Ultraviolet Book Review

 

So, having enjoyed the Faery Rebels series by RJ Anderson I decided to check out her other book Ultraviolet. Being mainly a fantasy reader it was strange to find myself reading something not immediately fantasy but it’s no less promising than her other books.

‘Once upon a time there was a girl who was special.
This is not her story.
Unless you count the part where I killed her.’

Pretty strong hook if you ask me. Now I’m not usually a fan of the first person perspective as I like to get a handle on all the characters and often that’s lost when you spend all your time following one person around but with Ultraviolet I don’t think it could have been done any other way or any better. The protagonist, Alison, has a unique way of perceiving the world as she has synesthesia. For those of you who haven’t heard of it, it’s is a neurological condition in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway (definition from wikipedia).

Anderson has masterfully reworded descriptions and sensations to portray how Alison experiences the world in bright flashes of colour, shapes and tastes that seamlessly ties in with the narrative. It’s also really easy to empathise with Alison, you might think first person pov is an easy short cut to this being inside the character’s head and all but it’s not always the case. Alison goes through all those well known fears of being different, being misunderstood and misunderstanding others and their intentions and reading about how she comes to terms with herself and comes out the other side is nothing short of inspiring.

So Alison spends a lot of the book agonizing with herself for killing Victoria ‘Tori’ Beaugrand, whose name tastes like cough medicine, although Tori is apparently more like black liquorice, and I found I couldn’t put the book down because I kept thinking ‘she can’t have killed her, she can’t have just disintegrated, what’s the catch’. The drawback I think for Ultraviolet is how long it takes to get to the catch and then it all tumbles out at the end. Roughly two thirds of the book is Alison’s feelings and fears and meeting Sebastian Faraday then it rather abruptly switches to the sci-fi element.

The romantic element is compelling and believable, it’s easy to fall in love right beside Alison. Sebastian Faraday is really easy to like and his background is interesting as it all spills out at the end and it will be good to see more of him.

There’s also a handful of characters introduced at Pine Hills, the mental institute to which Alison is committed, that seemed to be there to fill the gaps. Or there seemed to be room for expansion to take them and their stories further. But then Ultraviolet is one of two, with companion novel/sequel Quicksilver coming out in September of this year so we may yet see them again.

Definitely one to watch out for.

Love the cover art too.