Fury [Paperback]

Elena Gilbert is in love with Stefan Salvatore, a vampire, but is also attracted to his brother Damon. Throughout the course of the first two books she has shared blood with both of them, which means that when she is driven by some unnatural force into the river she rises once more as a vampire after her human body has perished. The brothers hide her at a local house, planning to smuggle her out once the town has quietened down once more, but as soon as she awakens after a week-long slumber, Elena refuses. Now more than ever she is certain that a third Power is present at Fell's Church, endangering the citizens and the vampire brothers.

Along with her friends Meredith, Bonnie and Matt (who are privy to the secret of Elena's transformation), they begin investigating, and come up with a range of suspects. But whilst they continue with their detective work, more and more dangerous things are happening in the small town: the domestic pet dogs attack the mourners at Elena's funeral service, and some of the townsfolk have decided to take matters into their own hands - blaming the newcomer Stefan for the supernatural trouble. But the real source lies deep within the vampire's past...

L. J. Smith brings together her entire cast to battle the evil, instigating all their talents (ie, Bonnie's psychic abilities, Alaric's vampire lore, Meredith's leadership, Damon's shapeshifting), and then splits them up in order for the teenagers to defend the school students at the prom, protect Elena's family and go up against the third Power in a satisfying conclusion to the story with an unexpected twist and death. The tension that was building up in the first two books is finally paid off, though most readers wishing for a happy ending will be sadly disappointed.

L. J. Smith unfortunately leaves several plot threads dangling - she never fully wraps up the motivations behind Robert's actions, nor why it looked as though he knew what was going to happen with the dogs outside the church - presumably it was instinct, but she might have told us that! Furthermore, I was expecting a plot twist in the character of Ms Flowers - in this and the previous book the teenagers see her leaning against the window, refusing to help them when they call, and I suspected that somebody had killed her and propped her body up against the window. Nope. She was apparently just a crazy old lady.

There are some devices that L. J. uses that get rather annoying, and which reminded me of R. L. Stine - both of them would end chapters on tense, dramatic sentences, only for them to come to absolutely nothing, rendering them silly and melodramatic. For instance: when Stefan is being attacked, Smith ends the chapter with "A white hand reached out of the darkness and knocked the rifle away...Elena had arrived". Whoohoo, is she finally about to beat up someone? No, the tension drains away with the arrival of Alaric. Later on, when Elena and the brothers are at the mercy of the Power, it tempts Damon with an alliance: "Oh God, no, Elena thought. Please no. Slowly, Damon smiled". Oh heck, is Damon going to turn on them? Or perhaps only pretend to in order to get free? Again, the drama is drained away as Damon refuses. After a while these sentences on the chapters end would get annoying as well as disappointing.

Oh well, why am I complaining over a book that cost me three dollars in the local bookstore's bargain bin? On the whole, "The Fury" is the most worthwhile read in L. J. Smith's vampire series, but not in her entire collection of books. If you're searching for a book to give to a pre-teen female, then you can't go wrong with L. J. Smith - the only problem she has an annoying habit on un-necessarily dividing her stories into several volumes, and you'll have to track them all down to get the full picture.

I rfirst read this book, Oh, lets say about 7 years ago. I found it in a dingy little second hand book shop. I loved it. Although I hadn't read the first two. I Loved it. Did I mention I loved it? Now, especially considering I've read the rest of the series, it's still my fave. The way LJ Smith writes, it's with such passion and simplicity, it's hard not to get drawn into her writing. I felt horrible when Elena died. Even Elena the vampire, because of the way she sacrificed herself for Stefan and Damon. Tearjerker, but also full of laughs....