For anyone who'd missed Jenny Valentine, trust me it's been worth the wait. Fire Colour One is about Iris who has just recently found her real father, more than a decade after her mother ran away with her to LA – the land of 'daisy dukes' and sun-kissed skin. Only for her to find he's dying but he's filthy rich – which is what Hannah, her mother, wants. Valentine explores how Iris and Ernest's relationship blossomed like they hadn't been apart for as long as they could both remember and that's the element that draws the reader in. While the conflict between Iris and Hannah is the perfect sour to the sweetness of daddy and his little girl. The way Hannah is written is almost surreal, and you can't quite believe how anyone can be as manipulative and cold as she is.
The character of Iris is not a pretentious protagonist, but rather a normal teenager who's been through a serious case of emotional abandonment for the entirety of her natural life. It's made her a strong character; she shows a few cracks here and there but she is strong. And she carefully observes and reflects on everything that happens around her and Valentine writes it in a way that makes it seem as if you're seeing through Iris's eyes. You begin to see what she sees, only from her eyes, and it's a lot clearer this way in comparison to multiple narrative perspectives being given. You become not part of Iris's story but rather an observer (a rather biased observer if I may add) and it allows the perfect proportions of detachment from the characters to truly see all their flaws. This element is what makes the surreal character of Hannah seem almost human – because when compared with everyone else in the book, her flaws are just as bad as everyone else's.
But I think the most important part of this book was exploring the relationship between Iris and Ernest. The bond between father and daughter can rarely be forged and I think Valentine drew from her own experiences in life to show how relevant relationships we take for granted truly are. Their relationship embodied the importance of real connections over the material things we so value.
When you flip that first page over, enter with an open heart ready for the raw emotion that Iris will give you. If you don't, you'll never receive that blessing to be the observer because that's the key to understanding Fire Colour One.
Finally, thank you Jenny Valentine for coming back stronger than ever.
• Buy this book at the Guardian Bookshop.
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