Ooooh, this one was very, very clever! Alex Michaelides gets some major bonus points for original storytelling in his latest, The Fury. I was super impressed by how well this murder mystery was pieced together. At first, I wasn’t vibing with the narrator at all. I was actually thinking of switching formats, and trying the physical copy instead. But I told myself to be patient and carry on. I am SO glad that I did because the narrator ended up absolutely messing with my mind, and by golly, I liked it!

READ THIS IF YOU ENJOY:

- Unique storytelling
- Well-crafted whodunnits
- Mysterious murder mysteries
- Character studies
- Unpredictable narrators
- Shocking twists, turns, and reveals
- Toxic relationships and obsession
- Complicated friendships
- Atmospheric settings

I’ll admit that I didn’t love this one as much as The Silent Patient, but it was still a major winner for me. Also, I think this cover gets my vote for the creepiest. I don’t know about you, but it totally freaks me out. The Fury releases on January 16th, and it gets 4/5 stars from me!

Not what I expected. This was just ok for me. The narrator was good but I wasnt completely invested in what was going on in the story.

Fun, exciting, fast-paced, and entertaining. This story reminded me of Agatha Christie, who is acknowledged in the narrator's story. The lengths one will go for love are strange, stupid, and infinite. Read this via audiobook and loved the narration.

Soooo, one of my favorite thriller authors of all time finally released a locked in whodunit trope and I couldn’t be more excited!!

I was jumping up and down when I received this ARC because Silent Patient was the book that got me into thrillers and from then on, I patiently wait for each book release from Alex Michaelides!

This started out to be really strong for me! Vacation gone wrong with strong Agatha Christie vibes and I couldn’t just turn the page any faster.

The middle with all the twists and turns along with some backstories were a little bit distracting to the storyline and became a little bit hard to follow.

But then how it all wrapped up, the reveals that will always keep you second guessing, and the storytelling was such a unique reading experience. So I definitely would still recommend picking this up when it gets released on 𝐉𝐚𝐧 𝟏𝟔!!!

Plus, I love that his books are becoming a connected “universe” now with all the mini cameos of characters from his previous books!

𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑭𝒖𝒓𝒚
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
from the same author of 𝑺𝒊𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝑷𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒕, 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑴𝒂𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒏𝒔

As always, this author has outdone himself. Absolutely loved The Silent Patient and The Maidens, and now The Fury. This book was so much fun to read, never quite knowing what would happen next and to who!

The audio narration was brilliant…absolutely perfect. Alex Jennings was wonderful and I would love to listen to more books narrated by him. He is an award winning actor and was in The Crow, so if audio is your thing, you are in for a treat.

Elliot Chase, friend to reclusive ex movie star, Lana Farrar, tells us the story. It is a theatrical experience which is very fitting as many of the character's are actors. He tells us the story of an Easter getaway to Greece that ends in murder. But who is killed? And Why? And How? And whodunnit? The story is told in 5 acts, and as the story goes on you will come to see that nothing, and nobody is what they seem.

Elliot was the perfect unreliable narrator. It is complex and twisty story that certainly shocked me a number of times. This was one of my most anticipated reads for 2024 and it did not disappoint.

Readers of the authors previous work will love the nods to those books, but this book is not part of a series and can be read on its own. The setting of the island off Greece, the winds (The Fury), the isolation were all wonderful. What I loved were the relationships between all the characters, not all good and certainly nobody to be trusted.

Thank you so much to Macmillan Audio for my advanced listening copy. What an absolute pleasure it was. Published in the US on January 16th

Murder, in 5 acts.
I wasn’t sure how this one was going to go. The first half was confusing and yet boring. I was lost, but intrigued. It was the POV/narrator keeping me going. The shifts of perspective and even breaking the 4th wall were so unique.
THEN…then the last 30% was a cluster of WTF?! Not only did it surprise me over and over, but it was so twisty, I almost feel unsatisfied. It’ll linger with me.
If it weren’t for the first half being a slow, painful journey, this one might be my favorite of this author. But alas, I nearly filed it DNF. Nearly.

The audiobook narrator has a pleasant voice that is easily understood at faster rates. He provided personality to an otherwise mundane, at times, POV.

Thank you NetGalley, Macmillan Audio, and author Alex Michaelides for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was my first time reading anything by this author and sadly, I was not impressed.

Unfortunately, I have nothing positive to say about this book. The plot was ridiculous, the main character was annoying, and the pace was so SLOW. The narrator, Elliot Chase, constantly nodding and talking to the reader did not help. The anticipation of what big twist would happen next quickly turned to frustration with how the narrator dangled it in front of the reader and then went on to talk about something else time and time again.

So about the characters. As you've probably gathered, I was not a fan of the narrator, Elliot Chase. He was incredibly unlikable, straight up insufferable, and because we didn't really get to know the other characters I didn't care about them at all. This was messy.

*ARC provided by Celadon Books & Macmillan in exchange for an honest review*

First & foremost I want to say thank you to Netgalley & Macmillan audio for giving me the opportunity to listen to this book in exchange for a review based on my own opinion .

Elliot chase, the narrator, and his 5 friends head off to a Greek island on Easter weekend for a quick get away. During their visit there is many twists and turns that will leave you guessing until the last sentence. And I promise you, you will not guess the ending. This book definitely gave me "shutter island vibes."

I loved that this book had short chapters. It keeps me engaged and wanting more. The length of the book (320 pages) is a perfect amount to me.

Only con I really had was the narrator, no fault of his own, I just have a hard time listening to a narrator with a thick British accent. I am more focused on their accent, not the story.

This book reminded me alot of the Silent Patient & I loved the layering in the book, the story never seemed to stop unfolding.

I look forward to more by Alex Michaelides.

3.5/5 due to the narration which is just a personal preference and a spoiler which I will not reveal. Just read it for yourself when it's on January 16!

This is a solid 3.5 star read for me! I LOVED the Silent Patient, so I will definitely continue to read this author.
The Fury has a unique concept, which is refreshing because I read a lot of thrillers. It's a "why done it" rather than a whodunnit. The story is mostly in play format and told by an unreliable omniscient narrator. I think it would definitely appeal to Agatha Christie lovers! The Fury is a character study and therefore a little slow to get into at first. It's also kind of chaotic as an audiobook because of all the characters and all the jumping around. I have the physical copy of the book too and if I reread, I'll try that version. I didn't see the twists coming, but they weren't super shocking. However, it fit with the style of book. The epilogue was good! Thank you for the advance audiobook!

Hmmm okay so I wasn’t the biggest fan of this one.

Honestly, I was bored for two-thirds of it and when the plot twists started happening, I was just kinda annoyed and didn’t really care that much, about the plot or about any of the characters.

Also, I’m not a huge fan of how it’s narrated. One of the main characters - Elliot - narrates the story and it’s from his point of view. He speaks a lot as if he’s talking to you, the reader, which I’m not a big fan on.

Overall, it was only okay. It’s a 2.5 stars for me and rounded down to two on this review.

My thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for the chance to review the audiobook version of The Fury. I attest my review is my own unbiased evaluation of this new novel.

Having previously listened to Alex Michaelides' The Silent Patient, I was anxious to hear this new work entitled The Fury. The Fury is named for strong and sometimes violent winds, and the windy weather plays a prominent role on a Greek island in this book. The weather is not the main character; that role belongs to a reclusive former actress Lana Farrar who has invited some of her closest friends to spend Easter weekend on her private island.

This may sound a bit like the wonderful Agatha Christie novel Ten Little Indians (also retitled And Then There Was One) but this work differs in that there is only a single murder on the island--but who dies? Michaelides teases the reader/listener with a twisting plot.

The other main character is Elliott Chase, who serves as the narrator of the story. This is not to be confused with the narrator of the audiobook itself, Alex James, whose talents add to the richness of the story.

Like the Silent Patient, The Fury features many twists and turns that keeps the listener/reader guessing as to what will happen next. It is a modern Greek tragedy for sure! I can't offer a lot more without spoilers, which I try to avoid in my reviews.

Let me just conclude by saying if you read the Silent Patient you will enjoy this murder mystery. In my view, the Silent Patient was a masterpiece of a book. While The Fury is very good, it is a different experience for the reader. I give it 4.5 stars.

I received a copy of this audiobook from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review. Another great book by Alex Michaelides!! Loved it....lots of twists and turns!!

I really could not get into this, the narrative style turned me off from the beginning and kept me from connecting with the story itself.

This is my first Michaelides book, and I am sad to say it was really quite boring for a "thriller."

The narrator talks to the reader the entire time, and not just about himself. Somehow he knew what happened when he wasn't there, he knew what the other characters were thinking (this particularly bothered me, he knows what they are thinking?), he told you things that didn't actually happen and then had to start over and tell it correctly. He wasn't unreliable in a way that built tension, he was unreliable to the point that it didn't matter what he said because most of it wasn't true. His entire character was gimmicky and unlikeable. The other cast of characters were flat and undeveloped, I had no interest in any of them being the killer or the killed, and so I was just getting through a boring book.

The twists that we were promised repeatedly? First we are told oh but wait here's a twist, and then he goes on a huge tangent about his childhood. By the time you get to the twist it's like whatever, who cares. Oh and then there's a second and third one at which point the absurdity is off the charts. However the third twist did lead directly to the only likely conclusion of the book, so it was shockingly unshocking how it all ended.

Two stars because while I hated the style and the plot, the writing and narration were good, and it was short.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC of this book.

I absolutely loved this book! It gave me Evil Under the Sun by Agatha Christie vibes while being a totally different, fresh plot. The narration kept me hooked from the very first page…Alex Michaelides writes the “potentially unreliable solo narrator” so well, and I love how all of his books are woven together in a small way. Such a wonderful, atmospheric mystery! And the audiobook narration was absolutely perfect!!

3/5 stars

Thank you Macmillan audio for the advanced listening copy!

Lana Farrar, a former movie star, is used to being in the tabloids, and so are her closest friends. Many people remember what happened on her idyllic private Greek island years ago, but almost no one remembers it correctly. That's where Elliot Chase comes in. As our narrator, Elliot walks us through the REAL story of those island days, the one the papers didn't tell you. Trapped on an island with Lana's closest friends, secret motives and epic hatred is sure to end in a murder... but who is responsible? And why? The world may never know... but Elliot does.

The whole time I was like 🤔🤨🧐

I really wanted to love this one, and in some ways, I did. I love an unreliable narrator like Elliot -- this book gave EVERYONE IN MY FAMILY HAS KILLED SOMEONE vibes and I loved that. Especially on audio, it felt like Elliot was talking TO me, and that was really fun.

That being said, I actually think this would have been better NOT on audio. I didn't love the narrator at first (though, I grew to!) and I think that prevented me from getting invested right off the bat. Some of the information was hard to follow on audio, especially the time jumps, and there were times when I wasn't totally sure what was going on. To be honest, I think this book could have been 15% shorter and I would have gone from liking it to loving it.

The good news, though, was that this book was totally surprising. Like I said, I loved the point of view we were given into the murder and an unreliable narrator is *chef's kiss.* There were TONS of twists and I could not have possibly guessed where we ended up, or where we went along the way. Unique in style and plot, twisty, silly at times, atmospheric -- this book had it all. I really wish I had loved this one, but I absolutely LIKED it, and I'd still recommend everyone give it a read.

Thank you Celadon Books to access to this ARC audiobook. I was so excited to listen to The Fury, being that The Silent Patient has been one of my favorite books!

The Fury is a five-act Greek tragedy, locked-house murder mystery, and love story. It takes place on a luxurious Greek private island, and the characters are all connected to a former world renowned actress.

One thing that made the book unique was that the narrator kept circling around to retell the story, adding more details and layers each time- this could have been a great build up, but it became tedious unfortunately.

The narrator was unlikable, and his reliability constantly shifts. There was also inclusion of additional threads- a wasp nest, a play, that did not seem to add to the story and made it feel disjointed.

Despite this, I still eagerly await future works by this author!

Set up as an isolated murder mystery, we are introduced to the characters and events through a wildly unreliable narrator who, with each new chapter, becomes more and more unhinged. This was a fun, fast-paced thriller and I really enjoyed the audio performance.

Review will be posted on Bookstagram on pub date: https://www.instagram.com/readinginstead/

“𝘚𝘰, 𝘪𝘧 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶, 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭 𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘴: 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘥𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘳𝘦? 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘥𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘳?”

Thanks Celadon books for the physical ARC and NetGalley for the e-copy and audiobook as well. Honestly, when my physical copy arrived I totally famgirled as there’s been much hyped about this one for months! And it still hasn’t released yet! Soon though - 1/16 - and the hype is fairly worth it. Has Death on the Nile and Glass Onion vibes for sure, but at the same time it’s quite different. It was theatrical, ominous, psychological, and intriguing.

I’ve actually never read Michaelides’ other books so this my introduction to this author and I liked it but at times it felt like it was shifting back/forth in perspective from first to third-person. Perhaps that’s intentional with our unreliable narrator. It’s told in 5 “acts”, some starting in the past leading up to the climax with different layers of the greater story so at times it felt a bit repetitive but each includes details or perspectives that weren’t disclosed before, and the chapters are short. I personally wasn’t a huge fan of the audiobook as I didn’t care for the voice of the narrator (sorry!) Content and trigger warnings include murder, light profanity, some drug and alcohol use, infidelity, mentions of childhood abuse/bullying, and one character is alluded to being an escort for an older woman.

Overall, with the twists that eventually come as it played out in a way I had predicted, I give it 3.75, round up to 4.

Set on a beautiful Green island, owned by beautiful film star Lana Farrar, The Fury is part murder mystery, part twisted love story, and mostly madness.
The narrator, Elliot Chase, attends a getaway on the island, with his friend Lana, her son, her husband, their friend Kate and a couple of employees. We are promised a murder form the start... but who's murder? and why?
The twists and turns don't stop as Chase, the most unreliable of narrators, attempts to puppets the other guests on the island to dance their way through a script he has planned out for them in which he ends up with the girl.
But can he?
This was a lot of fun... but there was A LOT going on, so it really got a bit overwhelming towards the end, but overall enjoyable.