Blurry....

So Boys of Blur is a Newbery Buzz Book.  My dear friend, Rebekah, tried to read it and didn't like it at all.   She even broke up with it. Although, she is more comfortable with breaking up than I am anyway. I am really trying to read some of the "good" books this year.  I don't know, honestly, if I will do this next year, obsessively try to read all of the books with the award buzz, but we'll see.  But I wanted to read this.  Plus, it was short!
While Rebekah didn't like it at all, I have to say that I did like.  I liked the atmosphere of this tiny town right near the Florida Everglades, on the banks of  Lake Okeechobee.  I liked learning about the sugar cane fields but I DIDN'T like reading about the poor rabbits.  I just can't imagine how scared those little rabbits must be.  Ugh.  It just makes me so sad.  A lot of  football players learned their speed from "running rabbits" in the sugarcane fields.
I like the main character, Charlie, a lot.  He is a good dude.  And I liked the whole family, really.  Cotton, especially.
Turns out that the book is inspired by Beowulf.  I had to read Beowulf in eleventh grade, but I didn't remember much about it so I found these little videos!  They are fabulous!  And then I got into the book even more.  I loved the book trailer, too!  But overall, it just didn't hold my interest as much as I wanted it to.  I am not sure why...maybe I wanted to know more about Charlie?  More about Mack?  About Bobby Reynolds?  I guess I just wanted more.  I still can highly recommend this book. Especially for fans of high school football and creepy stuff.  The battle between good and evil was well done!