Blur by Steven James

I know it's Friday and I should update you all on my writing progress, but there's not much to say (I'm on schedule?) and I've also been dying to post a review of Blur, by Steven James, since I finished it earlier this week.

The isolated town of Beldon, Wisconsin, is shocked when a high school freshman’s body is found in Lake Algonquin. Just like everyone in the community, sixteen-year-old Daniel Byers believes that Emily Jackson’s death was accidental. But at her funeral, when he has a terrifying vision of her, his world begins to rip apart at the seams.

Convinced that Emily’s appearance was more than just a mere hallucination, Daniel begins to look carefully into her death, even as he increasingly loses the ability to distinguish fantasy from reality.

What’s real? What’s not? Where does reality end and madness begin?

As Daniel struggles to find the truth, his world begins to crumble around him as he slips further and further into his own private blurred reality.

I started reading this in the morning and then continued to read in between cleaning, eating, and work. I finished this book in a day, mainly because I had to find out just what was happening to Daniel. Not only does he have these visions of Emily, the young girl that supposedly drowned in the lake, but the visions are horrifying and so vivid that he feels like he can reach out and touch her. This poor kid thought he had a brain tumor or was clinically insane, and I was just hoping that he was seeing ghosts.

I realize how silly that sounds.

This book had so many elements to it that kept me interested: supernatural, YA, mystery, thriller. It was like eight different stories rolled into one, but I never felt lost. It was rather fun to unravel this mystery alongside Daniel, and it really teaches you something about trust, because I didn't believe a word out of anyone's mouth for awhile. When Daniel starts to question his own sanity because he doesn't believe people, you start to think that maybe there's something wrong with you, too. I also loved the fact that some parts of this book made me slap myself on the head and go, oh, duh! I love those mysteries, where the author practically spells out something in plain sight, but you're so caught up in unraveling it yourself that you can't see it. One of the characters is a huge giveaway for what we should be concentrating on, and even though I had an idea about this character, Steven James still managed to make me feel stupid. In a good way, of course!

Even though this book came out about a year ago, I just got around to reading it, and I'm glad I did. The second one (Fury) comes out in about eleven days (April 28), so you have plenty of time to pick this book up and catch up! It's only $3.99 for the Kindle copy right now (http://www.amazon.com/Blur-Trilogy-Book-1-ebook/dp/B00GP2IOR8/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8), so it's a bargain, really.

Okay, you have a book for the weekend now and don't blame me if it ruins your life because you can't do anything until you finish it. Really, you're welcome. Have fun!