I’m afraid I have to admit I’ve never read a Jenny Valentine book before this one, and honestly I’m not too sure where I found out about Fire Colour One. I’ve been looking at buying it for a while, so when the offer came up from the Book Elves at Guardian Children’s books to review it, I was at it like a flash. Having now read the book, I have some pretty big thoughts on it that I’m really excited to share!
Iris’s father, Ernest, is coming to the end of his life and she’s never really met him. Her mother, Hannah, left him for another man, Lowell, when she was about 4, and they moved to the States. That’s where she met her best friend Thurston, and they were best friends for a while until she moved back to the UK, with Hannah and Lowell owing thousands of dollars. Now Ernest is dying, and Hannah sees this as a golden opportunity to pry him out of his priceless art collection, and make them filthy rich. Everything Iris knows is slowly wilting away, but Ernest has other ideas and he’s determined to tell Iris the truth, one way or another.
It’s by no means an appropriate use of the word, but I found some of the characters in this book to be huge oxymorons, and although that sounds bad in actual fact I loved it. A lot. Let me explain:
Hannah and Lowell are self-obsessed characters. In fact, in the book Iris says she timed how long Lowell made it before he had to phone someone at a party to talk about his life. His record is 2 minutes 18 seconds. I’m not joking.
Iris seems a more down to earth character, and Ernest seems like that mysterious relation that many people seem to have. They all co-exist in a way that fits the story perfectly, where Iris hates Hannah and Lowell, and originally hates Ernest but then… actually, I’ll let you find out for yourself.
Iris loves art. Ernest loves art. To an extent I love art as well. This is the first book I’ve read that has art as a huge central theme, and I really enjoyed that. I can’t quite name what, but the artistic edge that the book had added something quite special to Fire Colour One, and if it’s not the title (based on Yves Klein’s Fire Color One), then it’s definitely something.
There’s also a lot of secrecy in this book as well. We see secrets a lot now in YA fiction, and for me it depends on whether it’s been executed well. Without a doubt it’s definitely been executed well in Fire Colour One. The secrets are a core theme to the book and they represent a large part of what Ernest as a character is about. Without the secrets and lies and deceit, the book would be completely different.
I did find there was a huge issue with the settings. I got confused around the beginning until it was made clear where in the world this book was set. Was it the USA? Was it the UK? It was only around the middle of the book when it was made clear that the current setting was the UK.
For some reason I can’t help but wonder whether this book would have benefitted from some dual narrative as well. Surprisingly, I’ve grown out of hating dual narrative to now loving it, and I feel like if one chapter was told from Iris’s perspective and the next was told from Ernest’s, the book may have really benefitted from it.
All in all though, Fire Colour One is a simple but charming tale that evokes strong empathy in a reader. I truly believe Jenny has outdone herself with this one, creating likeable characters (and not so likeable characters) and a plot that really hits home.
Thanks Jenny for making a book I loved, and sorry I took so long to read it!
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Buy this book at the Guardian Bookshop
