Laura Newell &
Highfire by Eoin Colfer

So this was my first experience reading Eoin Colfer. I’m not sure this was his typical writing style or if it was just something tried out for this book, but it does not work for me. I ended up enjoying points of the story, however I feel like the things I didn’t like the most were the components that made up the vast majority of the books’ character. Vern’s personality of this super sarcastic, angry, bitter being that loves to curse, wear Flashdance T-shirts, and get drunk felt more like a teenager character than anything else. Not to mention the cursing was over the top for me regardless. To me it had the same grating effect that Rowling’s The Casual Vacancy had, which just screamed, “NOT MIDDLE-GRADE PLEASE NOTICE. ADULT!” which is one of the major reasons neither of these books hit for me. Like, we get it. Adult novels can just be about the way it’s written and the context, not only “adult” words. It could just be me, but cursing heavily always aligns more with YA in my mind because I feel like those are the aged people that think cursing makes them heard. Also, through no real fault of Colfer’s, he chose to make this story in the southern bayou. Which really just had me picturing the stupidness of Jason Stackhouse from Trueblood the entire time. It made everything harder to take seriously. And I know that Squib was only fifteen, so he wasn’t the brightest, but he even portrayed him as the school-hating, slightly crooked, bayou boy. I can’t really relate, I’ve only seen those things related as plain stupid, and therefore it hurt my imagining and experience with it. I was forced to imagine a little Creole teen with a dirt stache like Renee from season one of TB. It just didn’t click for me. Lastly, in all my lengthy complaints, is that Colfer really wanted to make a dragon story, but only if he could achieve something new. Well he did, and it absolutely does not work for me. Anyone reading this may absolutely disagree, but did anyone ever stop to wonder if there’s so many of the same story styles because people like their fantasy to remain fantasy? I’ve given multiple modern fantasy stories a go, including Netflix’s “Bright,” and in my opinion they honestly all fall short simply because they lack in the fantasy department. A dragon wearing t-shirts and cargo pants? Drinking beers and rocking hoodies? Why? Your flock is are safe, he’s got Dominos! **(actually lastly) I genuinely despised Hooke. I know he was a crooked constable and soldier and man and son and civilian and human. I don’t mean the guy portrayed. The invented character, I could not stand it. I’m still not sure why. As I tend to write harsh reviews for things I didn’t love, here is my disclaimer that this is only my opinion. You may feel differently, you may be excited about the things I complain about above, you may love it. Enjoy. Good luck.

3 Stars *A silly story trying a bit too hard to make its jokes land* Before I get to my actual review of Highfire, I would like to declare to HarperAudio that not all Southern accents are the same. I tried listening to the audio of this book but couldn’t even make it through the first chapter because the accent was so bad! The story is set just outside of New Orleans, but that sure as hell was nowhere near any Louisiana accent. So terrible!! So I had to switch to the print version. Highfire of Vern, possibly the last living dragon, whittling away his days in the Bayou. His peace and quiet go out the window when young Everett “Squib” Moreau accidentally drags a heap of trouble to his doorstep. The two end up as unlikely allies. The story sounded like a fun and diverting romp. And for the most part, it was. But humor is such a tricky thing. It is so difficult to find the right balance. On top of that, everyone has different ideas of what is funny. I often have trouble connecting to stories billed as humorous. I’m much more of a subtle sarcasm kind of gal. Most humorous stories geared towards adults rely too much on cheap raunchiness. And sadly, Highfire was no exception to that. While there were entertaining moments, the humor was largely dependent upon crude jokes and swearing. The jokes also had that overly rehearsed feeling followed by the pause for the drum-symbol sound affect like in the old comedy shows. And you should never, ever explain a joke. People will get it or they won’t. But if you explain it, that joke is dead in the water. Since humor was the focus of the story, there wasn’t much else to focus on. The characters were entertaining enough (even though that entertainment was stiff and rehearsed). But there was a lack of growth or character development. Similarly, the plot was quick and entertaining but not particularly memorable. I enjoyed Colfer’s Artemis Fowl series back in the day. But his adult writing doesn’t shine for me. I’ve seen other authors who try to differentiate their younger audience from adult writing by adding too much crudeness and vulgarity. That seems like it might be the case here. So overall, Highfire was an ok story better suited to a very specific target audience (of which I am not a part). RATING FACTORS: Ease of Reading: 4 Stars Writing Style: 3 Stars Characters and Character Development: 3 Stars Plot Structure and Development: 3 Stars Level of Captivation: 3 Stars Originality: 3 Stars

this was such a good story and funny. probably would be my fav book after severance in 2020 so far.

Back in Publisher HQ... Publisher: Colfer! THIS is a great Young Adult book. Really great stuff you got here. Here's the problem. Dragons. They ain't selling so hot right now. We gotta adult this up. Also, we are being sponsored by Absolut, WhatsApp, Amazon Prime, Google, Wikipedia, Snuggie, and Flashdance, so make sure to include those in the book at least once. I'll give you a week! Colfer: Tanks a million fer dat feedback. I'll get right feckin to it. A week later... Colfer: 'Ere's me new manuscript. Added 83 fecks and 214 shites and too many to count cocks and balls, including a retractable dragon shlong. Not to worry though, no sex, only innuendos and a horny, sociopathic, crooked copper man! And our dragon only wears Flashdance t-shirts and guzzles vodka by the gallon because Americans don't understand pints, only gallons. Everything else is in there too. *Slaps manuscript* This baby holds it all. An ancient beast, king of the skies, now in hiding in the bayou swamps. Vern, possibly the last dragon, lives out his days wearing Flashdance t-shirts, drinking vodka, and binge-watching Netflix. Squib, a Cajun boy, makes a deal with Vern, after witnessing the dragon to be his loyal assistant, bringing Vern whatever he desires, and in return, Vern promises not to kill the boy and his mother. It all goes wrong when Regence Hooke, a dirty cop, discovered Vern's existence and tries to manipulate Vern so Hooke can rule the drug underworld.In a word, Highfire was disappointing. The book was obviously written to be a YA book, geared towards hormonal teenage boys who think dicks, balls, and pissing his hilarious. What made it even more disappointing was I read and enjoyed the Artemis Fowl series. I had really high hopes for this book and have really enjoyed Colfer's style of writing in the past, but this book is an extremely poor representation of Colfer's writing.All three "main" characters were lacking in any sort of development and I just didn't care about any of them. Vern has a small amount of development where he starts to like Squib a bit more. Squib is an idiot kid who is fascinated with how Vern can retract his penis and hates Hooke. And Hooke? He's a disgusting character, between being horny for Squib's mother, constantly wanting to just kill everyone, wanting to become a drug lord, and just generally being an asshole, so it's quite understandable why anyone would hate him.This book won't really be an "evergreen" book either. It's not going stand the test of time. The sheer amount of product and name dropping in this book is ridiculous. There were those I listed above, as well as Jimmy Kimmel, Google Maps, Beats by Dre, Game of Thrones, and WWE to name a few. It all felt a bit forced like the book was trying to connect with millennial. "Oh ho, gonna get those kids now, they'll never know this book was written by a 54-year-old man living in rural Ireland!" It was just sad and cringy. Give the book 10 years, and a large handful of these things will be so outdated, no one will understand the product references.This book could've been so much more. Who writes about dragons living in a modern era? It had the potential to be interesting and fun to read, it stepped into the fun theories of "well what if that shut-in was a dragon? How would the world react? There was a bit of that, of course, but it was still very lacklustre.I'm going to give this book two stars. Is this really a two star book? For concept, it had the potential to shine and be a tremendous read. The execution was poor and sloppy. If I were a 16-year-old boy, this book would be a riot, but I'm a 28-year-old lady and found it crass, vulgar, and disappointing. Quercus Books & Jo Fletcher Books provided a copy of Highfire through Netgalleyin exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to read this book! Check out more reviews on my blog!

Is it too early in the year to proclaim this as one of my favorites of 2020? Vern is not your ordinary dragon. Living in a Louisana bayou, watching TV and lounging in his favorite t-shirt adorned with the movie ”Flashdance” displayed proudly on his chest, Vern is happy being alone. But living his life of luxury makes it difficult to stay under the radar. When his handy supernatural BFF has to leave for several months Vern must rely on a human boy named Squib from town. The unlikely duo get mixed up in some serious shenanigans when an unwanted visitor discovers that the infamous island monster is real. Highfire is 373 pages long and took me 6 days to read. I LOVED THIS BOOK SO MUCH! I'm giving it a 4.5 out of 5! Something about this friendship between Vern and Squib is so endearing plus it is packed with adventure! It is not a kids book due to some pretty gory stuff and not exactly kid-friendly language. Even if you're not usually into dragon stuff, you should give this book a try! Thank you, Harper Perennial, for this copy! Here's to the adventure of finding a novel novel! Lacey

Quite rude in places, but very funny

fun different approach on fantasy

Vern, or as he used to be called Wyvern Lord Highfire of the Highfire Eyrie, is the last dragon on earth. At least, he's pretty sure. He used to spend his time flying high in the sky and burning villages to the ground, but after humans turned on dragons and murdered his whole family centuries ago, he's taken to laying low. Now he likes to spend his days in a shack in the swamps of Louisiana, chugging vodka and watching cable TV. But after a run in with some punk swamp rat kid named Squib, Vern's quiet life gets turned upside down. While out on the swamps one night, Squib comes across a shady deal gone wrong with a local smuggler and the Constable, Hooke, who just so happens to have it out for Squib. When Hooke realizes someone was watching him, he takes a grenade launcher to the shadows, unwittingly throwing Squib right into the clutches of a cranky old dragon, and the last thing Vern wants to do is help a kid bring a crooked cop to justice. This was definitely enjoyable, but I didn't love it as much as I was hoping to. I did really like Vern, he's so surly and weirdly obsessed with the movie Flashdance, and his relationship with Squib developed really nicely. I thought it was witty and the thought of a dragon living in the swamps had the potential of being really funny. My only issue was the dialogue. At times it felt like it was trying too hard to have that stereotypical Southern-type of speaking that it sort of felt a bit like Foghorn Leghorn. Other than that, it was a quick, action-packed fun story.

Written by Eoin Colfer, Highfire follows a dragon who just wants to live his life and be left alone, and a boy who has witnessed a murder, then had a dragon inform him that he would be eating him. The writing was face paced and created the setting and tone of the novel, and the idea of a dragon, small enough to wear t-shirts, drinks beer and lives in the swamp is really a cool idea. Not to mention the kid - who skips school, tries to make his mom proud but often falls short, and hates the guy who is constantly trying to go on a date with her, is a really compelling character. However, the pacing in this story just left me wanting more/not reading it very quickly. It is the kind of book that I can't just sit down and read, but instead could only read about a chapter at a time. If you enjoy crass humor, and you want something with a dragon who has survived being hunted and is a humorous. If you enjoy Christopher Moore, you may just like this book. I did receive a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

4.5! This is not your average dragon story. This is the story of a vodka drinking, Flashddance loving, cargo short wearing dragon hiding out in the Louisiana bayou; and the raucous adventures that occur when he crosses paths with 15 year old juvenile delinquent Everet "Squib" Moreau. Long ago, the fearsome Wyvern, Lord Highfire of the Highfire Eyrie, roamed the earth scorching his enemies. Now he's going by Vern, hiding out and drowning his sorrows in vodka from the comfort of his lazy boy chair. Squib is a clever Cajun swamp rat trying his best to provide for his saint of a single mom. But on his first night running for a shady smuggler, he witnesses his boss murdered by crooked constable Regence Hooke. Hooke isn't just a terrible cop, he's a downright garbage person, using his position to torment Squib and hit on his mother. When Hooke goes after Squib with a grenade, he's saved by Vern. In exchange for his life and keeping Vern a secret, Squib convinces Vern to let him be his go between (familiar) and fetch his vodka, groceries, and keep him company. But Regence Hooke isn't the type of man to let something go, and soon man, boy, and dragon are headed for what will certainly be a fiery collision. Guys, this might be one of the funniest books I've ever read. It makes me want to read more from this author. I really wanna know how he came up with the idea because it's so out there. This definitely won't be everyone's cup of tea, but it was certainly mine. It was so close to being a five star read for me. There were some times I was a bit confused because it switches POV between Squib, Vern, and Hooke without really saying so. But as I went on, I got used to the style. If you like wit, humor, and dragons, this is totally the book for you!