The Color Jade: all of my love

by J. K. Hernandez

Set against the backdrop of a family scarred by trauma and fire, this novel is a haunting exploration of identity, intergenerational trauma, and the enduring search for love and self-acceptance. Alliyah, known to the world as “Artist” and to her beloved Jade as “Alli”, is consumed by an untamed inner rage. Her earliest memories are tied to blazes that forever reshaped her family and her entire world.

As her junior year of high school comes to an end the death of Jade set’s her world a blaze once again. She experiences the destructive and redemptive powers of love. This is a story of two women who burn brightly in each other’s lives, for better and for worse.

This novel offers a poignant look at what it means to confront the flames of the past—and what it takes to stop running from them or to finally give in and let it all burn.

238 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 24, 2025

Reviews

[Eros Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

I… have severe mixed feelings about this.
I haven’t been stuck on a review with a book in a while. I am genuinely torn.

On one hand, it was beautifully lyrical. In a way that was relatable to a queer audience. It had me extremely reflective about where I was mentally as a young queer person facing homophobia, coming out, the high and lows of mental health, falling in love with a girl for the first time & childhood trauma.
I enjoyed the depth of the FMC through her journal entries describing how she was coping with the death of her 1st love alongside her own traumas.
It was a storyline that may tie to a large group of readers.

On the other hand, the book immediately starts off with trigger warnings that weren’t labeled anywhere beforehand. It felt like it was heavy TW after TW & I couldn’t find it stated anywhere that this was to be expected. It was real but, triggering.. unexpected and jarring.

There was also a lot of explicit sex scenes between minors that immediately made me uncomfortable. It wasn’t brief in a way that depicts that teenagers are sexually active. There were multiple moments with pages and pages of detail around teenage sex that made me want to put the book down completely.
While minors engaging sexually isn’t taboo, I’m not sure why it’s needed in detail like this in a novel. It didn’t add to the love that the FMCs had for each other. It could’ve been mentioned without the expansive detail.

This came late into the storyline so I was already past my DNF percentage & saw it through. But, I couldn’t fully invest in the story after that.

[Na'Asia Lovee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a good read shows the trauma and grief a person can go through with heartbreak added on

[abstractn0nsense · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had a lot of potential but I found myself frustrated at the lack of cohesion, especially towards the end. I'm unsure if the book was edited, as there were a plethora of run-ons and exposition dumps that spanned several pages.

Things I liked:
-How the main character attributed colors to specific emotions
-The portrayal of certain mental disorders was largely done well
-How the subject of addiction was handled
-The main character's struggle with grief

Things I didn't like:
-The exposition dumps + journal entries
-The very explicit sex scenes between teenage (under 18) characters felt gross and oversexualized (I think fade to black would have been more tasteful considering the characters ages, or the characters could have been college age instead)
-The various side characters who are largely underdeveloped
-Lack of proper content warnings (several things like lesbophobia and self harm were not mentioned in the trigger warnings)
-Pacing was very off
-Plot elements were sometimes dropped and not mentioned again
-This book was incredibly high priced for a debut novel

All in all I am curious to see what Hernandez does next, but I do hope that the next project is more polished in terms of editing, pacing, and language. I look forward to seeing what else they write.

[brybliophile · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a blind read for me, as the book randomly popped up on my socials. And since I’m curious, I decided to take the plunge. But sadly, this missed the mark for me. I made it to part two or 40% in before I DNF this one.

The good: congratulations to this author on their debut novel! The book does a good job of showcasing grief and mental health. I love seeing Hispanic/Latino authors showcase their lives and culture and this author did just that. There’s a lot of symbolism with color and that was fascinating to read.

The bad: the story was dragged along. There were far too many flashbacks that kept breaking up the flow of the story and it felt quite dry in patches. The editing and pacing were all over the place. I felt like the identity of the story wasn’t quite known either. What is this book trying to be. What emotions is it trying to evoke? And sadly… I was flat out bored.

Typically when I DNF, I give a book 1 star. But I won’t do that here. I think the bones for the story is there but it needs to be reformatted to truly be a show-stopping sapphic masterpiece.

I’ll keep my eye on this author to see what they come out with next. I’m willing to give her another try. We all must grow so we can become better ❤️

[Nova Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

For the sake of humor, I would describe this as the black + brown queer Notebook. In all seriousness, this book has simply changed my life and it’s an honor to have this book memorized in my mind with little lines that I remember. It breaks down grief in a way that is frankly gut wrenching, albeit, love must be present to grieve. The young, relentless, quiet, loud, and magnificent love that is between Alliyah and Jade is something that some go their whole lives without experiencing. This book gives insight into what that love looks like and my God…it’s reminded me that I have been through grief, and therefore I have loved. Do yourself the favor and read it, idk what else to tell you man.

[YuannaReads · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m giving this a very generous 3 stars because the parts that were good were very good. This book showcases mental health, grief , trauma , heart break and healing so well. It shows it in a way that is relatable and pulls at your heart strings. Those part were written beautifully BUT this book did not need to be this long. I skimmed so much of this book and still feel like I didn’t miss much of anything. There is too many unnecessary people, unnecessary dialogue , unnecessary story lines and unnecessary loopholes. Making this book way too long for what it needed to be.

[Ermon]

Yup couldn’t do it. Too much pain and suffering. The smoking and drinking just wasn’t cute for what is suppose to be a high school student. On top of all of that SHE’S dealing drugs and carrying a gun in HIGH SCHOOL. It’s too much for no reason

[thehobbyhopper · Rating 4 out of 5]

The color Jade was a highly anticipated book for me. Found it on tik tok, and it was the first book I read on my new kindle . Of course I finished it in a weekend ! It was such a good book as someone who was looking for more WLW books (this was my first) and Artist is officially my book girlfriend. It catches your attention right away , it describes different ways people deal with grief and it’s a complicated story. I like that it’s not “wrapped up in a bow, happily ever after” it makes you think about what could have happened afterwards. There are parts where I wish things were expanded on, or characters I wish were introduced earlier, but I will say we were seeing it through Artists’ lens . There was probably purpose behind her suppressing certain things that came up and she didn’t want to address so I respect it and liked the mystery. I wish her coping skills were more highlighted like writing in her journal and how that is for her. One thing that kind of confused me was Jade’s sister and her role in Artist’s life and her age gap (I thought I read they were besties but idk) but it wasn’t major. Overall a great story, I felt like I could relate to Artist and Jade, which isn’t typical for me while analyzing characters. I can’t wait for the rest of this series and to see more from this author. It was just the kind of representation I was looking for!