Vivid (The Color Theory #1) by Ashley Bustamante

Book Synopsis:

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.

My Review:

Everything that involves combat spells paints Augmentors and Shapers as peace-loving pacifists. Mentalists, though the information is vague and limited, are portrayed as the aggressors. It all feels one-sided. Does life work that way? Is any group of people all good or all bad?

4.5/5 stars. I loved a lot of things about this book. It was a unique concept, with a cool magic system and interesting world. There were also some great themes. The characters weren't my favorite, but they were interesting enough. As for the plot, it kept me pretty engaged the whole time with a few big twists. However, I did predict some aspects of the twist. There was a small romance, which I wasn't too invested in. All in all, I am looking forward to reading the sequel but don't feel the need to pick it up immediately.

The most interesting part of this book to me was the magic system. I loved how each type of magic was represented by a different color, and each magic type related to a different concept (the body, the physical world, and the mind). We saw a little bit of how the different types interacted, but I would be interested to see more of the cross-color dynamic, both fighting and working together. I also want to know more of the lore/backstory of how people get their color types. Some of those questions were answered, but there is still more to be explored.

Another great aspect was the underlying themes throughout. One theme was about how the winners write history. The people in charge choose how certain people groups are portrayed in history and society, painting some as all good and others as all bad and ignoring nuance. That is an idea we see in our current world today. Similarly, the book explored the idea of how anything can be used for good or for evil, and just because something has the potential for bad doesn't mean it is inherently bad.

I have mixed feelings on the main characters of this book. I liked the protagonist, Ava, although I did get frustrated by some of her decisions, especially later in the story. Elm, the other prominent character, started out unlikeable. I thought he was cocky and a bit obnoxious, and I didn't like how unserious he was. He grew on me, but it took a while. I think the author was trying to make him charming, and he said and did sweet things, but something about his personality still rubbed me the wrong way. By the end, however, I liked him much more.

This book had an engaging plot. The pacing was great, never feeling too slow or too fast. There was a major twist towards the end, which I was able to figure out many details of early on. Not because it was too predictable, but because the author did a good job of foreshadowing and hinting that not everything was as it seemed. Although I do think I figured out the twist earlier than I was supposed to; it was revealed much later than I expected it to be, and it resulted in some annoying character actions. I already knew what was really happening, so I could see how wrong some of Ava's choices were. While I predicted some elements of the big twist, other aspects surprised me. My theory wasn't 100% correct, and I was missing some details. The reveal still had enough new information I never guessed.

The ending resolved this book's major conflict enough to be satisfying but also left us with somewhere to go next. There is still more to be done and more worldbuilding concepts to be explored. I am interested to see what happens in the sequel, but the ending didn't leave me on a cliffhanger or shocking revelation that makes me feel like I have to pick up the next book right away.

Content:

Language: None

Sexual Content: Lots of thinking about touches and closeness, cheek kisses, hand kisses, kisses

Violence/Gore: A scene where students cut themselves to practice healing, wounds and injuries sometimes described in a bit of detail, blood, torture, a mention of someone wanting to end their life, kidnapping, death, murder

Drugs/Alcohol: None