Highfire by Eoin Colfer
(Format used for this read: Print–hardback)
This is social distancing read #1 completed.
I do not even want to THINK how many I will get to over the next few weeks…. or most likely months 😱
As much as I’m NOT enjoying the state of things, I gotta say I COMPLETELY enjoyed this crazy book y’all.
And if there ever was an appropriate book to say all kinds of “y’all”s in my review…
THIS IS IT!
Here is the official summary:
“ From the New York Times bestselling author of the Artemis Fowl series comes a hilarious and high-octane adult novel about a vodka-drinking, Flashdance-loving dragon who lives an isolated life in the bayous of Louisiana—and the raucous adventures that ensue when he crosses paths with a fifteen-year-old troublemaker on the run from a crooked sheriff.
In the days of yore, he flew the skies and scorched angry mobs—now he hides from swamp tour boats and rises only with the greatest reluctance from his Laz-Z-Boy recliner.
Laying low in the bayou, this once-magnificent fire breather has been reduced to lighting Marlboros with nose sparks, swilling Absolut in a Flashdance T-shirt, and binging Netflix in a fishing shack. For centuries, he struck fear in hearts far and wide as Wyvern, Lord Highfire of the Highfire Eyrie—now he goes by Vern. However…he has survived, unlike the rest.
He is the last of his kind, the last dragon. Still, no amount of vodka can drown the loneliness in his molten core. Vern’s glory days are long gone. Or are they?
A canny Cajun swamp rat, young Everett “Squib” Moreau does what he can to survive, trying not to break the heart of his saintly single mother. He’s finally decided to work for a shady smuggler—but on his first night, he witnesses his boss murdered by a crooked constable.
Regence Hooke is not just a dirty cop, he’s a despicable human being—who happens to want Squib’s momma in the worst way. When Hooke goes after his hidden witness with a grenade launcher, Squib finds himself airlifted from certain death by…a dragon?
The swamp can make strange bedfellows, and rather than be fried alive so the dragon can keep his secret, Squib strikes a deal with the scaly apex predator. He can act as his go-between (aka familiar)—fetch his vodka, keep him company, etc.—in exchange for protection from Hooke. Soon the three of them are careening headlong toward a combustible confrontation. There’s about to be a fiery reckoning, in which either dragons finally go extinct—or Vern’s glory days are back.
A triumphant return to the genre-bending fantasy that Eoin Colfer is so well known for, Highfire is an effortlessly clever and relentlessly funny tour-de-force of comedy and action.”
I found this book thankfully because my friend Sarah read the summary somewhere and texted me IMMEDIATELY saying “I feel like this book is written for you” 🤣
I’m not quite sure what that says about who I am as a person that a friend sees the words “Flashddance loving vodka drinking dragon who lives in the Louisiana swamps” and instantly pictures me in their mind….
but I’m taking it as an amazing compliment 🤣
Here is the absolute CRAZY thing about the setting of this book…
The tiny swamp town it takes place in (Petit Bateau) is fictional BUT the swamp is 100 percent real and one I am quite familiar with…
Honey Island Swamp!
Y’all I been on that swamp on their legendary swamp tour MULTIPLE times in my life, the first of which as a second grader where we were given marshmallows to throw at the gators for treats.
I AM SERIOUS AS ALL GET OUT.
We do things different in South Louisiana.
And if you are thinking “well that WAS the 80’s”…
let me tell you that me and my family went on this swamp tour just a couple years ago…
we didn’t see any gators to throw marshmallows at but we sure did throw them at some crazy swamp raccoons and swamp pigs 🤣
So the marshmallow tossing is still a thing…probably not the safest or SMARTEST thing BUT it is still a thing…
(FUN BOOK FACT: This is the EXACT SAME swamp tour that Tiffany Haddish talks about in her autobiography “The Last Black Unicorn”…the one she took with Will and Jada Smith 🤣)
ALSO…my hometown Slidell is mentioned and described a WHOLE lot in this book because it is the “big town” next to this tiny swamp town.
(To my Dell friends…they even mention Gause Blvd and Slidell Memorial 🤣)
Props to the Irish author for legit doing his research!!
Okay…enough on that hometown glory…
This book was tremendous.
It had dry humor, magical creatures and corrupt cops (because I mean HELLO LOUISIANA 🤣).
You’re literally cracking up and also on the edge of your seat to see what is gonna happen next to old Vern.
But the author also wove in some pretty big heartfelt moments too…what friendship and love and family and “home” really mean.
The ornery giant lizard really grows on you—-I’m envisioning Walter Matthau with scales and a tail 🤣—-and so does the scrappy little teen named Squib.
Unexpected delight is what I would say to describe this book.
I didn’t want to put it down and when it was over I was still wanting to read more to see what happens to the characters next (sequel maybe?!?!? Oooo maybe a whole series!!)
There is plenty of profanity in this book… it is used so perfectly that you can hear the Cajun accents with each f bomb 🤣…so I’m just warning y’all if you were fans of the YA series Artemis Fowl by this author, you gotta know…
THIS IS A BOOK JUST FOR ADULTS.
South Louisiana born & bred peeps—-definitely check this out if you are a fantasy or action fan…y’all will be like “So THAT is the story of the REAL Honey Island Swamp monster!” 🤣
But for all you other non Louisiana folks…y’all read it too because it’s just a great book.