(Note: if you’ve been following my blog for a while, this review is not written using my COWWT rating)
Title: Highfire
Author: Eoin Colfer
Publisher: Jo Fletcher Books
Release date (UK): today!
Rating: 4/5 stars
I’m going to start this review by saying that I loved the premise of this novel: a vodka and Flashdance- loving dragon who lives in a swamp (hiding from the world)? I mean come on, it sounds hilarious. It was indeed a funny read; Vern, Lord Highfire of Highfire Eyrie is such a hilarious character, a dragon who is very much like a human in a dragon’s body with his love for vodka and vodka-soda, as well as TV – he even wears a T-shirt! I loved that Colfer wrote the character this way as he made me giggle throughout. I also appreciated the instances in which Vern..not so much reminisces, but frequently looks back into his history – or rather remembers the past as he’s experienced, as well as the fact he is still getting used to the ever-changing “world of the humans.”
I liked Squib/Everett’s character, as he was a (somewhat) innocent young man who has the best intentions but gets mixed up in something big, and through some unfortunate circumstances, meets Vern which changes his life forever – I found him to be a very sweet character.
The only thing I’ll say about Hooke is that I hate him with a passion, he is an awful man – though I think Colfer wrote him that way: as the story’s villain, which turns the traditional hero-villain paradigm on its head. Instead of the dragon being the villain, the constable/ “knight”- the protector of people, it’s the other way round: Vern as the unlikely hero, even though he’s in hiding, (along with Squib), and Constable Hooke as the villain.
The only thing, really, that threw me off and made me drop a star was the writing style, as I found it hard to follow at times.
If you haven’t read this book, and love dragons and comedy, then you definitely should.
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You have wings. Believe in them and yourself, and you will fly.
See you next time!
Kath
