My God, Brooks is a frightening young talent. In <i>Lolito</i>, he creates a multi-coloured, grubby little world that I'd really hate to read about if I was a parent. Magnetising, funny and disturbing, his prose is infectious and highly addictive. I loved it
- TIM KEY,
<i>Lolito </i>is the funniest, most horrible book I've read in years. I was blown away
- NICK CAVE,
I love Ben Brooks. And <i>Lolito</i> is really something else. A twisted age-gap love story that is deadpan and grubby and strangely poetic and funny and wrong and also very right. It is like how <i>The Graduate</i> would have ended up if Dustin Hoffman had watched a lot of <i>Loose Women</i> and drank Strongbow and spent too much time on the internet
- MATT HAIG,
<i>Grow Up</i> is absolutely knockout - Brooks has the timing of a genius stand-up comic. Top class
- RICHARD MILWARD,
Ben Brooks is a magical imp who pumps out dark nuggets of poetry and makes you snort with laughter
- NOEL FIELDING,
The most convincing portrayal of the adolescent mind since <i>Vernon God Little</i>
- EWAN MORRISON,
This is a totally convincing portrait of being a wayward teenager now, that only a teenager could have written
* Dazed & Confused *
Funny, witty and addictive, <i>Lolito</i> is a quirky and disturbing ball of energy that will consume readers until they have turned the last page
* The List *
Both warm and uncompromising,<i> Lolito</i> will be as entertaining for young adults as it is educational for older readers. And if some aspects of the world Brooks inhabits seem alarming, I can't think of a writer I would rather have as my guide
- Alice O’Keefe, * Guardian *
Ben Brooks made me think that I'm glad I was fifteen in 1974 rather than now. I'm not actually that crazy about being fifty-four right now
- Jim Murdoch, * The Truth About Lies *
Brooks is a master of this art
- Helen Rumbelow, * The Times *