Fire Color One, by Jenny Valentine

 Hey all! 

I recently finished reading Fire Color One, by Jenny Valentine

Many thanks to the Dominicanen Boekhandel in Maastricht for providing a copy! This does not affect my opinions on this book. 

Also, during my next bookish talk, look out four some great news regarding the Dominicanen! 

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.

I started this book without any expectations - I just knew that it was a contemporary, to be honest! I had never read any reviews about it, or even heard weather people generally like it or not. 

Now, I’m not going to hide anything from you guys - this book is hard to get into. Within the first fifty pages, you realize that there are so many heavy topics in this book, which all affect the main character in some way or another. There’s more drama in those 50 pages than in the entire movie Titanic.  Basically, Iris, the main character, is a pyromaniac who likes setting fire to things when she’s overly emotional. Her mom is a depressed, alcoholic gold digger, who’s happy that Iris’s dad is dying because it means that she would inherit a lot of money. Iris never met her dad until this book starts, and he’s dying of four types of cancer. Her mom’s boyfriend is just as messed up as the mom is, and her best friend lives on the streets and does street art. 

Talk about a problematic family. 

This book is quite short, and I think it would have been more enjoyable if it was a little more spread out, with a more definite plot. Personally, I have a hard time with books that skip back and forth in time without a page break or warning, and this book did that a lot. That might have taken away the opportunity for a good, solid plot to come forward. This felt more like ‘a week in the life of Iris’. 

Iris’s character isn’t my favorite, she’s stubborn and explosive. However, I really, really like Thurston (her friend) and her dad’s characters. They were both so great! The dad felt like an actually human being compared to the others in the book. He was rational and slightly head-in-the-clouds-like. Thurston was quite sweet! He really cared for Iris, as a friend, but he also wanted people to have stories to tell. One of his stories that stuck out to me was when he was wearing several dollars on his shirt, and people were staring, wondering if that was real, and if they could take it. Eventually, they all did, and he was happy to have given the people something to wonder or marvel about for the rest of the day. 

Also, it’s worth mentioning that if you’re expecting a love story, you won’t find it here - it mentions one on the cover, but it isn’t between Iris and Thurston, but more of a father-daughter relationship. 

Another thing I did like was the ending. There were a few surprise elements that I didn’t see coming, and it was written in a way that I wish the rest of the book was written in. Honestly, it was worth the read practically just for the end - it was seriously cool! 

I’m giving this book a 2.5/5 stars, sadly. So much drama, and characters with quirks but not enough personality in my opinion

Have you read Fire Color One? What did you think? Let me know! 

Have a great day! :D