly forbidden and which Drew keeps hidden for fear of ridicule. McMillan has their teacher, Don Antonio, introducing them to Lorca’s work as part of their course, for just as they are drowning under the weight of parental and class expectations, so he did, too. Through Lorca – and a school visit to Spain – Drew and Charlotte found the strength to speak out about what they really wanted in their lives and to let not only their poetry be heard but also their views about the injustices and divisions of class and gender within their educational situation. The book ends on a gentle note of hope with a tentative way forward for the two protagonists, individually and together.

It is refreshing to read literature for young people coming out of contemporary Northern Ireland – as the author points out, it is many years since Joan Lingard wrote the excellent Kevin and Sadie books and it is good to see that writers like McMillan are now continuing the canon.

Share this entry
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on WhatsApp
  • Share on Pinterest
  • Share on LinkedIn
  • Share on Reddit
  • Share by Mail
http://booksforkeeps.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/bfklogo.png 0 0 Andrea Reece http://booksforkeeps.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/bfklogo.png Andrea Reece2023-11-17 22:19:202023-11-17 22:20:25Grapefruit Moon

Search for a specific review

Author Search

Search







Generic filters




Filter by Member Types


Book Author

Download BfK Issue Bfk 272 May 2025
Skip to an Issue:

About Us

Launched in 1980, we’ve reviewed hundreds of new children’s books each year and published articles on every aspect of writing for children.

Read More

Follow Us

Latest News

Margaret McDonald and her editors Alice Swan and Ama Badu win the 2025 Branford Boase Award

July 9, 2025

‘The magic of poetry by heart’ Champions of the 2025 National Poetry Speaking Competition Announced

July 8, 2025
IBC

New National Year of Reading launching January 2026

July 8, 2025

Contact Us

Books for Keeps,
30 Winton Avenue,
London,
N11 2AT

Telephone: 0780 789 3369

ISSN: 0143-909X (this is our International Standard Serial Number).

© Copyright 2025 - Books For Keeps | Proudly Built by Lemongrass Media - Web Design Buckinghamshire
Sisters of Sword and Shadow Bad Magic: A Skulduggery Pleasant Graphic Novel
Scroll to top