The Fury: AND The Reunion Bks. 3 & 4 [Paperback]

L. J. Smith (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Hodder Children's Books (September 3, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0340999152
• ISBN-13: 978-0340999158
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 4.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (106 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #63,972 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Let's see, I've known that I wanted to be a writer since I was about six, when a teacher praised a horrible poem I'd written. I wrote my first book in high school, finishing it in my first year of college. Then I became a special ed teacher before I was able to become a writer full-time. That's about it!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent!, April 16, 2008

By 

Mango - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Vampire Diaries: The Fury and Dark Reunion (Paperback)

I read the first three books after finding them at my old school library years ago. And I must admit, I ALMOST didn't read them and that is mainly because I thought the covers looked old and boring. Of course, there is the old rule: "Never judge a book by its cover!" I'm so glad I did decide to read them! I fell in love with "The Vampire Diaries" series and have continued to reread them again and again.

I was very excited when I found the fourth one, and it's just as great as the others! The fact that Bonnie was the main character made it even better, as she is one of my favorite characters.

Not everybody will like these books. The main character, Elena Gilbert, would probably turn many away. Elena is a popular, beautiful girl in her high school. She is admired by the girls and drooled over by the boys. And when Elena sees something she wants (Stefan Salvatore, a mysterious, attractive boy), she does whatever possible, never quitting, until she gets it.

However, things don't stay perfect forever in Elena's world. Soon, one of her best friends, jealous and spiteful, turns on her, and people are being attacked by some kind of animal. We don't find out what is really harassing Fells Church until the third book "The Fury"(the first book in this one), and my personal favorite.

Through all the books she has three good, trusting friends---one of them her ex-boyfriend---sticking by her side, along with Stefan Salvatore, the one she falls in love with. And the one that happens to be a vampire born during the Italian Renaissance.

I recommend this book, and the first one, to anyone that likes reading vampire books or if you just want something to read. And if you like these go read some of L.J. Smith's other books.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic, But Not Her Best, December 26, 2007

By 

Deidre Huesmann (Bremerton, WA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Vampire Diaries: The Fury and Dark Reunion (Paperback)

I first must say that I've admired L.J. Smith for over 10 years. I was pulled into her worlds via the Night World series and sought out everything else--Night of the Solstice, Heart of Valor, the Forbidden Game trilogy, the Dark Visions trilogy, and the Secret Circle trilogy. I've always loved her originality, and I have never, ever found an author I've admired and aspired to be as good a writer so much as her.

That said, this was the first and only book of hers I thought could be better.

This volume contains two books in one--The Fury and Dark Reunion. And The Fury was brilliant. Elena's character has grown so much, her love for Stefan has evolved and become something touching and beautiful. Stefan has also become more interesting, and Damon was a character I finally got to KNOW and love.

The twist at the end of The Fury was also brilliant--I didn't see that one coming, but it all tied in perfectly. The villain in the end was mad with love and anger, and just done to a creepy, childlike perfection.

I did not like Dark Reunion. At all.

First of all, as much as L.J. Smith set up for Damon to grow, you only got to see a glimpse of this at the end of the book. She tries to show more with scatterings of Matt-interaction, but it just doesn't flesh out so well. The entire novel revolves around Bonnie and the others--that in itself was jarring, and could have flowed better from the other novels if it had been told from more of Stefan or even Damon's point of view (POV). Reading from Bonnie's POV was like going back to Elena's in the first book, and by the end of The Fury, the reader is expecting that growth to transfer over somehow.

The ending was wrapped up in a happy way, but it was also rushed and made me feel like I was missing something big.

That isn't to say I don't recommend this book--I do. Like I said, The Fury was brilliant, and some parts of Dark Reunion are pretty good. Overall it is a good book.

But I have seen L.J. Smith end her works a lot better than she did here.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Vampire Diaries is a wonderful TRILOGY -- with a not-so-wonderful coda, November 20, 2009

By 

Erin K. Simons "Aspiring writer, voracious re... (Central Indiana) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Vampire Diaries: The Fury and Dark Reunion (Paperback)

In this second compilation from L.J. Smith, readers are presented with The Fury and Dark Reunion -- books 3 and 4 of the Vampire Diaries.

I was thrilled by the first half of the book (The Fury), and thought it provided a bittersweet but satisfying conclusion to her Vampire Diaries "trilogy." For the sake of remaining spoiler-free, this last installment of the originally planned series follows Elena and Stefan (and Damon) full-cycle through their complicated relationship, including some genuinely unexpected plot twists and surprises that I didn't see coming. The character development is at its best in this book, with all of the main players showing growth and much more likeablity. I am a huge Damon fan, but then again, I always did have a thing for bad boys. ;-)

However, I can't offer the same praise to the second half of the book, originally the fourth installment called Dark Reunion. In a classic case of "jumping the shark," LJ Smith deconstructs the emotionally charged resolution of the trilogy (probably at her publisher's insistance) and relaunches the story line with a silly and unnecessary addendum. The whole plot of this fourth book feels like an afterthought. Instead of the love triangle and romantic tension taking center stage in Dark Reunion, the entire book plays out like an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, with all of the supporting characters of the previous three books becoming "Scoobies" and banding together to fight evil in Fall's Church side by side. Unfortunately, the formula change didn't work for me, not at all. And the Big Bad Evil that is thrust into the story just seemed like an example of further shark-jumping.

I'm happy that the "reset" opens the doors for LJ Smith's spinoff series The Vampire Diaries: Revisited (which I believe "stars" my favorite Salvatore brother, Damon), but I wish that the author and publisher could have found a better way to set the stage for new stories without compromising the impact of the original Diaries.