Trigger warnings: Fire, burns, near-death experiences, pyromania

6/10, I picked this up from one of the two libraries I go to and I saw this had a low rating so I lowered my expectations as a result but even so this realistic contemporary YA novel underwhelmed me, what's wrong with them? The cover looked amazing, so I thought it would be a good novel, but my expectations were subverted. The story itself was utter trash (the main character, who is a pyromaniac, meets her dying father, he dies and turns out to be a really good art forger), and the characters were either flat, boring, or annoying since none of them experienced character development. I especially hated the main character Iris since needs help like seeking the nearest mental health service, she can't just burn someone's property all the time just to make her feel better and argue with people, and wish that people would die quickly (like her father) but she never gets help and she waits until she almost dies to stop her fiery proclivity. I couldn't root for Iris, unfortunately, and the plot made me not enjoy this book. Read Hour of the Bees by Lindsay Eagar or The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin if you want a better book about death. ( )

4.5 Stars ( )

ah, eso fue satisfactorio

Original de: El Extraño Gato del Cuento

La sinopsis es cortita pero creo que de todas maneras como le baja un poco de emoción al libro, mi recomendación por eso siempre será: tu cita con un libro de ser a ciegas. Si eres de los que gusta vivir al límite, claro.

Yo no sabía que Jenny Valentine era una escritora bastante importante y querida en el mundo Young Adult hasta que empecé a leer Fire Colour One, creo que es algo así como Morgan Matson, solo ciertos grupos la conocen y aman. Al menos eso espero, me gustó bastante Fire Colour One y quiero seguir leyendo sus libros, tengo la esperanza de no decepcionarme con ellos.

Esta historia es sobre que las cosas nunca son lo que parecen, que lo bonito por fuera no siempre será igual de bonito por dentro. Sinceramente no tenía planeado terminarme el libro de una sola sentada, es más, ni siquiera tenía planeado leerme este libro en Junio, estaba completamente segura que su publicación era en Octubre (ni idea por qué), pero me llegó un email de la editorial hace unas semanas y no pude sacarme el título del libro de la cabeza. De la misma manera que me fue imposible olvidar el nombre, me fue imposible parar de leer.

Fire Colour One es una novela Young Adult diferente ¿En qué? No es tanto sobre la historia de Iris, sino de sus padres. No hay exactamente romance pero no puedes dejar de emocionarte a la mención de un nombre.

Hace poco fue el día del padre, y creo que no hay mejor fecha para leer un libro como este. Ernest es un tipo que me conmovió mucho, no quiero decir que sentí lástima por él, sino que al terminar el libro sentí mucho cariño y admiración por él. Su problema en el inicio de su vida fue que se obsesionó con lo bonito y brillante equivocado... hasta que llegó lo que realmente valía y su vida tuvo realmente sentido. Hasta que dejó de tenerlo.

Muy pocas veces llegó realmente a desarrollar un enorme desagrado por un personaje, hasta que conocí a Hannah. Su relación con Ernest, es la razón por las que huyo de todo tipo de compromiso, la sola idea de terminar con alguien que no le importe las cosas que haga, por muy malas que sean, tan solo para que me quede a su lado, me aterra. El amor ciego es mi más grande terror.

Sometimes it’s the impossibility of a thing that makes it irresistible.

Cada vez que Hannah aparecía en escena todo lo que podía pensar era:



Fire Colour One está desarrollado de una manera en que no podrás parar de leer, además de tener uno de los finales más satisfactorios que hay sentido hasta ahora. Ese final es una completa catarsis. De esas lecturas que relajan.

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Another of those books that I enjoyed while I was reading, but, upon having time to reflect, left me with a lot of questions that affect my final impressions of the book.

1.) Iris is a pyromaniac. Iris's mother is awful. Iris sets her mother's closet on fire. Why does the mother not press charges or at least send Iris to therapy? Iris also sets fire to a supply closet at her school. Still, no charges, no therapy, no nothing. How does no one see a pattern here? How does Iris keep getting away with arson and facing no consequences?

2.) Ernest supposedly couldn't find Iris and Hannah and Lowell because Hannah and Lowell changed their names. These were not smart people. They did not manage to assume completely new identities. At best, they had their names legally changed. At worst, they registered their performance names with SAG. Either way, the expensive and supposedly excellent private investigators Ernest hired should have been able to find them. The only way a simple name change would have been enough to hide them is if the book were set in a pre-internet age, which it is not.

3.) Why is Thurston, Iris's best friend, obsessed with the rites and rituals surrounding death? And, that being the case, why does he not have some over-the-top reaction to Ernest's death?

4.) This is the big one and it's a bit of a spoiler. (Okay, kind of a huge spoiler.) What kind of asshole is Ernest to leave his hose to Iris, but leave her no funds on which to live. He tied up all her funds to purchase one painting for her—a painting which she loves above all other paintings and will never sell—and there is no other money left. So, basically, Iris has a huge house which she needs to maintain, not to mention needing to eat, and no money. She's a minor, who's still dependent on her mother (who is saddled with enormous debt) and has no skills with which to find a job. She has one painting and a house and nothing else and this is supposed to be some amazing, generous bequest that Ernest left her? Nope. Sorry. Ernest is actually a bit of an asshole for managing things this way. This is the thing that pretty much completely destroyed my enjoyment of this book. it's well-written and has characters I liked in spite of their many, criminal flaws, but this ending was bullshit.

There is a lot to like about this book, just don't think about it too much. Pretend there aren't giant, gaping plot holes and improbabilities and the characters and prose may be enough to sweep you along.

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