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corita's review
4.0
The second book in Steven James’ young adult trilogy, is a winner. I liked it better than Blur, which surprised me. I usually dislike the second book in a trilogy.
The reason I enjoyed the book is because it could stand alone. By the end, there are some unanswered questions and a little suspense about what’s going to happen next, but for the most part, the story line is completed. I wish more trilogies would do this. Usually the second book of a trilogy ends with everything up in the air and zero closure. This book was refreshing.
The book opens with a bang. Daniel wakes up in a psych ward, his father is missing, and the police think Daniel is responsible. He remembers seeing his father stabbed in the side with a knife. From there things escalate and as with Blur I was sucked into the story.
This is a good continuation of the last book. We find out more stuff and get a few answers about what might be happening to Daniel. His friends are back, helping him. They are a little more fleshed out than in the first book, and Daniel has big problems. He doesn’t know what happened to his father, and he isn’t sure he wasn’t responsible. He can’t remember.
There’s a new, kind of creepy, kind of weird man who shows up. Even to the end, I wasn’t sure exactly who he is or if he could be trusted, but I’m pretty sure he’ll be back in book three. He’s interested in Daniel’s special abilities.
Some things I liked:
Daniel and his friends are acting smarter in this book.
The girls have come up a notch and are more than window dressing.
The story is fast paced with enough twists and turns to keep a reader going.
We get some answers to questions the first book raised, like why mom left.
His abilities aren’t completely explained, but we are given a few more pieces of the puzzle.
Lots of suspense and twisty turns
Yep, there’s another dead girl. I think the dead girls like him. But I have to admit, a dead guy shows up.
There’s a space between childhood and adulthood that teens inhabit. This book and Blur does a good job of reminding us that teens are often caught in an adult world without the power or control over their lives that adults have.
There were a few things I wasn’t crazy about. I’m probably too into the story to get overly critical.
Book one Daniel is the star quarterback; book two he’s the star basketball player. I had to stop and go back to reread to make sure I didn’t read basketball for football. Really? He has a lot of geek tendencies, and he’s a super-jock.
Character development: again Daniel is a well rounded character with plenty of inner and outer issues. I complained about the lack of development in the other characters in Blur, the first book. The secondary characters are still not fully developed but better in this book.
Female Characters: in Blur I called them stereotypes, in Fury their development is better, but still weak. Daniel’s girlfriend had a couple of gutsy moments. I’m hoping for better in the third book
Here’s a quotation from my critique of the first book: “Daniel and Kyle play teen sleuths, but often, they aren’t too bright.” Between book one and two, they got smarter. At one point when Daniel is doing something way beyond stupid, Kyle tried to talk him out of it.
Overall, it’s a great read. I recommend it if you like young adult mysteries and paranormal books. Now I have to wait for book three. I often don’t finish a trilogy, but I’m sure I’ll finish this one.
The reason I enjoyed the book is because it could stand alone. By the end, there are some unanswered questions and a little suspense about what’s going to happen next, but for the most part, the story line is completed. I wish more trilogies would do this. Usually the second book of a trilogy ends with everything up in the air and zero closure. This book was refreshing.
The book opens with a bang. Daniel wakes up in a psych ward, his father is missing, and the police think Daniel is responsible. He remembers seeing his father stabbed in the side with a knife. From there things escalate and as with Blur I was sucked into the story.
This is a good continuation of the last book. We find out more stuff and get a few answers about what might be happening to Daniel. His friends are back, helping him. They are a little more fleshed out than in the first book, and Daniel has big problems. He doesn’t know what happened to his father, and he isn’t sure he wasn’t responsible. He can’t remember.
There’s a new, kind of creepy, kind of weird man who shows up. Even to the end, I wasn’t sure exactly who he is or if he could be trusted, but I’m pretty sure he’ll be back in book three. He’s interested in Daniel’s special abilities.
Some things I liked:
Daniel and his friends are acting smarter in this book.
The girls have come up a notch and are more than window dressing.
The story is fast paced with enough twists and turns to keep a reader going.
We get some answers to questions the first book raised, like why mom left.
His abilities aren’t completely explained, but we are given a few more pieces of the puzzle.
Lots of suspense and twisty turns
Yep, there’s another dead girl. I think the dead girls like him. But I have to admit, a dead guy shows up.
There’s a space between childhood and adulthood that teens inhabit. This book and Blur does a good job of reminding us that teens are often caught in an adult world without the power or control over their lives that adults have.
There were a few things I wasn’t crazy about. I’m probably too into the story to get overly critical.
Book one Daniel is the star quarterback; book two he’s the star basketball player. I had to stop and go back to reread to make sure I didn’t read basketball for football. Really? He has a lot of geek tendencies, and he’s a super-jock.
Character development: again Daniel is a well rounded character with plenty of inner and outer issues. I complained about the lack of development in the other characters in Blur, the first book. The secondary characters are still not fully developed but better in this book.
Female Characters: in Blur I called them stereotypes, in Fury their development is better, but still weak. Daniel’s girlfriend had a couple of gutsy moments. I’m hoping for better in the third book
Here’s a quotation from my critique of the first book: “Daniel and Kyle play teen sleuths, but often, they aren’t too bright.” Between book one and two, they got smarter. At one point when Daniel is doing something way beyond stupid, Kyle tried to talk him out of it.
Overall, it’s a great read. I recommend it if you like young adult mysteries and paranormal books. Now I have to wait for book three. I often don’t finish a trilogy, but I’m sure I’ll finish this one.
linkwithlinda's review
3.0
Better than the first book, but still not that great. Given how the "bad guy" was revealed in the last book--some auxiliary character with no real motive or input to the dialogue--it was easy to identify who the bad guy was this time around. That's the thing that annoys me about these two books: the bad guy is not the antagonist, nor is he a substantive character, but the actual antagonist isn't a substantive character either--more of an unrelated, low-stakes barrier. The characters are so shallow, they are completely unrelatable.
momwithareadingproblem's review
4.0
I received an eARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of this review.
Fury by Steven James is the second book in the Blur Trilogy about a young man with the extraordinary ability to pick up the details of a crime and piece them together through hallucinations. For Daniel Byers, life returned to normal after solving the death of a classmate last fall. Now the blurs are back, and they are worse than ever. Can Daniel and his friends find the cause before reality blurs with fiction?
The plot of this story is fairly intricate as there are three sub plots tied together. First, someone is poaching wolves, a big no-no in Wisconsin. Daniel believes that his blurs are to help his father solve the case. Then his father goes missing and Daniel is accused as the culprit. Poor Daniel has enough on his plate people without thinking he's done something to his dad!!! Lastly there's the girl in his vision and her link to a barn he played in as a kid.
I love how the author tied these plots together in the mind of Daniel and just how Daniel's mind works. It's amazing. As I said in my review of book one, Daniel is like Rainman without the social stigma. He's very smart and a genius when it comes to numbers. He picks up on details others wouldn't notice and then his brain pieces the information together and voila! He has a blur. It's all fascinating and the nurse side of me is screaming that he is a bit obsessive compulsive with counting, but I digress ;)
Daniel and his friends make for a fun cast of characters, though I wish there was a bit more depth to them. There's only surface details, not much personality aside from Daniel. Oh! And mystery man who is introduced in this book is quite intriguing. I can't wait to learn more about him in book three :D
Once again the author surprised me with a few twists I didn't see coming and in no way could I have predicted them. I think I'll go back and do a reread now that I know the ending and see if I can pick up any details that I may have missed. If you enjoy crime mysteries and young adult fiction, then this book is for you!
Review in a Gif:
Fury by Steven James is the second book in the Blur Trilogy about a young man with the extraordinary ability to pick up the details of a crime and piece them together through hallucinations. For Daniel Byers, life returned to normal after solving the death of a classmate last fall. Now the blurs are back, and they are worse than ever. Can Daniel and his friends find the cause before reality blurs with fiction?
The protagonist can also be the antagonist.So poor Daniel is seeing things again and this time he has no way of telling if they are real or just in his head. Literally he feels like he is going crazy and who can blame him? If I were seeing dead girls who talk to me in the middle of the school bus I would be freaking out. Instead Daniel stays relatively calm, though inwardly questioning his sanity, and calls his best friend and their girlfriends to help him. I guess this is a smart call as the last time his blurs appeared a girl was murdered and it needed to be solved. To Kyle, Mia, and Nicole's credit they did not accuse him of going crazy. Instead they sided with him and pretty much followed Daniel's lead as he went further down the rabbit hole.
The plot of this story is fairly intricate as there are three sub plots tied together. First, someone is poaching wolves, a big no-no in Wisconsin. Daniel believes that his blurs are to help his father solve the case. Then his father goes missing and Daniel is accused as the culprit. Poor Daniel has enough on his plate people without thinking he's done something to his dad!!! Lastly there's the girl in his vision and her link to a barn he played in as a kid.
I love how the author tied these plots together in the mind of Daniel and just how Daniel's mind works. It's amazing. As I said in my review of book one, Daniel is like Rainman without the social stigma. He's very smart and a genius when it comes to numbers. He picks up on details others wouldn't notice and then his brain pieces the information together and voila! He has a blur. It's all fascinating and the nurse side of me is screaming that he is a bit obsessive compulsive with counting, but I digress ;)
Daniel and his friends make for a fun cast of characters, though I wish there was a bit more depth to them. There's only surface details, not much personality aside from Daniel. Oh! And mystery man who is introduced in this book is quite intriguing. I can't wait to learn more about him in book three :D
Once again the author surprised me with a few twists I didn't see coming and in no way could I have predicted them. I think I'll go back and do a reread now that I know the ending and see if I can pick up any details that I may have missed. If you enjoy crime mysteries and young adult fiction, then this book is for you!
Review in a Gif:
urlphantomhive's review
3.0
Read all my reviews on http://urlphantomhive.booklikes.com
Fury is the sequel to Blur, and as in the first book, Daniel is seeing things he wishes he wouldn't see and is trying to figure out what it all means. It had been a while since I read the first book and so the details were a bit blurry for me, but it was repeated at the beginning of Fury, so it didn't feel like I had to go back to Blur.
While this was an entertaining read, I couldn't shake the feeling it was a bit forced at times. Also, without putting spoilers, there is a lot here that didn't surprise me in the end at all. Which was maybe a bit of a let down, but it still was a very quick read. I already have the third book in the series and I plan to read it soon, so I hope the story will take a turn to the original in that one.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!
Fury is the sequel to Blur, and as in the first book, Daniel is seeing things he wishes he wouldn't see and is trying to figure out what it all means. It had been a while since I read the first book and so the details were a bit blurry for me, but it was repeated at the beginning of Fury, so it didn't feel like I had to go back to Blur.
While this was an entertaining read, I couldn't shake the feeling it was a bit forced at times. Also, without putting spoilers, there is a lot here that didn't surprise me in the end at all. Which was maybe a bit of a let down, but it still was a very quick read. I already have the third book in the series and I plan to read it soon, so I hope the story will take a turn to the original in that one.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!
taytaybomar7's review
5.0
Let me say this: Steven James is probably one of my favorite authors in the history of my very short life. I am always impressed with James' stories, and Fury is another one of those that does not disappoint. The first story was good, but this was even better!
Daniel Byers is a fantastic main character. He is well-rounded and never dull. He even has a few similarities with a certain Patrick Bowers, which is flippin' amazing. I loved this book so incredibly. I loved how it was written, what it was about. Everything.
I can't even really explain how I felt about this book. It feels almost like *head-desk*, and that is fine with me.
I also like how this story has the feel of Pretty Little Liars, but written far better, with much better character development, and an even better slam dunk plot. :D
Daniel Byers is a fantastic main character. He is well-rounded and never dull. He even has a few similarities with a certain Patrick Bowers, which is flippin' amazing. I loved this book so incredibly. I loved how it was written, what it was about. Everything.
I can't even really explain how I felt about this book. It feels almost like *head-desk*, and that is fine with me.
I also like how this story has the feel of Pretty Little Liars, but written far better, with much better character development, and an even better slam dunk plot. :D
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