Title: The Fury
Author: Alex Michaelides
Publisher: Celadon Books
Genre: Mystery/Thriller
The Fury by Alex Michaelides is out today Jan. 16th; Happy Pub Day!
Thank you again, too @celadonbooks for the arc. I also received a listing copy from @macmillan.audio that is narrated by British narrator, Alex Jennings. Lots of reviewers are raving about the audio, but for some reason I couldn’t get this one to click with my brain. I ended up liking the book anyway because the chapters are super short. So, it sounds like either way you can’t go wrong on this one.
“This is a tale of murder. Or maybe that’s not quite true. At its heart, it’s a love story, isn’t it? The saddest kind of love story—about the end of love; the death of love. {…} Can anyone pinpoint that precise moment when love turns to hate? Everything ends, I know that. Especially happiness. Especially love.”
The Fury is a clever take on the unreliable narrator trope. It’s written like a play almost in five acts. I think this is really going to work for some people and be interesting and others may find the character Elliot plus the theatre style annoying. I’m a theatre girl and personally loved it. Also, I must point out that I’m not a heavy thriller reader anymore; hardcore thriller readers might find this one a little soft. There is a lot of telling in the story because of the way the acts are written.
“We are all the unreliable narrators of our own lives. It’s funny, I feel that you and I should be sitting together at a couple of barstools, right now, as I tell you this tale—like two old friends drinking at the bar.”
Since it’s a thriller, I don’t want to give too much away, so let’s just do a pros and cons list!
Pros:
✔️Clever take on unreliable narrator with theatre style
✔️Takes place on a remote Greek Island
✔️Short Chapters
✔️Lots of twists
✔️Interesting chapters on how bullying, abuse, neglect, etc. carries over into adulthood for some
✔️Positivity on therapy
Cons:
❌Slow start
❌For not a lot of characters if felt like it at times
❌Possibly because they are written so you don’t connect with them
❌Every single twist is just revealed to you. Lots of telling.
Overall, I did really enjoy this one! For some reason (probably the remote island) it gave me vibes of Lucy Foley’s The Guest List. So if you enjoyed that one or this author’s previous work then give this one a try!
Book Summary ➡️
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