A group of friends marooned on an island, with long-held secrets and resentments; a murderer among them. Blending themes of locked room thriller, whodunnit mystery, with an epic love story, The Fury takes readers on a journey to the Greek isles, from the perspective of an unreliable narrator.

I wanted to love this one more than I did, but in the end it was just ok for me. Unfortunately I struggled to become invested. It took me four tries, and I finally was able to finish on my fourth try (though I may have skimmed a bit).

While this may not be my favorite by Michaelides, I still appreciate it for its creativity and skilled writing (hence the three star). The author certainly has a way with words. I think this will be a huge hit for a certain type of reader - unfortunately that just wasn't me this time. 💗 That said, I'll most certainly pick up his next, and the next after that.

I listened to this book rather quickly and finished within 24 hours. That bumped my star rating from a 3 to a 4 because I love a fast read and it did hold my attention pretty well. I did find it a little hard to decipher when it was fake and when it was reality from the narrators perspective. The ending was also something I had not guessed which I do enjoy in a suspense novel. .

I was so excited to read this one after seeing such rave reviews! While I did see a few misses as well, I’m happy to report that I loved this one!! After being an immediate fan from The Silent Patient, I was a bit hesitant after not loving the Maidens but Michaelies is back and I cannot wait to read more from him!

I absolutely relished in his writing style for this murder mystery and his short chapters had me absolutely flying through this one! I loved how it was continuously evolving and nothing was ever what it seemed! Just when you think you know where this one was heading, BAM, Michaelides delivers curveball after curveball and I had to ultimately give up on even guessing where I thought it was heading and just enjoyed the thrilling ride!!

It starts off a bit slow while the characters are being introduced and the plot is being set up but i promise it all comes together with an action packed ending! Elliott was a fantastic unreliable narrator and I enjoyed Michaelides general prose with this one!!

Bonus points for the gasp and clap at the end for the Easter egg 👏

Disclaimer! Read this one over audio, I’ve heard a lot have gotten confused with the audio and I’m so glad I chose to physically read this one! It will certainly blow you away! 😉 #IYKYK

I had high hopes for the The Fury by Alex Michaelides after the hype of the author’s The Silent Patient. While I personally didn’t love The Silent Patient, the book was rated one of the best thrillers in 2019.
The Fury centers around an ex-movie star and several of her friends as they vacation on a private Greek Island.

We are told in a first-person narrative that there is a murder that takes place on the island. The book is a essentially a whodunit as we learn more about the characters and their motivations.

Ultimately, I didn’t care about any of the characters. The story was slow. The mystery a bit far-fetched and the ending wasn’t satisfying. Maybe someone saw something in the book that I didn’t, but it was a bit of a disappointment.

If you are listening to the audiobook, I highly recommend increasing the speed of the narration. The narrator reads the book at a slow pace with a monotone voice.

This was a very twisty story, full of drama and lies. All of the characters were unlikable, and for books like this, I think a cast of unlikable characters is perfect. The story is told by a very unreliable narrator. I really liked how the story was told; the narrator, ElLiot, is telling the story directly to you. He breaks the fourth wall to talk to you and make comments here and there. I listened to the audiobook, and the narrator of the audiobook fits well as the character/story narrator, Elliot. I thought it was done very well. The first 80% of this book had me completely enthralled, but towards the end, when it felt like twist and twist, it lost me a bit. The ending definitely wasn’t completely predictable from the beginning, but as the story went on, I was able to piece a lot of it together, so I wasn’t surprised by the ending.
This was my first Alex Michaelides book; it definitely won’t be my last. I really liked the writing and the story-building.

Overall, this was a fast read, and I really liked it. I would definitely recommend it for lovers of thrillers or mysteries. It was definitely more suspenseful than a thriller, so if you're looking for a milder thriller, this would be great for you!

Thank you, McMillan Audio, for this gifted copy in exchange for my honest review.

I love when a suspenseful thriller is told by an unreliable narrator and this one is very well done. I enjoyed the idyllic Greek island setting, perfect for a murder mystery, and the characters were all interesting in their own way. With just the right amount of distraction and an unforeseen twist at the end this audiobook, narrated by Alex Jennings, was a fun way to spend an afternoon while organizing my library.

6 people on a Greek Island..only 5 will survive

This story has everything you want; the rich and famous, gorgeous Greek private islands, and of course a murder. Elliot Chase is our narrator throughout this story and you are not sure if you can trust him or not; I thought he added a quirky sarcastic edge to the story. We follow him and his famous friends as they relax on a Greek island. The relaxing is short lived till one of the six guests is found dead. Who is the murderer? You will have to find out in this trapped island mystery.

Wow. Have you ever finished a book and thought “Can I read this again?” That was this book for me. This book took me for a ride. I have read all of Alex Michaelides novels and this was his best one by far. I could not put this down, I read the bulk of it in one day. There were a few twists and turns in this book that I didn’t see coming and was genuinely shocked about. A few times I said out loud “Elliot, I don’t trust you mate.” This is an easy 5 star for me, I liked everything about it and I would highly recommend.

Thank you Netgalley, Macmillan Audio and Celadon Books for for providing me an advance copy of this audio to review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for providing this audiobook advanced copy for review!

I had an enjoyable time with this book. It is extremely well written and the narration was great. I found the story interesting, and I was engaged and intrigued to see where it was going, but I wasn't completely riveted.

On the positive, the book was really giving me Glass Onion vibes. It centered around all of these rich people alone on an island, and then there's a murder, and the story unfolds in twists and turns. I really enjoyed that aspect of it!

I’m not sure why this book didn’t totally work for me. Maybe there were just one too many twists or perhaps the tone just didn’t quite work for me.

However, if you are into suspenseful mystery reads, or you liked The Silent Patient, I think this book is worth checking out! It didn’t entirely work for me, but I still enjoyed the ride.

I was so excited to get this audio from @macmillan.audio @netgalley and @alex.michaelides . From the first moments of the book, I was drawn in and couldn’t wait to figure it out. Similar to The Silent Patient, The Fury keeps the twists coming until the very end in believable, while still shocking, ways. I highly recommend this for your next thriller or mystery. This takes the whodunnit theme and gives it some psychological elevation and twists. Words I’d use for this one are fun, frightening, intriguing, mysterious.

Thank you so much to @netgalley @celadonbooks @macmillan.audio for the ARC/ALC of The Fury! Big thanks to Celadon for the gifted book and amazing promo book!

🧿 𝙈𝙮 𝙏𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙩𝙨 🧿
I switched off reading and listening to the audiobook of The Fury! I don’t read a lot of books with unreliable narrators, so it’s hard to know what to think of them. They are simultaneously interesting and annoying. They are taking you through the story through their eyes, even when they are describing someone else’s point of view.

Our narrator is Elliott, and he seemed somewhat shady from the beginning but I was never sure how shady he could be. Suspicion is thrown nearly on every character in this book at some point. Rightfully so, because there was a murder to solve!

This cast of characters is alone on a private Greek island, where a murder takes place. There’s a famous movie star, Lana, her family, friends and the staff. Timelines are all over the place. Just be prepared to whip your head back and forth on this one a bit! It definitely takes you on a wild ride!

🎧 𝙉𝙖𝙧𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 🎧
Alex Jennings does a great job narrating the character of Elliott. I don’t think I could have imagined him in any other way. He was easy to understand and I could speed up my narration easily and still understand him. He definitely kept the tone of the character mysterious, intriguing, and believable as a solid character.

🧿 𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙗𝙤𝙤𝙠 𝙞𝙛 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚:
🔹 Unreliable Narrators
🔹 Murder Mysteries
🔹 Unexpected Twists & Turns
🔹 Crazy Multiple Timelines

Picture this, private island, friendship, actors, theatrics, murder. Now read this book.

I always love a good Alex Michaelides book! A thriller told in such a theatrical way with all the twists and turns you can imagine. I couldn’t predict the way this would have gone if you asked me in the beginning. A wild ride from the start. I do feel like I have a little bit of anticipation fatigue, I feel like it was a little bit of a drag. I thought I knew what would happen and then it would keep going 😂

Thank you for the opportunity to listen to the audiobook as an ARC. The narrator goes back and forth, telling about his life and reading the novel, which is very confusing to begin with. I found it difficult to follow, and hold my interest. It wasn't a favorite of mine, like The Silent Patient, by Alex Michaelides.

I received a physical arc from Celadon Books which I was enjoying quite a bit, and wanted to check out the audiobook.

I bounced right off Jennings and his female voices and went back to the physical book. That said. Here is my review of it!

Also I think I'm onto his "series" of patients but no one wants to discuss the theory with me 🤣

...

https://onereadingnurse.com/2024/01/18/arc-review-the-fury-by-alex-michaelides/

...

Even if I didn’t know the author, I’d probably be sold at a closed door mystery on a reclusive Greek island. I love the descriptions of the ruin, the beaches, the sea in all it’s colors, the olive groves…you know, everything that makes me want to go to a Greek island. I love the atmosphere and sense of hospitality that the author captures and then contrasts with the dark unfolding of the mystery.

The characters are very hard to read throughout and that’s kind of where the book lost me. We know from the first chapter that we are dealing with an unreliable narrator, so everything he says we have to take with a grain of salt. I felt like Act 1 of the book compared to looking at a really dirty window at a picture, then each subsequent act someone cleaned a little more window until the picture got clear. Even at the end, it was hard to tell if Elliot (the narrator) was still coloring things or finally being truthful.

It was also hard to tell who was actually thinking what. Elliot colored a lot of things into his own voice but then the chapter would devolve into conversation or another character’s internal thoughts or conversation, and often times I couldn’t tell if it was still Elliot musing or something that was actually happening.

That all said, this was a fast paced and slightly addicting book. I liked seeing things become clearer as we went. There really was a pretty good mystery going on, but to me it was more a mystery of what was real and what wasn’t vs. who murdered whom. Michaelides puts a heavy psychological spin into his books … which is a good segue into my theory

It has been noted by other reviewers that Michaelides tends to “spoil” The Silent Patient at the end of each novel. I mean yes, he kind of does, but I think he’s intending people to read TSP first, to introduce the asylum, and then each subsequent book is going to be the story of another inmate. Am I wrong? He is providing the spoiler but how else would we know that he is loosely tying the books together. Also, if you’ve read more than one of his books, the twist is the same in each one. Soooo… Yeah. It was pretty clear based off of how many times Elliott mentioned his therapist that he was a patient. Michaelides is going to have to shake up the twists now or at least he will have to make us guess who the inmate is.

So yes, this is my theory.

While it is not necessary to read The Silent Patient before reading his other books, I think it is intended to be read first. After that, it won’t matter what order we read in.

My first take is that this story reminds me so much of the movie Clue (based on the board game). It's a total whodunnit. You know that a murder takes place and the story reveals what happened but you never really know until the end. I had several different theories going on throughout listening. Stories with lots of twists are turns are so exciting.
For an audiobook, I thought this was a fun listening experience. The narrator really brought Elliot Chase to life. This was probably the fastest that I've ever listened to a book, I needed to know what happened next. I am a romance reader primarily and this story gives you some flavor of a love triangle and unrequited love which I really enjoyed and kept me engaged.

Part of me loves books about people "stranded." On a remote island, on a crumbling house overlooking a cliff, on the edge of a forest... This always peaks my interest, but they kind of all have the same pattern, don't they? Even if the twists aren't the same.

Obviously, I read the Silent Patient a few years ago and loved it. A couple years later, I read The Maidens and was dreadfully unimpressed. This book places me somewhere in between. I can say that I definitely enjoyed this one, even if I didn't LOVE it. It took some long and winding roads to get to the point of the story and I found myself thinking "Come on!! Just get us there!" But! I was thrown off more than a few times. I thought, oh, this person has to be the murderer. But it could be this person??? Noooo it could be someone entirely different. So I enjoyed the end result, even if the journey was a bit tedious.

Will I continue to read Alex Michaelides? Yes. Based on this novel, I'd read a dozen more of these, just because I gobble them up and end up thinking about it long past the time it ends.

This was my first book by Alex Michaelides and I was left underwhelmed.

I think people are either going to love it or think “meh”. I’m in the “meh” category. The storytelling was a bit all over the place and messy for me. Add in an extremely unreliable narrator and I was left confused half the time but maybe that was the point. Lol I was expecting a darker and more suspenseful thriller and it definitely wasn’t. I think overall it was just a strange book for me.

The extremely short chapters did keep the book moving, otherwise I think it would’ve taken me a long time to get through this one. The pacing was slow, but the short chapters helped.

Did this have the potential to be an excellent psychological thriller? Yes. Unfortunately it wasn’t executed very well for me.

I have really enjoyed all the books that I've read from this author. This book was very atmospheric and I enjoyed the setting immensely. However, it was a bit all over the place. It was definitely an interesting concept and I liked the unreliable narrator, it just felt somewhat sloppy.

This book was so so good. Definitely one of the top books of the year! And I absolutely adored how much I didn't love the characters! It truly made the book great.
I enjoyed the audio and the narrator was PERFECT for this book!
And that ending - whew. Didn't see that coming!

The Fury by Alex Michaelides was a wild ride from start to finish. Each time I thought I knew what was happening, the story would be turned on its head. I ended up reading this in one sitting because I couldn't put it down.

This was neither my favorite nor least favorite by Michaelides. I think what he does well here is an unreliable narrator that you’re not sure if you like or not (not unlike my favorite of his, The Silent Patient-which frankly set my bar for the author incredibly high). I think where this book lacks is in pacing and I found one of the main characters a bit insufferable insofar as the fickleness she was portrayed to have-but perhaps that was just a choice I didn’t love. Overall I thought the twist was pulled off decently (I had a feeling the narrator had done a bad deed but not the one he did).