1. Fire Colour One, by Jenny Valentine:
I must begin by an expression of feelings: THIS BOOK IS AN ACTUAL PIECE OF ART AND I AM A PUDDLE OF FEELINGS ON THE FLOOR. Okay, deep breath. Contain yourself. I came across this book on Goodreads last summer and something about the premise made it sound like it was just one of those books I had to experience, so I added it to my to-buy list and finally got around to reading it a few weeks ago. I haven't read any other books by Jenny Valentine, but she is such a talented wielder of words in Fire Colour One. Just...OMG, so good. 16-year-old Iris, who itches for the spark of a lighted match, has never met her millionaire father, and that's all about to change. Ernest, her father, is on his deathbed and would like to meet his only child. Iris' mother Hannah is just after Ernest's fortune; mounting debt was what drove them out of Los Angeles and to Ernest's home in London. I honestly don't even know how to formulate into words how much was good about this book because it was all just amazing. The story is told in a somewhat backward but insanely interesting and intriguing style. We get information at different times and it requires the reader's attention to place information and events into the right spot. Valentine manages to do this brilliantly (and did I mention her prose? Her words are art. ART.) Iris' only friend is Thurston, who understands how she feels. We know that Iris is apparently a pyromaniac who takes great pleasure and joy in lighting fires, but we really don't understand why until quite a bit into the book. Hannah is a terrible mother and we don't really know or understand why until quite a bit into the book. Ernest appears so innocent and pure on his deathbed, but things are never what they seem. It's really difficult to explain any of the plot of this book without spoiling anything, because so many important little things happen. But I will say that Fire Colour One is one of those books where you want to stop and write down some of the lines, because they are just so beautifully written. Two that really stuck with me (among so many others):
"Get on with the business of living," Ernest told me. "You don't have any other choice."
"The world doesn't end when the world ends, by the way; it keeps right on turning. The world ends and you get up and put your clothes on and clean your teeth and eat your breakfast like nothing has changed at all."
Officially one of my all-time favorite books. Go read it. 5/5 stars.
2. The Sky is Everywhere, by Jandy Nelson:
This really didn't work for me. I really enjoyed one of Nelson's other books, I'll Give You the Sun, so I thought I would try another one of her books that people on my Goodreads feed seemed to enjoy as well. But The Sky is Everywhere is just a firm no from me. 17-year-old band geek Lennie Walker was perfectly happy living in the shadow of her older sister, Bailey, until Bailey dies unexpectedly and Lennie becomes the star of her own life. And instead of facing our grief head on, we're gonna make light of such a subject by throwing a love triangle in there! Can you hear my eyes rolling? Because they are. Toby was Bailey's boyfriend and fiancé and Lennie shares grief with him. But there's also Joe: the new kid from Paris who is musically gifted, apparently. How cliché is that? C'mon, Jandy. Be original. Not to mention I found that all of the characters in The Sky is Everywhere are incredibly underdeveloped. I know more about them from reading the back of the book than reading the actual book. Lennie is also incredibly whiny and likes to act like she's so innocent because her love life is "nonexistent" and her sister died and her mother left and her grandmother doesn't understand her and AHHH MAKE IT STOP. As a whole, what bothered me most about this book is the fact that we're supposed to sympathize with Lennie for her sister's death but also supposed to root for her to be this whiny, immature child with two apparently gorgeous guys chasing after her. The world has bigger problems in store for you, honey. It also trivializes the magnitude of a loved one's death by constructing a complicated-yet-stupidly-simple love triangle around it. I found the plot and characters so off-putting that it took me two separate attempts to get through this book, spaced several months apart. I think I've just outgrown this particular blend of YA books. 2/5 stars.
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