Tuesday, January 28, 2020

Review - Highfire by Eoin Colfer

*This is a sponsored review. All opinions are 100% mine. 
Available to Buy on Hardcover and Kindle.

I spent the last two days reading the fantasy novel Highfire by New York Times bestselling author Eoin Colfer, which is being released today by Harper Perennial. I don't read very many dragon novels but the premise of a vodka-drinking and Flashdance-loving dragon intrigued me.

Highfire centers around the last known dragon, Wyvern, Lord Highfire of the Highfire Eyrie, who now lives in the bayous of Louisiana and goes by the name Vern. He prefers to avoid the public at all costs in fear of what the humans would do him. He spends most of his time watching Netflix in a fishing shack. Well, that's until he life is turned upside after rescuing Squib.

Fifteen-year-old Everett Moreau is known to everyone as Squib, who has been in his fair share of trouble with the local authorities. To help his mother pay the bills, he got a job working for a local smuggler. However, on his first night on the job, he witnesses a crooked cop, Regence Hooke, murdering his boss. Luckily for him, Squib is rescued by Vern, who airlifts him to safety in just the nick of time.

In most situations, Vern would roast any human who saw him but has a change of heart with Squib, who he decides to keep around to help him run errands, such as fetching his vodka. In exchange, Vern promises to protect the boy from Hooke.

Final Thoughts

I was going to write my review yesterday but I had to take a day just to think about what I had just read. Highfire is promoted as an adult novel but it wasn't for the unnecessary expletive language and violence, this could easily pass as a young adult novel. The main protagonist is a sixteen-year-old so as far as I'm concern this is a YA book.

The narration and the overall language used throughout is weird. It's supposed to be set in New Orleans but the descriptions and slang don't fit the region. The author is from Ireland so maybe that explains why the dialogue feels like it's from another country. All the characters sound exactly the same! There were times where I couldn't tell who was who.

(Please keep in mind that I had read an ARC (Advance Readers Copy) so there could have been many editing changes for the final release.)

Overall, Highfire was a big disappointment for me. It could have been an entertaining read if it wasn't for the poorly written juvenile narration, one-dimensional characters, and the vulgarism.

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