THE FURY is the latest thriller by Alex Michaelides, who wrote two of my favorite thriller/mystery novels in recent memory. I was therefore thrilled to receive an ARC of the novel from NetGalley and Celadon Books in exchange for my honest review - a big thank you to NetGalley and the publisher!

THE FURY tells the story of a retired movie star and those in her inner circle - her son, her husband, her close friends, her staff - as they take a trip to her private Greek island over Easter weekend.

I really enjoyed this novel - another hit from Michaelides, although not quite as spectacular as his first two in my opinion. It was twisty and fast paced, with great characters and excellent writing. I didn't love the narrator, and found a few other characters a bit unbelievable, which kept this at 4/5 stars for me. But all in all, incredibly enjoyable and I'd highly recommend!

OK LISTEN. I would rate this 4.5 if I could. The characters, the narration, the plot: all great. the end lost me a little bit if i'm being honest....I was intrigued all of the way through, but it was sort of expected around 70% finished. I thoroughly enjoyed most* of this book!!!


*I say this only because one single character irritated me beyond words, and even though they were important to the story, I wish they weren't.

Sit down next to me on this bar stool and let me tell you about "The Fury," Alex Michaelides' twisted new mystery about the turmoil swirling around a famous actress and her inner circle. Order a drink -- you're going to need a stiff one.

From London to her private Greek island off Mykonos, you'll follow actress Lana Farrar, shockingly beautiful, who retired at the height of movie fame and still can't find the peace that eludes her. Your guide, and the first-person narrator of "The Fury," is one Elliot Chase, who early on invites us to take that seat at the bar and hear the tale of one fateful trip to the island dubbed Aura, for the Greek goddess of the morning breeze.

Warm breezes and peaceful days weren't to be. Something terrible happened there during a brutal windstorm -- winds that blow up so fiercely they are named "the fury" by islanders -- that changed everything for everyone.

Elliot will tell you all about it, eventually, and in his own way. I, however, cannot, because almost any who, what or why would spoil the delicious tension and give too much away.

Do be aware, though, that Elliot isn't really your cheerful chum; he's an unreliable narrator with a capital UN. ("I often apply theatrical structure to my own life," he hints. "You'd be surprised how often the same rules apply.")

With "The Fury," Michaelides returns to the part of the world where he was born and grew up. A native of Cyprus, with a Cypriot father and British mother, he studied at Cambridge and exploded onto best-seller lists with 2019's "The Silent Patient," based on his work as a psychotherapist. He followed it in 2021 with "The Maidens," another best seller, this one set among students at Cambridge.

In just his third novel, Michaelides, 47, hits a level surpassing that ofthe first two books. "The Fury" is both a psychological thriller and a fast-paced puzzler that puts us on edge and keeps us taking wrong turn after wrong turn. As Elliot himself blithely notes, it's a story "full of incident and adventure, with goodies and baddies, heroines and wicked witches." He fails to mention the monster.

Alex Michaelides
When: 7 p.m. Feb. 13
Where: Ethical Society of St. Louis, 9001 Clayton Road
How much: $35, includes a copy of "The Fury"
More info and tickets: eventbrite.com

DNF @ 19% - no rating

The writing style in this book is...a choice that's just not for me. None of the characters are particularly likable, and while I can feel the author trying to keep me interested, it's only half working. Because I don't like the writing, I am partially hate reading this book just to see what happens next. I feel like it should get points for that. The other issue I have is that there are too many characters, and they weren't introduced in a way to make them memorable enough so that I remember how they're all connected.

If you sample this book and enjoy the writing style, give this one a go. If I liked the writing, I think could get over my other issues.

I really enjoyed Michaelides' previous two books, but this one really lost me. I felt like the plot didn't make any sense, had glaring holes, and the characters felt stunted.

The Fury by Alex Michaelides takes you on a mind-bending journey between a group of friends in which only one thing is certain: there will be a murder.

From the get-go, our narrator seems to have a bit of arrogance about him, which only continues to grow as the story goes on. Later, we come to find that our narrator is unpredictable, unreliable, and slightly unhinged. This leaves you guessing what would happen the entire time. What was true, what was not. Who you should trust, and who would be the murderer.

While I enjoyed the suspense as the storyline cascaded, it did leave me waiting for a big a-ha. I didn't feel as though there was one dramatic reveal like with The Silent Patient or The Maidens, but a bunch of smaller moments. The way that the narrator was constructed made the ending a bit less shocking.

I did love how it was told as if the narrator was speaking to us as a friend, along with the back in forth of the time line to show before and after. What might have been really interesting was instead of having one narrator, each friend have their own section of the book told from their perspective.

Overall, I give this 3 out of 5 stars and look forward to reading more of Alex's work.

Thank you netgalley for the arc! Loved the plot and setting of this book, but found the ending to feel slightly predictable

"The Fury" -- and Alex Michaelides -- can be really polarizing among readers. Consider me a fan! I loved the setting, the characters, even the weirdness with the narrator. This was a moody, atmospheric read and i ate it up.

I have read almost all of Michaelides’ books and the Silent Patient is by far the stand out! The Fury was a quick read that followed the classic thriller outline with little twists and turns. I feel like this one had some substance but felt drawn out in parts. I will personally continue to read his work, but hoping for another amazing one soon.

I found this thriller to be a rather quick read, with an unlikeable and unreliable narrator. However, I did find the whole subplot and mystical addition of "the fury" to not be fleshed out or cohesive enough. The notion of the fury felt randomly thrown in to give this a supernatural element. I did like the whodunnit and just wish the whole concept of the fury itself had been shelved. I will read another publication by the author in hopes this poorly thought-out aspect of the story was a fluke in his writing.

I loved Silent Patient and had such high hopes for this book. Unfortunately, it just fell flat. The first 50% of the book was just purely set up and not in the good way (just alllllll the background). The characters were all completely unlikeable.

The fury by Alex michaelides. Is about the most pretentious book I have ever read. This book is told by one of the players. It is a story of rich creative people using each other. This gave me great gatsby vibes. I didn’t enjoy it at all

This is my third book by Michaelides and I’m thinking I’m the problem - his books just aren’t for me. I was looking forward to this one, because I love how he sprinkles in mentions of his past books.

I found The Fury hard to return to. It just didn’t hold my interest, and I felt no connection to the main character. I was intrigued at first by the MC addressing the reader but it grew old so quickly. I nearly didn’t finish it, it’s taken me several weeks.

I may try this one again in the future, when I’ve forgotten enough of the plot - I think this may be a hit on audio!

I really enjoyed this psychological thriller. Some books are just thrillers but I love how this author’s books delve into the psychology piece of thrillers. Ideas I appreciated were finding the motive that inspired people to murder (to remove pain) and “character is destiny.”

The narrator’s personal nature, talking directly to the reader, made for an intimate experience. I was constantly questioning his motives, compelled to read more to find the truth of his obscured language and mysterious past. Plus, I loved his constant rewrites of what actually happened. Time not to take him or myself so seriously!

And if that isn’t enough to pique your interest, bonus points for Wizard of Oz references. Which character do you most relate to? Dorothy (yep), Scarecrow Tin Man, Lion, the Wizard perhaps? This question circles back to motive. Why do you do what you do?

Sorry to say the ending left me sad. I guess I was more attached to these unreliable characters than a reader ever should be.

Elliot Chase invites you to pull up a seat at the bar and have a drink while he tells you the story of Lana, the ex-movie star and her nearest and dearest who travel with her to her private residence on her private island in Greece, where the murder happened. This story is quite the departure from the author’s other books and while the story starts off strong and captured my interest, it did not take long before my interest began to wane. The characters are pretty much all unlikeable, even to each other and the inevitable ending is not much of a surprise. All in all, it is a well written, slow burn murder mystery that I wish hadn’t been so long winded.

This book was a brutal read. And not in a good way. I absolutely hated the format of the narration - it was awkward and honestly a bit uncomfortable to have the narrator act as if we were friends. Particularly a character that was so completely unlikeable as Elliot. He was presumptuous and entitled, and a little bit creepy. He was the acquaintance who thinks he's the best friend, when in reality no one wants to be around him. He was disingenuous and deceptive, and came across as a complete scam and phony. The rest of the characters weren't nearly as bad, but unfortunately, they all just fell flat; I didn't care whether I liked them or not.

Plot-wise, this was just dumb. The story centered around a murder on a private island. It jumped (awkwardly) between present day and past to provide a fair amount of history to bring the reader up to speed, and had a number of twists and turns that I think were meant to intrigue and shock the reader, but in reality they all just made me roll my eyes each time things went a different direction. By the end, it was all just so ridiculous I lost all interest.

I think the author was shooting for a unique and special format for the book, but unfortunately, it fell completely flat for me.

the story begins with the murder of the well-known actress Lana Farrah at her isolated Greece island while vacationing with her close friends. Was it an intruder? Or was it one of the closest people she knew?
Told from the POV of an unreliable narrator, as a 5 part act of a play, we are taken through the thought process of each person at the island during their stay at the island and even years before that ungrateful night till the big reveal at the end.
This didn’t read anything like Alex Michaelides earlier works, I personally found the unreliable narrator part very confusing and had to keep in mind that even other people’s POV’s are written by one of the characters at the island and not by each person themselves and hence to be read with a grain of salt and not fully accurate.
I personally felt the story didn’t have much closure and some loose ends. I did enjoy reading it though.
Thanks to Netgalley and Celadon books for an arc of this book for my honest opinion.

❄️ Mini Book Review #8 ❄️

Title: The Fury
Author: Alex Michaelides
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Release: January 16, 2024
Genre: Mystery/Thriller
Format: Ebook | Audiobook
Length: 298 pages
Finished: January 23rd, 2024
Thoughts:

Alex Michaelides writes some of the most entertaining mysteries. I own all of his books and am so invested in this small universe he seems to be building. He is definitely an Autobuy author for me.

“The Fury” is another whodunnit set on a Greek island, which I LOVE. It’s so fun to see Michaelides make reference to Greek upbringing, mythology, and culture in all of his books. He also references a lot of facts with therapy and psychology. It’s so interesting to read and learn each time.

I loved the idea of Elliot as a narrator because you took everything he spoke of with a grain of salt. You didn’t know if he was lying or telling the truth. The “playwright” in him adding to the story to make it more dramatic, because everyone loves drama. But that little hint of magical realism at the end…was it real? Or was that another attempt by Elliot to suck you into his story? Reading that part was insane!

This was a book filled with so much unrequited love. It asks the questions of how far will you go to feel loved and what “love” actually means to you. Each character had their own dark paths and handled “love” differently. Obsessive, manipulative, pure, genuine, hurtful, fake. The Fury is a fast paced ride that looked deep into the souls of the characters and shows an unbelievable story of longing, betrayal, and tragedy.

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Five big stars!!!

This story takes place on a secluded island in Greece, owned by the most famous movie star in the world. She invites seven of her friends to stay on the island for a weekend, and while they're there a wind storm ascends upon the island out of nowhere which traps them on the island for several days. During this time, one of them is murdered. With phone lines down and all methods of transportation on or off the island cutoff, they are trapped and forced to face the fact that one of them is a killer. (Remind you of anyone? Agatha Christie??) The narrator, a quirky playwright named Elliott, just happens to be one of the seven. As he leads us through the events leading up to the murder, he is playing with us, throwing in clever little twists trying to throw us off. The chapters are short to keep the pace flowing quickly. As he recounts the events that occur, he breaks that fourth wall as if he is speaking directly to the reader. It is broken into five "acts" and as each act begins he gives just a little bit more information (sometimes just enough to trick you) about the other potential killers to show possible motives why. If you think you know how this ends, you are in for a surprise!

Oh my gosh! This was such a fun book to read. I can only imagine how the author felt writing it! Think of the Netflix movie, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery; It's got that type of edginess and humor. If you liked that, you'll probably love this book. Warning: If you have not read The Silent Patient and plan to, don't read this first. There is a nod to his debut novel that could spoil it if you read this.

I enjoyed this book - as a first time Michaelides reader, I loved the unreliable narrator and was thoroughly engrossed in the storyline. I enjoyed the twist(s) the book took and really loved Lana, even though I was only seeing her through Elliot’s twisted point of view.