Blur

BLUR (Book 1 in the BLUR Trilogy) by best selling author, Steven James, (Skyscape, 2014, $9.99, YA, Ages 12 and up) is a young adult suspense novel with a cinematic feel. Daniel Byers, a junior and the star quarterback on his high school football team, has a problem. Attending the funeral of a fourteen-year-old girl found drowned in Lake Algonquin would be hard for anyone, even for schoolmates like Daniel who didn’t really know her. And he feels slightly guilty for not having made an effort — he had seen her being ignored and even excluded at lunch and in the halls. But that doesn’t explain why he is the only one who sees her sit up in her coffin as he passes by it at the service. Or why she grabs his arm, calls him by name, and asks him to find her glasses.

Hooked yet? The corpse’s request along with her surviving twin brother’s suspicions set Daniel looking for a possibly murderous explanation for the girl’s drowning. As he continues to see real and apparently imaginary images blurring together before his very eyes, he has to decide how much to share about what he’s experiencing. Is he going crazy? Does he need help from his friends or his dad? And since this is high school, while dealing with these questions he also has to keep his football coach and college recruiters happy, and choose who to take to the Homecoming dance, an old friend or a mysterious new girl he likes that no one else seems to have noticed.

A fast, straightforward read, BLUR got my pulse racing along with the action. Sensitive types might wish for more “feels” and fewer ghastly chills, but most readers — especially younger teen boys who would like to be brave, stand-up guys like Daniel — will enjoy every minute.

– Reviewed by Mary Malhotra