Ketchup Clouds

Ketchup Clouds

Author	Annabel Pitcher
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre	Young adult
Publisher	Indigo division of Orion Publishing Group
Publication date	2012

Ketchup Clouds is a 2012 teen novel by Annabel Pitcher. It tells the story of a girl about the age of 15 who has a dark secret she is afraid to confess to anyone but her pen pal, a murderer on Death Row. It won the Waterstone's Children's Book Prize.

The book revolves around a 15-year-old girl who, to keep her identity, calls herself Zoe, and claims to live on 1 Fiction Road, somewhere near Bath, England. The story is told in written letters to a murderer on Death Row (Stuart Harris), whom she believes is the only person she can confide in, after admitting to killing his wife. Zoe feels like Stuart is the only person she can confess her secret to, because he knows how it feels to have murdered someone that he loved. Zoe lives with her two sisters, 10-year-old Sophie and 6-year-old Dot (Dorothy), who is deaf and communicates through sign language. She also lives with her parents (Simon and Jane), who had been arguing constantly in the recent weeks, mainly surrounding Jane's grudge against Simon's dad, in the light of being revealed as ill. The grudge remains a mystery to Zoe, who hasn't seen her grandfather in years.

Zoe is invited to an end of summer party by Max Morgan, the most popular boy in her year at school. Knowing that her mum will never allow her to go, Zoe asks her dad and is given permission. Outside the party Zoe starts an interesting conversation with a boy (at least two years older) she has never met, but is dragged away by her best friend, Lauren, before they can learn each other's names. Inside the house she catches the boy's eye but loses him again. In an effort to find him she encounters Max Morgan. They subsequently make out in Max's bedroom, leading to Zoe being topless. Once returned to school, Lauren reveals to Zoe that in her drunken state, Max took a photo of her bare chest, sent it to his friend, who sent it to everyone at school. Zoe later confronts Max, who takes no notice of her anger and goes home without apologising.

Zoe goes to the annual Bonfire Night celebration and meets the boy from the party, he tells her his name is Aaron. Aaron then goes off with a girl who Zoe assumes is his girlfriend. Heart-broken, she then runs into Max, who gives an honest apology and kisses her. Upon leaving, Max says his brother is driving him home, Zoe approaches the car to see Aaron, realising that the two are brothers. That evening Zoe receives a text from Max, inviting her to his house the next day. Even though she prefers Aaron, she thinks that he is already taken, so accepts Max's invite. After her dad refuses to explain her mum's grudge against her grandfather, Zoe chooses to believe that if they can have secrets, she can too. So Zoe goes to Max's house, but on leaving, she sees Aaron, and lies about visiting his brother. Aaron then drives her home, and they talk all the way. Aaron gives Zoe his number. Suddenly an ambulance drives by her house, Zoe goes to a distraught Sophie, who says that Dot fell down the stairs and went unconscious. Zoe takes Sophie in a taxi to the hospital where they meet their parents. Dot is well, but has a broken wrist.