Rating: ⭐⭐⬜⬜⬜
Title: The Fury
Author: Alex Michaelides
Genre: Thriller
Setting: London, England / Greece
Month Read: January 2024
Book Type: E-Arc
Publication: January 2024
Publisher: Celadon Books
Pages: 320
*Thank you to Netgalley and Celadon books for this E-Arc. It has in no way shaped my review nor have I received compensation or anything else in exchange for my reviews- all views are my own.
TRIGGER WARNING-
Death / Guns / Sex / Language / Drugs / Locked Room Thriller /
"That’s why, these days, I repeatedly force myself to return to my own experience: not are they enjoying themselves? But am I? Not do they like me? But do I like them?"
No Spoiler Summary:
A masterfully paced thriller about a reclusive ex–movie star and her famous friends whose spontaneous trip to a private Greek island is upended by a murder ― from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Silent Patient.
This is a tale of murder.
Or maybe that’s not quite true. At its heart, it’s a love story, isn’t it?
Lana Farrar is a reclusive ex–movie star and one of the most famous women in the world. Every year, she invites her closest friends to escape the English weather and spend Easter on her idyllic private Greek island.
I tell you this because you may think you know this story. You probably read about it at the time ― it caused a real stir in the tabloids, if you remember. It had all the necessary ingredients for a press a celebrity; a private island cut off by the wind…and a murder.
We found ourselves trapped there overnight. Our old friendships concealed hatred and a desire for revenge. What followed was a game of cat and mouse ― a battle of wits, full of twists and turns, building to an unforgettable climax. The night ended in violence and death, as one of us was found murdered.
But who am I?
My name is Elliot Chase, and I’m going to tell you a story unlike any you’ve ever heard.
Review:
I loved the Silent Patient and I hated The Maidens, and I made a promise to myself that I would give The Fury an honest shot. What could be more in my wheelhouse- Hollywood Stars, a private island in Greece, a "locked-room" thriller, and what should be a shocking, unforseen twist! Sign me up!!!
Well, I told myself if I hated this book I'd probably never read Michaelides again, and I'm saddened to say our short relationship is over.
Our novel is narrated by Elliot Chase, a narcissist, an unreliable narrator, and grade A horrible person. I don't think everyone in the novel is horrible, but I wasn't feeling anything but disdain for this man, and it made his thoughts so hard to get through and I kept hoping the book would end soon so I could escape his constant babbling.
You follow Elliot & friends to a private island in Greece, where you're there to figure out an affair- and between the heightened tensions of the visitors to the island, and the weather (The Fury, itself) you're thrown right in the middle of storms both inside and outside of the estate.
What I've come to find out, to my sadness, is this man (Michaelides) just rips off Agatha Christie, and makes piles of money, and gives us worse endings. The twists aren't twisting, you don't care about anyone the way you do with Christies writing, and it's just watered down and boring. I'm not an Agatha Christie purist or anything either (I LOVED Daisy Darker!), but there's really only so much Agatha Christie fanfiction I can read, and I'm realizing Michaelides' books are exactly that.
Overall, plenty of people like him, and if he's your thing that is wonderful, but it didn't hit for me. If you liked or loved this book I would love to chat!
Recommendation:
Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney
And Then There Were None (or anything else) by Agatha Christie
The Guest List by Lucy Foley
"We are all unreliable narrators of our own lives."
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