Sky City

Visceral, shocking, moving - Jacqueline Crooks proves yet again that she is an absolutely fantastic writer -- Bernardine Evaristo
Hypnotically beautiful, almost weightless, Sky City is the literary equivalent of an out-of-body experience. In the best ways it pole-axed me. -- Louise Kennedy
Jacqueline Crooks is the rare groove of literature - she writes with a rhythm, imagination and unique language that makes even the searing pain of this novel transcendent -- Afua Hirsch
Poetic, truthful and powerful, Sky City gives glittering insight into a wounded black female subjectivity, offering agency and empathy. A beautiful read -- Diana Evans
Shimmering and kaleidoscopic, Sky City is an exhilarating, compelling story that goes deep into the self, and what it is to feel human -- Priscilla Morris
In this rich, searching novel, Jacqueline Crooks writes with great skill and quiet acuity about how the past resists containment, returning in disquieting ways. It is an unsettling yet compassionate exploration of childhood trauma, threaded with the promise of love and redemption, and a lyrical hymn to London’s overlooked places of sanctuary -- Hannah Lowe
Sky City invites us fully into the texture of the 90s. Deeply enjoyable and carrying itself with a calm assurance, this is a novel that is built to last -- Roger Robinson
Sky City is the soul electric, attuned to star-stuff in every word and in every cell of Jaycee's body. A heartbreaking but heartening tale that heals us. I adore this book, the world is transformed by it. -- Pascale Petit
[A] riveting second novel, Crooks’ rhythmic, lyrical prose transports us to a North London housing estate in the 1990s, where three lives intersect to haunting effect… A richly textured story of trauma, friendship, loneliness and redemption, and an evocative portrait of ‘90s London * Bookseller, *Fiction Book of the Month* *
A luminous novel. Crooks captures the textures of Black British life in the 80s and 90s with tenderness, fury, and breathtaking prose -- Jacob Ross
Gorgeously redemptive, and hugely courageous. Enter Sky City to hear the rare grooves and taste the soul food of 90s London, and meet three people so tenderly, so irrefutably, alive they will overflow your heart with their brightness and passion -- Alice Hiller
This is heavy but ultimately hopeful stuff, shot through with shape-shifting imagery, sometimes urban, sometimes natural, sometimes Sun Ra-style cosmic, sometimes musical… inspiring * Shortlist, *Summer Reads of 2026* *
[A] propulsive and sharp second novel * The Times *
[A] powerful, lyrical second novel… brimful of music and otherworldly images * Mail on Sunday *
Crooks’ has explored themes with sensitivity making it a powerful and thought-provoking read * UK Press Syndication *
Fire Rush announced a singular literary talent… Sky City is, in many ways, even more ambitious. It is a haunting, polyphonic meditation on trauma and belonging that hovers between realism and dream * Guardian *
This fluid, hypnotic and psychologically powerful novel compels the reader with its internal music and foreshadowing of a bold, shattering denouement * Daily Mail *
Crooks delivers…[the story] with such intensity and commitment that we are fully immersed * Financial Times *
A singular voice in British contemporary literature... The intersection of these three characters, at this pivotal coming-of-age moment in their lives, is the nucleus of the novel, but what makes Crooks such an exceptional talent is the manner in which she unravels their story... Perfect * Irish Times *