This story emerged you in it. I felt like I was on a rainy island in Greece. The whodunit was well done, and I loved the narrator. However, it didn’t give the same insane twisty psychological thriller vibes that I was hoping for after loving The Silent Patient. 3.5 stars rounded up to 4

Lana Farrar is a former movie star who invites several friends to her Greek island for a holiday. The narrator is Elliot Chase, a friend of Lana’s who struggled for years to become a playwright before finding success. Lana and her teenage son are decent characters, but every other character is selfish and horrible.

I didn’t love the storytelling technique. There were twists and turns but because I hated everyone, I didn’t particularly care what happened to any of them.

NetGalley provided an advance copy of this novel, which RELEASES JANUARY 16, 2024.

I absolutely loved The Silent Patient so I was very excited to be approved for the e-arc of this one!

I loved the narration. It was so fun and unique. The twists just kept on coming as we made our way through the story. This was a quick, fun read and I would definitely recommend!

I very much struggle with an unreliable narrator. This mystery is *messy* and we jump all over the place. There’s a murder, but let’s go back to childhood. Back to the murder. Nope now let’s talk about someone else’s childhood. Not my favorite.

Another hit for Alex Michaelides. I quite enjoyed The Fury. It started off a bit too slowly though for my tastes but when it picked up, IT PICKED UP. Furiously ;). The narrator addresses the reader so if you aren’t into that type of story, I’d skip. The book is full of Greek tragedy, drama, and twists! My only gripe was the slowness to start and the fact that I really didn’t “like” any of the characters. But the storyline was excellent and I couldn’t wait to read the ending. 3.5/5 ⭐️ Thank you, Alex Michaelides, Celadon Books, and netgalley for my eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Pull up a chair and settle in with a drink!

I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Fury by Alex Michaelides. It was a really great and quick read with a great twist at the end. I enjoyed the characters - especially Elliot Chase and Lana Farrar. Elliot narrates the story and I LOVED IT! It was fun and smart and I felt like he was telling me the story of what happened that Easter weekend.

The Fury is my third read from Michaelides and probably my favorite! I really enjoyed how he incorporated characters from his previous book in this novel.

The Fury is full of secrets, drama, betrayal, obsession, and twists. It’s definitely a must read! I give it 4 stars!

Thank you Celadon Books, NetGalley and Alex Michaelides for an eARC in return for my honest review!

I have heard excellent things about The Silent Patient, so I was excited to read this ARC, but I barely got through the prologue when I DNF’d this.

It’s partially my fault, as I hate when the book addresses the reader. I dislike the tone and the over-dramatacism- of course it is a story about actors

"If anything, it's a #whydunit - a character study, an examination of who we are; and why we do the things we do."

When I heard that Alex Michaelides was writing a new book I was beyond excited. With this being a tad different from his other books, I was a bit skeptical and put off reading this for awhile but BOY am I glad I finally sat down and started it.

The book follows Elliot Chase who is... an interesting character. You ever have one of those narrators who you love but also can't figure out why you hate him at the same time? ya thats Elliot. The premise of this book is that he is telling the story of what happened on that fateful day on the island, somehow from all points of view. He seems to know everything that happened and somehow knows everyones thoughts, crazy right? Well, just wait because it gets better. The narration of this story and having it be written like a journal/play makes it so much more engaging. The flashbacks to his childhood, the secret things that he adds in hoping you would catch them, they are all so perfectly timed and you would think that you know what is going on, but jokes on you because you will never know whats going on but that seems to be the point. The island being haunted, Lana "needing" this trip, Leo wanting to go to acting school, Barbara West, the marriage, the ring, they all seem so separate but they are all so tied together and you don't know it until the very end. Now, speaking of the end... I have read the last chapter of this book probably about 10x now trying to understand what I missed but I've come to realize that I didn't miss anything. That's how Elliot wanted it to end, that is the cliffhanger, that is the last piece of the puzzle. But I just have one thought/concern/question..... Alex... please don't tell me this is how you're going to end this book. please. I beg of you to tell us there will be another. I will think about this ending until the day I die, and I really wish I was being dramatic... but just you wait and see.

*Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC. All opinions are my own.*

Alex Michaelides did it again! A artistic story of murder, love, and betrayal that had me hooked all day as I read it. I love that he wove Theo and Mariana in this *insert Leo Dicaprio meme of him pointing to screen*. I will definitely be recommending this to my friends and book club!

5 Stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Celadon Books for sending me an advanced copy of this book!
Another banger by King Alex, he slayed yet another thriller novel with amazing psychology and Greek mythology lore with an absolutely WILD plot twist. Although in comparison to Alex's other novels this one would be at the bottom of the list, but I loved it a lot. A great way to start off my 2024 reading journey!

🎭🏝️🇬🇷🍃📝🔫

When I first heard about <i>The Fury</i> I was ecstatic—murder on a private Greek island by the author of <i>The Silent Patient</i> and <i>The Maidens</i>? Say. Less.

Much to my dismay though, it fell flat overall. The writing is exquisite, every bit on par with that of Michaelides’ former novels. And the story is intriguing—a classic (or maybe not?) whodunnit with a glamorous, yet troubled cast. It also deserves credit for the unique way in which the story is told directly to the reader by the narrator, as if we are sitting on a barstool and sharing a drink beside him.

But that is where the accolades end for me. I didn’t really enjoy the pace, nor did I care for the way the story would advance, then rewind and insert more information. I also disliked the narrator immensely, and while I believe that reaction is intentional by Michaelides, it made it hard for me to connect. Lastly, the ending felt rushed. I wasn’t invested in the plot until about 65-70%, but then just was I became hooked, everything abruptly wrapped up.

It wasn’t a bad book though, which is why I feel bad going on the negatives. 3/5 seems fair, as the plot is intriguing, the characters have depth, and the writing is superb. Other readers may connect more than I did, so I still think it’s a good story worth reading for fans of the genre/author.
3/5
⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thanks to Celadon and NetGalley for this ARC!

I feel bad that this author's first novel was the Silent Patient, as he's had big shoes to fill since. Sadly, this wasn't on the same level as that one was for me.

Elliott is telling the reader's a story of a murder, who was murdered, you don't know for sure, but you can assume it's one of the other main characters in the story. Elliott tells the story from almost a second person POV, addressing you, as the reader often, and is very much an unreliable narrator, admitting to his biases and his leaving things out. Elliott promises a story with lots of twists, unfortunately, all that fell flat for me.

The format of the novel is a Greek tragedy in 5 acts, Elliott often referencing the theater. I felt like the author tried hard to make the story deeper and mean more than it was.

I very much thank NetGally and the publisher for the opportunity to read this novel early! Overall, it was a pretty basic murder mystery and nothing special. I finished it, hence the 3 stars, but was not blown away.

The Fury is one that I was so incredibly excited to read! I loved Alex Michaelides' previous books and couldn't wait to dive in.

The Fury is a story within a story. Our narrator talks directly to us and we hear the story through his eyes. He lets us know that he will be as objective as possible and tells us here and there when he knows he has a bias. But can we really trust that he's a reliable narrator? You be the judge!

The Fury is about a group of friends (or are they enemies?) who spend a weekend away on a private island. Each of them has different intentions for their stay, and it's safe to say that things don't go as planned.

The Fury does a good job building suspense. Just when you think you know what's going on, things get shaken up. Michaelides manages to keep us on our toes throughout this entire read. While I didn't enjoy it as much as his debut novel, I did really enjoy this one!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of this book.

Overall, I rate this a 4.5/5, rounded up to a 5. Congratulations!

I would like to start this review by saying I love Alex Michaelides. I was a huge fan of The Maidens (4 stars for me) and The Silent Patient (5 stars for me). The problem I had with The Fury was the narrator, Elliott. I had such a hard time getting through this because Elliott was God awful and so boring. I just really wanted to hear about the murder and I liked the Glass Onion vibes. I wanted to keep going with that. While The Silent Patient was really fast paced and thrilling, this one definitely lacked in that area.

If you don’t mind a slow burn, this one is for you.

I really enjoyed The Silent Patient so I am bummed this one did not work for me at all. I really did not like the narration style, seemingly inspired by Stevenson's 'Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone,' where the narrator is talking directly to us, his audience. Where Stevenson excels, this book did not do it well. Elliot was obnoxious, and I did not enjoy any of the supporting characters. I don't ask for much from thrillers other than to be shocked, and this one did not shock. Instead, this books really focuses more on the why instead of who, and all of the characters were surface-level and had no defining qualities to differ them from one another. If this book was any longer, it probably would have been a DNF. I am all for suspending belief when reading this genre, but any deeper inspection and the book fails at what it is trying to do. The plot is fragmented, and discombobulated. The narrator overhypes the events that transpire. I would recommend this book only to those new to the genre and who don't read often.

Thank you to Celadon and Netgalley for the e-ARC!

This book reads almost like a fever dream. An ex-movie star, her husband, son, and small group of close friends are vacationing on a remote, isolated privately owned Greek island. The opening pages jump right into action and reveal a murder that has just occurred on a stormy night. However, the reader is unaware of WHO the victim is from the small party of guests or who committed the act.

From there, readers are introduced to each guest through the first person narrator, Elliot; he was on the island when the murder occurred and is a friend of Lana, the ex-movie star. His unique perspective and own internal biases regarding each of the other characters were brilliantly portrayed by the author. Readers are provided glimpses into each guests' lives in the weeks leading up to the vacation. How each character intersects and acts with the others is what truly weaves the story together. By the time the reader is brought back to the island action, I was completely unsure of who might be dead and or might be the perpetrator. While the cast of characters were long-term friends and loved one another, they were each uniquely flawed with their own secrets, lies, darkness, jealousies, and insecurities. As the story progressed I found myself completely immersed in this small microcosm of 'life' and had to see the ending.

Michaelides is the master craftsman of shocking twists and unreliable narrators and he has once again delivered! The last 30% of this book I felt shock after shock and wasn't sure where the story was going to land, even into the epilogue! I think mystery and thriller readers who enjoy complex and flawed characters will love this read.

The narration was performed by Alex Jennings, a renowned actor with the Royal Shakespeare Company, and his brilliant performance made me feel as if just he and I were sitting by the fire, sipping a cocktail while sharing secrets. His story-telling was intimate, candid, and he embodied Elliot's role perfectly. I strongly recommend listening to the audiobook.

Thank you to NetGalley, Celadon books and MacMillan Audio for my advanced copies in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an arc!
3.5 stars

I’m a fan of The Silent Patient and Maidens, (they were both 5 star reads for me) so I was really excited to get an arc of The Fury!

Elliot Chase is one of Lana Farrar’s close friends. Lana is a beautiful actress who everyone adores, including Elliot. When Lana invites her group to her private, reclusive Greek island, everyone says yes, having no clue what drama is about to unfold.

As secrets are revealed and people are tested, the members on the island find their lives in danger. Is it a novel about murder? Love? Both? Neither? The reader will have to decide for themselves.

At times, this book did remind me of the Great Gatsby. There were multiple people that had similar traits as Daisy, Tom, Jordan and Myrtle, and a Gatsby wannabe who really is more like Nick. I also felt like there was a theme of “look how awful, selfish and careless rich people can be.” For some reason the characters being stuck on the island reminded me of the scene in Gatsby where tensions are high and everyone is at the hotel to get away from the heat of the city.

In true Alex Michaelides form, the reader really will not know what to expect and won’t be able to guess what’s going to happen. Unfortunately, in this case I felt like I was having whiplash. Instead of being wowed by twists or revelations like I have been with the author’s past two books, with this book I was just always unsure what was actually happening.

I do appreciate how the author makes subtle connections to his other novels, and I thought that Elliot was an interesting and complex character. There were some surprises that I enjoyed and some that I hated.

Even though I didn’t like this book as much as the Silent Patient or Maidens, it was still an interesting read. I had arcs of this book as both e-book and audiobook, and I thought the narrator did a great job as Elliot. It was a little frustrating that the e-book and audiobook weren’t exactly the same. (Minor differences: some sentences would be phrased differently between the two formats, still holding the same meaning but just kind of irritating)

I did enjoy how the book was kind of set up to pretend you’re at a bar listening to Elliot’s story. I could definitely see this becoming a movie.

Overall I gave this book 3.5 stars because it was interesting and a quick read for me, and I still enjoyed the book despite the fact that I didn’t love it.

The Silent Patient was so good. So so good.. In fact, maybe I will read it again to remember how good it was. When I read Michaeldies’ next novel, The Maidens, I hated it. HATED. I didn’t understand how they could have been written by the same author. Unfortunately, I found The Fury somewhere in the middle, but closer to The Maidens. It’s a lot of fluff to get to the point and then….was the point really that great anyway? I was in for the first part. I liked the narration and could believe the suspense he was selling, constantly saying that the big news was coming. But then by the second part, I started to get bored. I had assumed it was going to be a murder story where the characters were dying one by one. But that was not the case. And even if they had been, I don’t know that I would’ve cared much because every single one was horribly unlikable.

I finished this book yesterday but I just had to go back and reread the ending to remember what all of the fuss was about. And….ok? Maybe the quick reference to The Silent Patient is supposed to be the jaw dropping moment?

I’m sure this will work for some, but Michaelides is no longer a must-read author for me.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

2.5 stars rounded up

I was a huge fan of both The Silent Patient and The Maidens so this was a VERY anticipated read for me.

I will say, this is my least favorite of the three. The big reveal and twist didn’t get me like the previous two books did.

However, I did read through it very quickly, and I enjoyed the unique storytelling approach. It was like the narrator was talking to me, and telling me the story directly. However, that being said, I’m not sure of the narrator would know some of the things he did, as he wasn’t present for them. Unless he is speaking from what he was told after the fact.

I give this one ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 (3.5) stars.

If you need likable characters, this is not the book for you, but I don’t mind reading about a book full of terrible rich people and watching their demise unfold.

The setting sounded beautiful, and I really want to go to Greece. Just maybe not on a doomed island with murder.

“There were seven of us in all, trapped on the island. One of us was a murderer.”

When Lana Farrar invites her two friends along to spend Easter weekend on the Greek island “Aura”, gifted to her by her late first husband, none of them could have predicted that it would end in murder. Lana, Elliot, Kate, Lana’s current husband Jason, and Lana’s son Leo are a cast all their own as the events unfold with twists and turns abound.

Elliot invites you to sit down with him at the bar, and in exchange for you listening to his story, he’ll buy you a few drinks. But each time he pauses to buy you another, your head spins with new revelations until you can hardly stand it.

This was a very unique take on the unreliable narrator as “you” are a part of the story, with Elliot addressing you directly. While this new novel is extremely different from Alex Michaelides’ other works, "The Maidens" and "The Silent Patient", it was a fresh direction for him to go in, and I would say that he did so fearlessly, and it has paid off.

Elliot is a playwright but has only had one successful play. Lana is a former Hollywood actress who retired after the death of her first husband to take care of their son, but she is needing more from life, and this weekend getaway is the stepping stone for her. Leo is 17 and dreams of following in his mother's footsteps and becoming an actor in Hollywood, but she doesn’t want him to. Kate is an alcoholic actress who is struggling with her career, all while trying to persuade Jason to leave Lana because their love affair that’s been carrying proves that they’re meant to be together. Jason’s business world is crumbling after making a few too many bad business deals, and now he’s trying to keep the law from his heels by using Lana’s money to do so, as that is the only thing he will truly ever love; money. Island caretaker Nikos has been madly in love with Lana from the first time he saw her and has been waiting for her to notice him all these years. Agathi, who is highly superstitious, is Lana’s assistant/cook/housekeeper, who is strictly loyal to her and only her. Nothing can break that bond.

While being in the “thriller” book genre, to me, it doesn’t fit there completely. Elliot tells you who the victim is going to be and that it will all go down from midnight to dawn, but being the unreliable narrator, he omits parts of the story so that he can manipulate it to fit his vision. He’s at least honest about all of this that the characters will be playing the roles that he has deemed them to play. That’s really what makes this book special and veers it more toward psychological thriller with a manipulative, unreliable narrator.

By him telling the story in this way, it’s almost as if the reader has become inducted into their friend group. What you’re seeing at first may seem face-value, but as you learn the intricacies of the group, you will grow to understand their motivations. And as Elliot says, it is like writing characters in a book or play. But there’s a lot of Elliot’s character that is left unknown to us, like the narcissist writer, Barbara, who he most likely killed after having lived/dated her for years. Or the year he, or “The Kid” as he refers to that version of himself, spent on the street doing horrible things to survive. The story he wants to spin isn’t the true version at all, and like with almost all of Michaelides’ characters; you’re left with questions that will bother you long after you put the book down.

Before reading "The Fury," I highly recommend reading his other two books, "The Silent Patient" and "The Maidens," since there are few character cameos. If Michaelides is just creating one big, crazy thriller universe, I’m here for it.

Thank you to Celadon Books for allowing me to be an early reader of this highly anticipated thriller novel. All opinions expressed in this review are my own. "The Fury" is scheduled to be released on January 16, 2024.