Lana Farrar, a super famous ex-actress invites a handful of friends to her private Greek island for a mini vacay. Once on the island, someone is of course murdered and now we have to figure out WHO DID IT. In comes our unreliable and very animated narrator, Elliot Chase—one of the guests on the island. He felt so familiar, like he was sitting around a campfire telling me a creepy murder mystery.

Getting to know the characters, setting up “the murder”, and general atmospheric vibes were all laid out in the first half of the story. Some may find this a bit slow, but I was ok with it. And yes, twists and turns are so very cliche when talking about a thriller, but there really is no other way to describe the second half. It required my full attention to keep up with the narrator’s constant teasing and misleadings about “what really happened”. The pace quickens at this point and The Fury elevates to a whole new level. Yes it still has all the signs of a classic whodunnit tale, but Michaelides adds in all the psychological elements ( love this) that not only add thick layers to his characters, but to the crazy plot and ending as well. One other interesting piece to this story is that it is told like a play in many ACTS. Wicked clever story telling!!!!

The Fury is a fantastic tale and officially makes Alex Michaelides an auto buy author for me.

One note of caution…. The epilogue of this book has a pretty large Easter egg in it from his first book, The Silent Patient. If you have not read this book, I highly suggest you either read it real quick before the epilogue or don’t read it at all ( it spoils the ending) 🫢

This book was a whirlwind! I really like how the story was told.
The narrator was interesting and the ending really threw me for a loop!
I thought it started off a bit slow, then the murder happened, then it slowed down again but once everything started to unravel, I couldn't put it down!
I found the storytelling to be very unique. I liked how the narrator was so charismatic and made it seem as though we were friends.
It also kind of reminded me of the movie Vantage Point. The main event happened and we were shown different POV's that led to that moment and the aftermath. It was honestly brilliant, in my opinion.

I had a weird experience reading this book. On one hand, I tore through it. On the other hand, I didn't really care what happened. I think the reason I was invested enough to want to keep reading is a testament to the pacing and the author's creative way of revealing information by revisiting the timeline we think we understand. But the rest of it ... I saw the ending coming, I didn't really care about the characters that much, and it was overall just kind of ... okay.

The Fury by Alex Michaelides was so clever and masterfully written.
The way this author writes is just incredible. How he pulls you into the story is just riveting.
The plot is so smooth, the character development is enticing and you visualize the situations as if the images are right in your face.
A wonderfully done mystery novel, the characters were unique and I was totally invested once I started.

Thank You NetGalley and Celadon Books for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

The Fury is a furious novel once again from Micaelides. Once again he crafts a soap opera stylish suspense novel that he somehow makes the crazy person seem sane until it all falls apart slowly. It's very entertaining and even if you think you know what's going to happen......well its not. Great read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Celadon books for an ARC of The Fury.

Murder? Check. Found Family? Check. The perfect thriller? Ehh.

All-in-all, I enjoyed my time reading The Fury. The author, Alex Michaelides, has a real knack for drawing the reader into the worlds that he creates with The Fury being no exception! I felt that the narrative had good pacing with a nice found family trope and kept me engaged throughout.

My only two issues with the book are that 1) Michaelides seemed to weave a cliffhanger into every chapter and sometimes multiple cliff hangers in a singular chapter. It felt very unnecessary and too fluffy. and 2) I felt the ending was a bit messy

Overall, The Fury is a well-paced thriller that may leave you wanting more? maybe even less than what you got?

3 stars

This book... At first I thought I didn't like it. I thought it was slow, and a little boring (which at times, it was) But, it was also very well written, surprising, and a little crazy.

Elliot, our narrative, is in love with his friend Lana, who is married to Jason whom she took from her friend Kate, who is now having an affair with Lana's husband (Jason). They all end up on an island for Easter and everyone is manipulating and lying to everyone else and chaos ensues.

Every time I thought I knew what was going on in this book, I didn't. But yet everything always ended up making sense once it came together. I'd recommend this. It was different from anything I've ever read.

Another intriguing novel by Alex Michaelides. This story was told in a very Agatha Christie-esque way. While I did guess the ending, it was a journey to get there nonetheless.

Holy moly! This book is nuts! My jaw is hanging open, but I enjoyed it. Alex Michaelides definitely has a special talent when it come to writing. His approach is different. I thought I saw things coming, but I didn't. I loved his choice of narrator - Elliot - who speaks directly to the reader and asks us to imagine that we are sitting at a bar together while he tells his story. And Elliot describes the story as a "whydunit" not a "whodunit" which is appropriate. Elliot is a good storyteller and observer, and he seems to enjoy telling the story. But can we trust him? Or anyone else? Sometimes, he changes or adds to his version of events. This book is about dreams, confessions, perceptions, hope, denial, lies, truth, true feelings, hurt feelings, revenge, betrayal and more. At one point, it moved a little slowly in the middle, but then picked up pace again. The Fury makes you think. Thank you to NetGalley and to Celadon Books for the eARC.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Fury
By: Alex Michaelides
Genre: Thriller, Mystery

Swipe for synopsis and check out my

✨ This book was my first NetGalley ARC ever - thank you so much, NetGalley, Celadon Books and Alex Michaelides!

✨ First and foremost, I thought this was a great read!!! For me, it was another 5 star thriller from Alex M!

✨ I loved Elliott Chase, our somewhat unreliable narrator. I liked the long windy narrative routes the story took across time and the narrator’s “storyteller” approach. I enjoyed the conversational aspect of the narration as well.

✨ Setting-wise, I love Greece and can’t wait to go back someday. My goal is to explore more of the “off the beaten path islands.” So, I really enjoyed the setting of the private “haunted/cursed to the locals” Greek island and the suspense added by “the fury” - or the mad wind that can blow there.

✨ I am always intrigued by famous celebrity murder mysteries whether fiction or nonfiction, so the plot and characters were up my alley.

✨ This book also me company during a 3.5 hour ER saga for a stupid hand injury. And then it kept me riveted for the rest of the day until I finished it at nearly 2 AM - I did not want to put it down!

✨ The ending got a little weird at parts. I did see the last bit coming, but the story twisted and turned many times completely unexpectedly!

✨ I am very excited for Alex’ event in Pittsburgh in January and to get my physical copy of the book! I love love the cover.

✨ There’s a cool little nod to The Silent Patient in the book. See if you spot it! I am reading The Maidens very shortly!! I wonder if there are any other cross-book Easter eggs.

❓ QOTD: If you were gifted a vacation home anywhere as a Christmas gift, where would you want it to be??

Having previously read Alex Michaelides’ Silent Patient, I was very excited for The Fury. It follows the story of a group of friends going to a Greek island for a vacation. There are points of views from characters, so you are able to get the full experience. It is a slow burn and I did not enjoy it as much as the silent patient. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy.

A well-paced addition to the Michaelides Cinematic Universe. I appreciated the softened emphasis on Greek mythology in this book as I felt like I could focus more on the characters and their motivations. Suspenseful and thrilling.

My thanks to NetGalley and Celadon Books for an eARC of The Fury.

Pull up a barstool, Elliot Chase has a story to tell. About an island, a murder, and the seven people who were there that night.

Alex Michaelides has undoubtedly written the the gold standard for the thriller with The Silent Patient, and it’s hard not to come to his subsequent novels without any expectation. And if you read this novel expecting another Silent Patient you’ll likely be disappointed.

But if you picked up the The Fury, author unknown, I think any reader would enjoy what the book has to offer. It’s a slow burn, with a lot of setup, but the treat of this novel is the fun Michaelides has with his narrator and with his personal screenwriter background. I was thoroughly entertained by Elliot Chase, and the fact that he and most of the characters were quite unlikely worked well in this novel.

When the twists start coming, they come at lightning speed and make for an entertaining ride that I was happy to go along with. It ends up being a leaning more towards clever mystery territory than creepy thriller territory, and I think one’s experience of this novel will highly depend on how the reader approaches the novel.

Thank you, Netgalley, and publishers for my ARC copy.

The Fury was a slow burn for me. In the first half of the story, I found myself repeating the words, "Come on already, get to the point!" However, about mid way through, it started to click and pick up pace. The first half began to make sense as to why it was shared with us. Then the ending, it was making me angry with all the back and forth twists, but I loved it all at the same time!

Lana, her family, and friends all take off for a getaway to her privately owned island off of Greece. What's supposed to be a relaxing little vacation turns into a big game of secrets and seeking revenge. Lana discovers her husband hasn't been honest, and when she confided to her friend Elliot, they came up with a mastermind plan to call him out. Once they arrived on the island, everything was going as planned... until they weren't. Six friends on one island and one murdered. Can you figure out who dies and who the suspect may be? It wasn't till the last page before I figured it out, and while I wasn't surprised, I didn't see it coming.

The Fury
Genre: thriller
Rating: 4.5⭐️

Thanks @celadonbooks for the #gifted copy. Review on bookstagram to come!

What an incredible atmospheric thriller! This setting was beautifully described - I felt like I was right there on the island. Told from a single point of view, the narration fits Elliot’s character perfectly. Can we trust him? About halfway through the story, I started to get nervous with the direction. While it didn’t quite play out how I thought (or was wanting), the story truly comes together by the last chapters.

This reads quickly and is hard to put down. Bonus points for some Easter eggs of the author’s previous works mixed in to this story!

As always, cannot wait to see what’s next for this writer!

Read if you enjoy: locked room mystery, atmospheric setting, rich people behaving badly

I found this book to be in-fury-ating! Without giving anything away I can say that this is very clever story telling, but at the end of the book I'm still not sure what to believe. With the exception of Elliot, I don't feel like I got to know any of the characters. This kept me detached from the outcome. One quote that stuck with me: "Don't write your story for an audience, Elliot. Write it for yourself."

Thank you NetGalley and Celadon Books for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

We found ourselves trapped there overnight. Our old friendships concealed hatred and a desire for revenge. What followed was a game of cat and mouse ― a battle of wits, full of twists and turns, building to an unforgettable climax. The night ended in violence and death, as one of us was found murdered.

But who am I?

My name is Elliot Chase, and I’m going to tell you a story unlike any you’ve ever heard.

Unpopular opinion - this was not for me.

I started on audio, but switched to the ebook because I was having trouble understanding what was going on. The story didn’t grab my attention, I didn’t understand who these people were, or why they were together. Did I predict the surprise? No. It was an interesting twist, but I also wasn’t super impressed. I found the majority of the book to be filler/fluff whatever you’d like to call it, so by the time we got to the action I just wasn’t feeling it anymore. I liked the way the story was written, but the story was not for me.

I absolutely LOVED The Silent Patient and while I enjoyed The Maidens I felt kinda let down. This one didn't quite give me the same feeling The Silent Patient did, it came pretty close! This one was very psychological- you get into the brains of pretty much every character, but the protagonist as well.

The quote that really stuck with me was 'Our motivation is pain" and that right there pretty much drove every character's actions within the last 50 pages.

*ARC provided via Netgalley in exchange for feedback

4/10

I was so excited when I was approved for an electronic ARC of The Fury . The Silent Patient is one of my all time favorite thrillers and while I did not enjoy it nearly as much The Maidens was a decent read as well. Unfortunately I can't say the same for The Fury .

From the very beginning something about The Fury just didn't sit right with me. That thing was the prose and the narrative choices Alex Michaelides made in telling the story. The story is told by Elliot as he writes down the events of what happened on "the island". The issue with that is that Elliot is also one of the characters in the story, yet he tells it as if he knows what every person was doing at every minute, even when he was not around. There is a brief reasoning for this given at the beginning of the novel but it still felt very strange. What made it worse was that Eliot would often jump around in time telling the story, which also led to him constantly contradicting himself. A scene would play out and then we would soon find out that everything about it happened completely differently than it was previously written, despite Elliot's assurances to us, as the reader of his story, that he would tell the truth and remain objective. As a thriller you expect a certain amount of misdirection but to be blatantly lied to is another thing entirely.

There was a line at the beginning of the book that explains some of this (and a line I genuinely really enjoyed) that states; "We are all the unreliable narrators of our own lives." Given this you can tell that it was a clear artistic choice by Alex Michaelides to do this, it just didn't seem to land. There was a very 'meta' approach taken to the prose of this novel and it really took away from it. The story itself could have been really good if told differently. Hell even some of the character backstories and motivations were fantastic and well thought out from a psychological perspective, unfortunately they were just overshadowed by the odd and distracting writing style that, in my opinion, really detracted from the story.

****5 star review for the Advanced Readers E Copy of The Fury by Alex Michaelides


"The Fury" by Alex Michaelides is an exceptional psychological thriller that grips readers from the very first page and never lets go. In this masterfully crafted narrative, Michaelides explores the intricate web of the human mind, blurring the lines between sanity and madness, reality and illusion.

The story unfolds with a hypnotic allure, drawing readers into a world where nothing is as it seems. Michaelides' writing is a symphony of suspense, expertly orchestrating tension and intrigue as the characters grapple with their own demons. The plot is a labyrinth of twists and turns, keeping readers on the edge of their seats, guessing until the final revelatory moment.

One of the novel's standout features is the author's ability to delve into the depths of the psyche, creating characters that are both enigmatic and profoundly human. The protagonist's journey is a psychological rollercoaster, and Michaelides navigates the complexities of trauma and the fragility of the mind with a delicate touch.

The pacing is impeccable, maintaining a relentless momentum that propels the narrative forward. Each chapter is a puzzle piece that adds layers to the overarching mystery, ensuring that the reader is completely engrossed in the unfolding drama. The atmospheric setting enhances the sense of foreboding, creating a palpable tension that permeates every page.

"The Fury" not only delivers a gripping plot but also explores profound themes of identity, redemption, and the consequences of past actions. Michaelides' prose is sharp, evocative, and filled with a sense of urgency that keeps the reader captivated. The novel's conclusion is a satisfying culmination of the intricate narrative threads, providing a resolution that is both unexpected and deeply resonant.

In summary, "The Fury" is a tour de force in the psychological thriller genre. Alex Michaelides has crafted a masterpiece that transcends the conventions of the genre, delivering a five-star experience for readers seeking a riveting, thought-provoking, and utterly compelling story.