Blur

Gr 7 Up—In the small town of Beldon, Wisconsin, the body of Emily Jackson, a local high school freshman, is found in the lake. Daniel Byers, the star football player, attends the funeral and has a supernatural experience that convinces him that Emily died under suspicious circumstances. Daniel sets off to find out how Emily was killed and who did it. The premise of James's story, the first in a projected trilogy, starts off with a bang but drags the rest of the way. The pacing of the narrative is glacial at times. It is very obvious that the author did his research about forensics and sports, among other subjects Yet these topics are not seamlessly interwoven into the text; instead, they are given to readers in dense infodumps. The characters, especially Daniel's best friend, are not well developed. The inclusion of two romantic story lines feels out of place. Passages of overlong, meandering description, followed by short, action-heavy chapters shows the inconsistency of the writing. Fans of suspenseful stories with paranormal elements will recognize this title as below average compared to other books in the genre.—Christopher Lassen, Brooklyn Public Library