Book Review: Highfire

Highfire by Eoin Colfer

This is a charmingly original contemporary fantasy about a teenage boy and a dragon living in the swamp in Louisiana. The dragon, Verne, is the last of his kind and is holed up surviving but not thriving on an island in the bayou, ordering Flashdance tee shirts off Amazon, drinking vodka, and getting into fights with the local alligators. Previous encounters with humans have gone very poorly for dragons, so when Verne inadvertently reveals himself to 15-year-old Squib, he reluctantly decides he has to kill the kid to keep his existence secret.

But of course that’s not what happens in this manic romp of a boy-dragon bromance. Because there’s also their mutual friend Waxman, a human-dragon hybrid (I can’t think too much about that or it freaks me out), a crooked constable, a druglord, and Squib’s long-suffering mother Elodie. Hijinx ensue.

This is not a sophisticated novel. It’s so simplistic and full of boom and sizzle, it could be a Michael Bay movie. Verne is like a caricature of a good ol’ boy: quick to anger, quick to fight, overly fond of creature comforts, and incapable of emotional vulnerability, even with his closest friend. Constable Hook, the bad guy, is so dangerous and sleazy he makes Snidely Whiplash look like the kind of boyfriend you’d be proud to bring home to your parents. Elodie and Brodie (Squib’s boss) are fairly one-dimensional with not much agency, and Ivory and all the drug dealers are factory standard. Two female characters are introduced near the end and they were so out of place with the rest of the cast that they felt like diversity hires. But, like I said, it’s not a sophisticated novel; it’s a fun romp.

Was this meant for younger readers? I don’t know, but I’d feel confident handing it to a teen. There’s no swearing, no sex, and while there’s plenty of violence, parents don’t seem to care when a bad guy is gruesomely dismembered as long as he has it coming (and he does have it coming.) I loved the language in it; Colfer plays around with the cajun colloquialisms and the narrator of the audiobook polished those gems to a shine. The plot tracks so predictably that you can imagine the soundtrack in your head. Go into this without expecting nuance. Watching Verne flame his enemies, have the fourth act setback, and then emerge triumphant will be as satisfying as a fast-food cheeseburger.




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