Vivid by Ashley Bustamante — Book Review

I accidentally pitted two color magic books against each other in my Bookathlon.

Whoops. XD

Oh, well.

Vivid by Ashley Bustamante is a…bright dystopian…? I don’t know genre names. 🤪

Ava Locke spends her days studying at Prism, a color magic school on the continent of Magus. Prism only allows the study of Red (strength, healing, and agility) and Blue (the manipulation of objects). Yellow (manipulation of humans by infiltrating their mind) has been banned, and all Mentalists are captured. Because magic is drawn from objects, yellow objects are very carefully guarded and de-colorized before being sent out into the world.

Ava hopes to become a Benefactor one day, and has spent her whole life working toward that goal. Then one day, a mysterious stranger meets her in the forest where she is studying. Then he starts appearing her dreams each night. She finds out that it is Elm, an escaped Mentalist, and someone the whole of the land of Magus is on the lookout for. Security is increased at school, but for some reason, Ava can’t bring herself to tell anyone about meeting him.

Ava’s parents were killed by Mentalists, and she desperately wants to use her Augmentor skills to learn how to protect people’s minds. But the teachers at Prism refuse to teach anything about Yellow magic. And how can she protect herself from what she doesn’t know?

But Elm could teach her.

The charming Elm has his own plans, and Ava seems to fit into them perfectly. But she doesn’t know what he’s up to or whether he can actually be trusted. Especially when she starts discovering big secrets about her own world and past.

My Review

Let me start by saying: there is one part at the beginning where I was very annoyed with Ava for not telling someone something when it seemed obvious to me that she should. Well, keep reading, lads and lassies. There’s an explanation why she doesn’t.

Now that the PSA is over, let’s dig into the story!

I don’t know what genre this fits in, but it’s sort of like a colorful, happy world filled with government control. Hence my attempt at classifying it as “bright dystopian”. The majority of people seem to be content, cheerful, well-fed, etc. so it’s not like a dirty, dismal place. On the other hand, the government is in control of basically everything, soooo….yeah.

Ava was an enjoyable heroine. I liked how curious and resourceful she was.

Elm was fantastic 🤣 The sort of hero you hope for in a YA book lol I love his goofiness, but also how powerful he is. I really like his backstory we learn, as well. He and Ava had a very sweet romance. He always calls her “Miss Ava”, but also can’t help but do things like make her invisibility costume a poofy yellow dress 😂

I really liked exploring the world. In fact, I wish we got to look around more (probably in future books)! 😁 The way that they use magic is unique—certain colors can control certain abilities. In order to gain more of power for that ability, you can pull color out of nearby objects, turning them grey in the process.

The plot was intriguing, and I liked how things unfolded and were resolved. It felt paced very naturally. Nothing was rushed or dragged, and it was a pleasure to read.

So if you’d like to slip away into an intriguing “bright dystopian” (that’s officially its genre now), look no further than Vivid. You won’t regret reading it. 😊