VIVID by Ashley Bustamante

 

Review: I am getting so spoiled lately. This is my second book by Enclave Publishing this month, and I have LOVED both of them. Vivid is an epic YA fantasy/dystopian novel that kept me in its grip from the first to the last page. 

 

There is a lot to love about this story, and figuring out where to start this review is overwhelming. Despite the fact that I finished this book over a week ago I can't stop thinking about it. A story that stays in your mind, in my opinion, is a good story. 

 

Something that I really liked about this book (and what has kept me thinking about it over the last few days) is the overarching moral of the story, which could be summed up in so many ways: 'you cannot judge an entire race/people/kind with one opinion', 'when you discount a person/people/kind you are also loosing something' .... I feel like I'm not doing it justice by these statements but I'm trying! In short, there are three kinds of magic in this dystopian universe: Red, Blue, and Yellow. Each kind of magic has its beauty and purpose but also its dark side. VIVID starts in a world where the populace has been completed brainwashed to believe that all Yellows are inherently evil, and the race has been pretty much destroyed in an epic war. Now, after the Yellow Purge, the world consists of Red and Blue magic users and even possessing something of the colour yellow is illegal. 

 

Things get turned on its head though when a student of Prism, a prestigious magic school, has a run in with a so called terrorist - a Yellow. Elm (the Yellow) turns out to be nothing like what Ava has always been schooled to believe and she begins to question everything her society has taught her to be true right down to the truth about herself and her own abilities.

 

This is a wonderful story full of magic that will keep any teenager (or adult!) thoroughly entertained.

Thank-you to Enclave Publishing for a copy of this wonderful book to review. I really enjoyed this book. 

Back Cover:

DANGER LURKS BEHIND EVERY COLOR

 

Ava Locke dives into the mysteries of forbidden Yellow magic and discovers a dark path filled with secrets and injustice.

 

When Ava Locke was five years old, she began a journey to join the Benefactors—the leaders of the magical continent of Magus. Twelve years later, she unwittingly started down the road to betray them.

 

On Magus where colors fuel magical abilities, yellow is banned in an effort to protect people from its mind-controlling capabilities. When a rogue Yellow magic-user named Elm escapes imprisonment Ava becomes innocently fascinated with his story. Once this mysterious Elm shows up at her school, Ava pushes her interest to the next level by helping him evade the Benefactors. Ava grows increasingly conflicted as her intrigue leads her down a dark road of secrets about her world. As she learns more about Yellow magic’s potential to control its victims, Ava now must question whether her rash decisions are all her own or if someone else is pulling the strings.