Wednesday 24 June 2015

Review: Fire Colour One by Jenny Valentine

Title: Fire Colour One
Author: Jenny Valentine
Series: n/a
Format: Paperback (I was kindly sent a copy by Maximum Pop! Books to review)
Rating: 4/5

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Goodreads description: A teenage girl will soon discover, there are some things which burn even brighter than fire. Iris’s father Ernest is at the end of his life. Her best friend Thurston seems like a distant memory to her. Her mother has declared war. She means to get her hands on Ernest’s priceless art collection so that she can afford to live the high life. But Ernest has other ideas. There are things he wants Iris to know. Things he can tell her and things that must wait till he’s gone. What she does after that is up to her.

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My review: Fire Colour One tells the story of Iris, a sixteen year old girl who has spent most of her life living in New York with Hannah, her selfish, money-obsessed Mother and Hannah's wannabe-actor boyfriend. Her only escapes in life are her best friend Thurston and building fires to let out her anger and frustration.

Iris has been told by her mother all her life that her father, Ernest, never wanted her so it comes as a surprise when Hannah calls up Iris's father in search of money that he requests to see Iris. When Iris finally meets Ernest the truth about her past starts to slowly unravel and Ernest's plans for the future come into play.

This was so unlike any other YA book that I have read before. Jenny Valentine's writing is beautiful and the characters were all so different and captivating; they felt so real that it was almost like reading Iris's memoir of the people in her life than a story at times. It was a really quick read, but like Iris's fires - while this book was short, it burned brightly.

My only gripe with this story was that the narrative is non-linear and it jumped back and forth between different time periods in the characters' lives. This meant that it would go from characters having met in one chapter, back to them having not yet met each other in the next which had a bit of a jarring effect on me. This was the only reason this book lost a star. Otherwise, this is definitely one of those books where the characters and story will stay with me for a long time to come.

Currently reading: City of Bones by Cassandra Clare (re-read)
Currently drinking: Cranberry Green Tea by Twinings
Currently listening toMight Just Die by History

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