Introduction
Ben Brooks (born 1992 in Gloucestershire) is the author of six novels: Grow Up, Fences, An Island of Fifty, The Kasahara School of Nihilism and Upward Coast and Sadie, Lolito and most recently Hurra.
Grow Up
The novel was published in 2011 by Canongate Books Ltd. It centres on Jasper, a teenager who is in his final year of compulsory education and, like his friends, engages in drugs, sex and drink in his spare time.
The novel received mixed reviews. Anna Winter of The Observer wrote "Ben Brooks's coming-of-age novel has sex and drugs – but not a lot else" while a review on Scotsman.com said that "Grow Up is a sharp and witty exploration of adolescent life in modern Britain". "Brooks's novel is achingly self-reflexive" says reviewer Jane Housham of The Guardian. The reviewer for The Independent mentions a "horrible tendency to over-egg his similes and metaphors".