The Fury was the most delectable read that offered similar vibes to Knives Out: Glass Onion and the TV show, White Lotus. I am a sucker for a book told from an unreliable narrator’s POV, especially a vain one like Elliott Chase. Elliot’s mannerisms from the start made him a likeable character that, at the same time, made you wary of his motives. He was only ever going to share details that interested him and/or shed the best light on his story.

I think a lot of people may get frustrated with the non-linear storytelling, but in my opinion, that made the storytelling more realistic. Who recalls a story that they lived from start to finish without jumping around a little? I believe it fully added to the suspense and allowed the plot to be entirely character driven.

I thoroughly enjoyed the twists and turns of this book and found the ending mostly satisfying. I would definitely recommend picking up a copy of this book!

*Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of The Fury. All thoughts and opinions shared herein are my own.*

While the writing style is very different from The Silent Patient (the first Michaelides book I read), the overall cat and mouse feel of this murder mystery psychological thriller is what I’ve come to expect from this author. It was an interesting read with lots of plot twists at the end.

Elliot Chase, your narrator, is incredibly unreliable. This story was told in a meandering fashion, jumping through time and going on tangents. Elliot dangles many, many carrots in front of the reader and because of that, the ultimate outcome of the plot didn’t come as a surprise to me but I was intrigued to see how we arrived there.

I have ADHD and to be honest, the pacing of the story left me struggling at the beginning but I powered through after reading other reviews that there would be lots of twists and exposition towards the end of the book and those reviews were right! Now that I’ve reached the end, it’s a fun read overall and I look forward to reading more of Alex Michaelides’s work.

Thank you, NetGalley, Alex Michaelides, and Celadon Books for allowing me to read an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I was SUPER EXCITED to read this book because I LOVED The Silent Patient. The book moved fast and just when you think you figured it out, you’ve realized you have not. Good book but would not recommend to a friend.

Whoa. This was a deep, dark story. Really, really dark. It was entertaining & filled with more twists than anything I’ve previously read. I enjoyed it & found it hard to put down. I have to say it’s no Silent Patient (that story was perfection) but it’s a consuming, entertaining read for sure!!

I would definitely recommend The Fury. I have enjoyed the author's other two books and this one was no different. I really like the style of narration and think it added to the story's twist and turns. Unlike Michaelides' other books there were far more characters in this storyline, but, they were so well developed you could easily keep them all apart. I believe my favorite aspect of the book was how thoroughly the island was described. I feel like I have visited Greece and saw the place myself. Check this one out!

The thing I loved the most about this is how the story was told. We have an admittedly unreliable narrator who leaves out important information as he tells us about the events that unfolded on a private Greek island. He tells the same story a few times, and each time he interjects some more of the truth and some backstory as to how they all ended up on the island.

I found the narrator very interesting, and I enjoyed being in his head and hearing his thoughts. There is a lot of character analysis since he loves to analyze why people might do the things that they do. I liked the psychology of it, and I found both the narrator's voice and the plot very engaging.

Thanks to Netgalley and Celadon Books for providing me with an early copy in exchange for a review!

Thanks to the publisher for early access to this book in exchange for a review. This was a slow burn thriller written by one of the great authors of the genre. I enjoyed it much better than The Maidens, and it is full of twists. The narrative structure is fascinating and I could not put this down. This will be a must-read in 2024!

"The Fury" by Alex Michaelides presents a suspenseful narrative that explores themes of friendship, fame, and hidden vendettas against the backdrop of a private Greek island.

The author adeptly crafts a sense of unease and entrapment, leading to a compelling psychological drama. However, while the premise is intriguing and the storytelling is unconventional, the execution may leave some readers wanting more depth in character development and a more cohesive resolution.

The novel's exploration of loyalty and deception retains some compelling elements, but the overall impact may not fully meet the expectations of all thriller enthusiasts.

You are going to want to add this one to your TBR for 2024. Alex Michaelides is back with a fast paced thriller that will keep you guessing until the end. Elliot Chase has a story to tell...but what is true and what is not will be woven throughout. Although not as amazing as the The Silent Patient, this was definitely a step up from The Maidens. Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for this ARC in exchange for a honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Unique. Intriguing. Telling.

When film star, Lana, and her husband Jason, invite a handful of friends to their island in Greece it should be a relaxing getaway. The reader soon comes to know that many of the invited have ulterior and sinister motives. All this is proven when one of the six turns up dead…

The story is structured as a five act play, with an incredibly unlikable and unreliable narrator. The main and supporting characters are of the usual sorts: rich, demanding, entitled, insincere, and mostly unlikable. The story is slow going to start, but the narrator has a certain way of encouraging you to keep reading.

I wouldn’t consider The Fury to be a gripping thriller, it’s more a slow burn of an unfolding of events that is heavily character/narrator driven. Keeping that in mind I feel like the story was extremely well done, and was quite unique.

This book is such a page turner and keeps you on your toes until very end. Just when you think you know what happens, here comes another twist. Well done Michaelides.

Alex Michaelides’ first two books were both hits for me, so I was highly anticipating the release of The Fury!


The Fury centers around ex-movie star Lana Farrar who invites her family and famous friends on a spontaneous trip to her Greek island over Easter. Their trip is upended by murder, but this isn’t a whodunit, and might not be a story of murder. Maybe it’s more of a love story? Told to us by her friend Elliot Chase, he tells us the tale of his friendship with Lana and the events around this trip, spinning twists and turns along the way.

This book hooked me really early on. I’d heard other reviewers saying they couldn’t get into Elliot’s perspective, but I actually liked the way he tells this story. He is a bit unreliable, and you’ll get that feeling early that you aren’t getting the whole truth up front. I liked that we got some of his backstory as well, as I felt that added to why he is the way he is. I really enjoyed learning about the other characters too, especially loved Leo, Lana’s son. I thought the story was well plotted and paced I enjoyed most of the twists too.

My only reason for knocking one star is that there is a twist that comes about 90% of the way through the book, which I didn’t love. After that twist though, I felt like the story redeemed itself. Love the mention of Theo too.

Overall, I would recommend The Fury. It kept me on my toes and curious as to what was next!

Thank you to Netgalley and Celadon Books for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: 1/16/24

What can go wrong when you get together a bunch of movie and theater stars on a secluded island in Greece? Apparently quite a lot. 😅 In The Fury, you get an intimate, (and very biased) telling of the tale from playwright Elliot, best friend of Lana - the owner of the island. But as events unfold, you wonder if you can trust anyone in the “cast”…especially the narrator.

I wanted to love this novel. AM has never missed with me - The Silent Patient was a top read for me a couple of years ago, and I devoured The Maidens. It can’t be argued that this author knows how to craft a setting, and in The Fury, Michaelides accomplished the tricky task of making the setting, specifically the wind on the island, a main character itself.

Let’s dive right in: I really, really liked our narrator…as a character. As was said in the text, people either thought he was charming or irritating, and I am definitely the former. I loved the cheeky way Elliot would interrupt a scene to give the audience another tidbit of knowledge or opinion. I loved that he told the story as though we were sharing a drink, bellied up at the bar. But, the twists he revealed in this novel were a miss for me. While I understand Elliot is a writer who wants to make slow reveals, it felt manipulative in a not fun way. By the end, I was assuming everything was BS, and it made me ultimately care less about what happened.

The constant backpedaling in the timeline made the novel slow down and made me lose interest.

I felt that the drama was foreshadowed so much, that the result fell flat. Oh…just another affair novel about liars we haven’t had enough time to truly get invested in…

In the end, and here is my spoiler, when Elliot was to be murdered, but lived because the gun had blanks, I had to roll my eyes…Someone shot in the head at such close range would die either way from the impact of the blow. Huge plot miss.

I was also surprised that AM chose to disclose a MASSIVE spoiler for The Silent Patient in the epilogue, as well.

I’ll always be a Michaelides fan, but this was my least favorite of his. 2.5 stars rounded up, because I will be first in line for his next one, regardless of my experience with The Fury.

Thank you very much to Netgalley and Celadon Books for my free ARC in exchange for my honest review!

3 stars
Well that was a lot to unpack... I can tell there was a LOT of thought that went into writing this book as it was incredibly complex and multifaceted. My biggest complaint is that because of its complexity, I found it hard to follow. I constantly didn't know if whatever was happening was real, if that person was truly dead or alive, or if we had gone back/forward in time. I think there was a great premise here & I think it had the potential to be a great story, but I found it too jumbled/difficult to keep up with. I felt like I needed to make notes in order to remember everything & pleasure reading shouldn't be like that. Even with thrillers, I prefer them to be easy to follow & not need to concentrate super hard in order to understand what is happening. With this book, I had to constantly remind myself what had just happened & I found the reading/comprehension of it to be stressful. I also wanted to DNF up until about 30% in, so it was very much a slow burn for me. Loved the Easter eggs from Michaelides' other books, that was fun!
Overall, a story with potential, but quite confusing with so much going on!!
*Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for allowing me to give this book a read ahead of its January publication*

I love a book that catches my attention right from the beginning, also who doesn’t love an unpredictable narrator? When you settle down at that figurative bar seat to hear this story of a famous actress caught up in a real life drama and how it will unfold, you think…. How could he know what people think? Don’t we all fill in the gaps of a story with our own narrative at times? So it seems plausible.
I have loved the littered Greek mythology throughout the book. The explanations are fabulous and relatable so that if you aren’t familiar you don’t have to do any quick google searching.

After reading The Silent Patient and The Maidens, I have been patiently waiting for Alex Michaeles' next book and it's finally here! Thank you to @celadonbooks for sending me an advanced copy of the book.

I loved the writing style that this book had. It was very much theatrical but also very much like a conversation you would have with a friend, one that is telling you about something that happened in their POV. I also enjoyed how each of the characters was introduced and had a back story on how they met before they all met up on the island. The things mentioned stay in your head, wondering if they are the killer or the one person that was murdered.

As you get more and more into the book, you start to understand the fact that everyone one this island has secrets that not everyone knows about. It's in a way that you feel like you're reading someone's journal or letter to you (Elliot states that he writes things down.) It almost made it seem more personal and that this work was meant for me to read it. Such an interesting way to tell a story.

The Fury comes out January 2024!

Memorable Moments:
- Kate and Jason meeting up while he was practicing his shooting
- Finding out who was murder and, later on, who is the murderer
- The crescent moon earring
- The real reason for the Greece trip
- How Elliot and Lana met

The Fury is a very unique mystery that I never could have unraveled on my own. Get ready for the most unreliable narrator & unlikeable characters if you dive into this one. It’s a private island mystery like no other. The writing style is very different. It switches between 1st and 3rd constantly, but for good reason. Very slow burn thriller that leads into a shocking finale.

Quick intro:
Lana Farrar and her friends are spending Easter weekend on her private Greek island, but their time together is upended by a murder. Who is dead and who murdered them?

Quick thoughts:
I want to start off by saying that The Silent Patient is one of my favorite books of all time, so I probably have ridiculously high standards for anything Alex Michaelides’ writes.

In theory…I liked the structure of the story (like a play) and I liked that the narrator broke the fourth wall and spoke directly to the reader. I love an unreliable narrator. The first few chapters gave strong Agatha Christie vibes - murder on an island, limited number of suspects, who is dead, who dunnit, why?

But it just didn’t grab me. I found myself getting distracted often, putting the book down, and picking my phone up. And usually that’s not a good sign. It felt like there was just SO much set-up and background our narrator wanted to get through before the action, and once things really started to happen I was just tired. This has to be one of the slowest paced thrillers I’ve read.

There were some parts that were extremely heartbreaking and compelling and A+ writing. And also a couple twists that had me gasping, so that was fun. But overall, I just felt very meh about it and I’m so bummed. I wanted to love it more, but it was pretty middle of the road.

A big thank you to NetGalley and Celadon Books for granting me an ARC of this in exchange for my honest thoughts.

I wasn’t sure how I would feel about this book. I had liked The Silent Patient (like not hardcore love), but was not a fan of The Maidens. To say I went into this with low expectations would be accurate.
Holy smokes did Michaelides blow it out of the water with this one. All the twists and turns of betrayal, loss, love and friendship. An unreliable narrator and a mix of players that kept me guessing. If you weren’t sure about this author give him a chance with this book.

I received the digital ARC in exchange for my honest opinion. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

⭐3/5

➡For former Hollywood darling and retired actress Lana Farrar, there are few places that bring her back to life like Aura, the private Greek island gifted to her by her first husband at the height of their marriage. Every year, when she tires of London's gloom and rain, she escapes to the island with a few of her closest friends and family members for a few days of rest and relaxation.

But this trip will be different. This trip, seven people will venture to Aura but one won't be making the return trip.
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🙏 Thank you to NetGalley, Celadon Books and the author for an advanced copy of The Fury. All opinions are my own.
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🎯 What I loved: The Fury was written in the second person POV which I found unique for a thriller. I found the narrator, Elliot, snarky and was immediately drawn in by his bold and dramatic account of the murder that occurred on Aura (the island where the story took place). Like The Silent Patient, The Fury has a rich cast of characters who all had something to hide, a somewhat unreliable narrator and twists and turns that will give you whiplash. Though I didn't feel like the conclusion's shock value was nearly at the level of The Silent Patient, I was intrigued enough by the premise & plot to make it to the end and think this would make a great book club pick! With lots to pull apart and decipher, it's a great story to read alongside a friend or group.

🙅‍♀️ What I didn't: Despite being intrigued by the unique structure of the book, I found my annoyance with Elliot and his tendencies to go back and change his narratives distracting and was frustrated for most of this read. Though I think any book that can illicit strong feelings is worth talking about and I'm always intrigued by an unlikeable protagonist, I can't say I was a huge fan of the share and recant nature of The Fury. I was slightly underwhelmed by the story and while I'm still a Michaelides enthusiast, this one won't get top billing from me.
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Read if you love:
*murder mysteries where you have to figure out the victim
*unreliable narrators
*2nd person POV
*vivid settings (Grecian island)
*layered whodunnits
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See also: Rock Paper Scissors, The Villa, One of the Girls