Awesome!

Ultraviolet is so incredibly original. It was an absolute pleasure to read. The writing is well crafted, elegant, colorful, and beautifully descriptive. It has a captivating quality and I was hooked right from the start.

Ultraviolet is the story of a very special teenage girl. Alison finds herself in a psychiatric hospital ward. She believes that she caused a classmate to disintegrate. When the classmate goes missing, Alison confesses to the murder even though no body has been found.

Alison has special abilities. She sees numbers in color. She tastes shapes. Music becomes fireworks in her head. Sensations such as pleasure and pain are in color. Alison thinks she is going crazy until a researcher gives a name to her condition – synesthesia. At this point, I couldn’t help myself. I started googling this condition. Fascinating!

The story is told from Alison’s point of view. The reader only knows as much as Alison does. The author doles out little bits of information sparingly like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, keeping the reader in suspense throughout the novel. It really kept me guessing.

Suddenly, the story changes. It’s almost like you are reading another book, not in a bad way, just different. And it works, it really does.

Ultraviolet is an intelligent young adult novel. There are no love triangles, no real angst, just a young girl trying to find her place in this world. This book made me feel a purplish shade of blue.

I’m looking forward to reading more of R. J. Anderson’s books in the future.

* ARC provided free of charge from Netgalley

Ultraviolet has been featured as a Badass Hidden Gems - Canada eh? edition book here.