Book Review: Vivid by Ashley Bustamante

Seventeen-year-old Ava lives in a post-apocalyptic world where all humans who are not magic-users have allegedly died out. But everyone on the continent of Magus is safe—as long as they are born as either a red or blue magic user. Yellow magic has been banned since Ava was a young child. Yellow magic users have the power to manipulate people’s minds, and everyone knows that automatically makes them evil. But when a yellow magic user who is neither evil nor manipulative appears just outside Ava’s school, she begins to question what she has always been taught. Could her entire society be based around a lie?

I enjoyed Bustamante’s creativity in imagining a magic system where characters draw power from colors in the world around them. She found clever ways to work in the rules of the system and the history of the world without info-dumping in any one place. This dystopian fantasy novel was clean and appropriate for teen audiences and up. I found the characters relatable and the plot full of intrigue. It was a creative way to encourage readers to not always accept mainstream talking points without doing your own research.