Sweet Fury is the perfect blend of literary fiction and thriller. The prose was absolutely lovely, and for the first half of the novel, it distracted me from some of the issues in the plot. Looking back, the beginning was a little slow and difficult to follow. By the middle of the book, I was invested, and I appreciated that I could not trust any of the narrators. By the end, however, I found myself frustrated with the believability of the novel. There were many aspects that didn't make sense, and the reader just had to go along with things in order to follow the plot. I thought much of the storyline wasn't properly explored or explained so it felt like there were major gaps in the narrative. I really enjoyed the exploration of Fitzgerald's Tender is the Night, and I would love to see more authors take on problematic classics and reframe them in a modern and empowering retelling.

Look into content warnings before reading this book due to some gratuitous descriptions of violence and assault.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC!

I enjoyed this twisty, psychological thriller. It heavily features Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The main characters, Lila and Jonah, have complex backstories and you are left guessing whether or not you can trust them as the mystery unravels.

Alluring characters with a high tension and compelling plot.

This one got me right from the first chapter. I have a horrible confession to make - I didn't really know the original Tender Is the Night so I was a bit worried that this one wouldn't work for me. But right from that first visit to the therapist and then the POV of making the film, I was hooked. You could feel the tension rising off the page. There were so many twists and secrets that I loved slowly untangling them. I found the end to be a delicious surprise - where it was all shocking but very satisfying.

A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing this eARC.

Sweet Fury is a mystery thriller centered on the production of a film adaptation of F Scott Fitzgerald's Tender is the Night.

This twisty thriller culminated in an ending that I honestly didn't see coming, and what could anyone want more from a mystery thriller? Bischoff does some rich character work here, and the construction of the narrative -- told in three different parts, and intertwined with transcriptions from interviews and therapy sessions -- kept me on my toes. As someone who's read some Fitzgerald, but not Tender is the Night, it certainly made me want to pick up that book. And while I'm not sure that I would describe the events of the narrative as feminist, I do think the strongest aspect of this book was the ways in which the characters grappled with the misogyny inherent in American culture and exemplified by much of Fitzgerald's work. I won't argue that this book is for every reader -- the characters are artists and academics, and they speak and narrate in an almost haughty way that may read as inaccessible -- but I think for fans of Fitzgerald, or for anyone who enjoys a twisty psychological read, this is an excellent pick.

This book was a doozy! I was immediately hooked into the world of Lila and Kurt. The three MCs are all so flawed and well written. It was so enjoyable to try to figure out what everyone’s motives were and what their endgame was. As I haven’t read Tender is the Night, I can’t really make comparisons, but the F. Scott Fitzgerald references are throughout the story.

Loved this one!!! What a twisty, weird, fun ride. Every single narrator is unreliable, which makes for a truly wild reading experience. I seriously didn't know who to root for, who the good guys and bad guys were, or what was going to happen on the next page. I'm honestly still not sure, which I love, because a book that stays with me is a book that I'll treasure forever.

This one left me wanting to like the characters but I just couldn’t find it. It’s a story filled with opulence and secrets. It just left me feeling …. Like ick.

Thanks for the early read NetGalley

Actually closer to 3 1/2 stars, but not close enough to round up...

Thank you to Netgalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I think this book would have been better had I known more about F. Scott Fitzgerald and his books. Like almost everyone, I read Gatsby in high school. That's it.

This book is supposed to be an homage to Gatsby, centering around a cast of actors and director retelling Fitzgerald's Tender is the Night, with the woman being the hero in the end.

I was engaged through much of the book. It was pretty easy to guess what was going to happen, though.

Was not a fan of the ending at all. So much more could have been done with it and it was kind of a let down.

When a beloved actress is cast in a feminist adaptation of a Fitzgerald classic, she finds herself the victim in a deadly game of revenge in which everyone, on screen and off, is playing a part.

Sweet Fury started as a difficult read for me, perhaps because I was distracted sitting in a crowded airport and then on a cross country flight. I found myself frequently rereading sections until I got caught up in the story and then did not want to put it down to deplane.
Vibes of Hollywood, movies and movie stars all were featured prominently. For some reason I found myself comparing Lila to some actresses of the past and present, wondering if there life behind the scenes is satisfying. Having not read F. Scott Fitzgerald’s work since high school I found myself wishing I had read them prior to Sweet Fury as I probably would have been more proficient at “reading between the lines”.
This read is hard for me to categorize - thriller, drama, character driven, screenplay…all those and more. It was a total surprise to me.
Many thanks to Sash Bischoff, Simon & Schuster, and NetGalley for providing me with an arc of this unique read. Three and a half stars.

I have to admit, I’ve never actually fully read anything by F. Scott Fitzgerald, so I probably wasn’t the intended audience for this one, but it was decent enough. Seeing that I’m not familiar with the books this was inspired by, I didn’t know what to expect, but it didn’t really give me what I wanted until the very end. I feel like it could have been a bit shorter? Again, since I’m not familiar with the original, maybe I’m way off, so just take my thoughts with a grain of salt or two 😂

This one is a bit of a puzzle for me. The premise is fairly straightforward—-a retelling of Tender is the Night by F Scott Fitzgerald, slanted to a feminist viewpoint via a movie. Lila Crayne is the star and her fiance’ Kurt Royall is the director. In preparation for her role, Lila begins working with a charming and credentialed psychotherapist, Jonah Gabriel, to process and move past her remembered (and forgotten) traumas.

There are an unbelievable number of twists and turns in the book, to the extent that I was never completely sure of what was the real thread and what was a sham. Lila and Jonah both have secrets to protect, and one of the two appears to have the upper hand. There are other characters as well, and those mix things up too.

The book held my attention, but I found the ending confusing and, honestly, I didn’t believe it matched the rest of the book.

I’m amazed that this is a debut effort. 3.5 stars rounded up! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I was quite impressed with Sweet Fury by Sash Bischoff. I was drawn into the story very quickly, and though I'm not a huge Fitzgerald aficionado, detailed knowledge of his work wasn't necessary to appreciate the narrative surrounding his novels, especially Tender Is The Night. Bischoff did a great job of first creating identification with a character and then shifting the perspective. Soon, I was seeing pretty much everyone as unreliable, and this leant to the power of the story. The psychological twists picked up as the story moved on, and the different modes of narration (e.g., psychiatrist notes, straight narration, diary) helped to build the suspense. The writing was good, stylized and descriptive in a way that worked for the connections to FSF. Though this isn't a classic thriller, I've decided to use Sweet Fury for our store's thriller bookclub in an upcoming month, and I think it'll be a great vehicle for discussion!

I did not finish this book at the 30% mark. I did not like the characters and did not care about the plot at this point in the book. The writing was good and I'm sure that there will be many readers who love this book. Unfortunately, this was just not for me.

I got about 45% of the way through the book before I had to call it quits. I wasn't connecting with any of the characters, even though none of them were likeable you would think you can still find something to connect with them over. I just didn't care about them or the stories. I have only read Gatsby so maybe I should read Tender is the Night to gain better aspect of this book? Either way, I am grateful to the publisher for the ARC.

4.5 stars

I liked this very clever book QUITE a bit more than I expected. It feels like a mashup of a few other books – The Silent Patient, Verity, and They Never Learn – with Old Hollywood/old money/Gatsby/Fitzgerald vibes.

An actress and her director husband are filming a supposedly feminist version of Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The actress, Lila, begins seeing a therapist in order to get in touch with past trauma and prepare for the role. At first, the character dialogue is melodramatic and pretentious which was not my favorite, but this gets better as the book becomes more of a psychological thriller.

There are a lot of Fitzgerald references that are important to the plot. I don’t know much about him other than the Great Gatsby, but you don’t need to have knowledge of his work to understand this book. The author explains the plot of Tender is the Night enough for you to discover that life imitates art, as events of the novel start to mimic the movie script.

For this reason, some parts of the second half are a bit predictable, but not everything is. I loved the journey this book took me on. Certainly a unique book I would recommend!

Thank you to Simon and Schuster for my copy of SWEET FURY. This one is out Jan 7.

I hated that this was pitched as a feminist retelling. I can't say that I'm a huge F. Scott Fitzgerald person, and maybe that's why it wasn't for me, but I just couldn't get into it. I hated the characters and it didn't feel in anyway feminist to me. Sorry, I do not recommend this one

I didn't finish this one- found it over the top, predictable, and cringey at times. I probably could have given it a longer chance, because the writing was good, but I just knew this book wouldn't be for me.

Well I wanted to like this one more than I ended up liking it. I’ve never read F. Scott Fitzgerald and maybe if I had it would have helped but this was a case of a convoluted plot, unlikable characters and an attempt to include male privilege, feminism, revenge and obsession. Who the perpetrator and who was the victim changed several times throughout the story and the alternating POV that usually helps to strengthen the story did nothing to help this one unfortunately.
It attempts to show the behind the scenes of Hollywood but because there were so many cliches and stereotypes written in, it just came off as trying too hard to be something it’s not-like twisty as I had hoped.
Thanks to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for this eArc in exchange for my review.

A retelling of Tender is the Night, Lila is preparing for a role and needs to work through some things with her therapist. But the more she goes through things with him, the more they connect. Sweet Fury is dark and gritty.