Changes

"Zoe" has a terrible secret. She feels responsible for the death of a boy. It burns and burns and she has a huge need to confess but has no-one to confess ''to''. And so she decides to become the pen pal of a prisoner on death row in Texas. Her letters to Stuart tell both her story and his. Zoe is a pseudonym - as is her address in "Fiction Road" - but the tale she tells in midnight writing sessions in the garden shed, is true. It's the story of family tension, of a love triangle, and of a grief and guilt almost too big to bear...

The book doesn't fail. In ''Mantelpiece'', Pitcher brought a little boy and his situation to life, in all its joys and all its difficulties. And she does the same with "Zoe" in ''Ketchup Clouds''. Zoe's mother is over-protective and very controlling and so Zoe is inexperienced, both in terms of her age and relative to her friends, who are all given more freedom. So, for Zoe, first love is even more difficult than it is for most of us. Should she go for the available Max? As the best-boy-in-the-school, he comes with peer group kudos attached. And we all know how important that is. But Max is only fanciable; he's not loveable. Aaron is loveable. But it looks like he has a girlfriend. He seems interested but he doesn't declare himself. If you were fifteen, what would you do? Zoe tries to hedge her bets. And I'd bet you'd probably do the same.