The Fury Book Review
Publisher: Celadon Books
What you can expect
Why you can trust my review of The Fury
While preferences in books are widely subjective, I tried to come up with a methodology for rating thrillers that focuses on the elements of the genre. My rating and review are based on how well The Fury incorporates all of those elements. While I can't promise complete objectivity, you can trust that my rating and review are not completely biased.
Summary of The Fury
Lana Farrar is a very famous movie star from California living in London. She owns her very own Greek island and invites her closest friends to escape with her every year to get away from the dreary weather. Every year the trip goes without a hitch, but this year it results in a murder.
As Elliot Chase will tell you in the synopsis of this book, the group of friends are trapped on this remote island with the murderer until the weather is safe enough for them to get off the island or someone to come to them. Until then, the friends engage in a game of “whodunit”. But don’t be fooled by everyone’s cries of innocence because each one of them has a motive.
Judging the book by its cover
I had high expectations for The Fury as I’ve read both of Alex Michaelides books. While I liked The Maidens, I loved The Silent Patient. I was very excited to read another one of his books. After reading the book’s summary, I was even more intrigued. The way the summary is written, as if the protagonist is giving us the summary, is unique. I opened the book ready to be taken on a twisted journey.
My take on The Fury
Elliot Chase introduces himself to us in the synopsis. He’s not only the narrator of the story, but our main character. I found him to be mildly annoying but wildly captivating. He can really tell a story.
He’ll have you believing that Lana Farrar, a famous movie star and his closest friend, is the main character. But while Elliot can tell a good story, he’s a tad bit unreliable when it comes to the truth. He paints Lana as an unassuming damsel in distress who needs a trip to her Greek island with all her friends to escape the weather in London. However, Lana is neither unassuming nor a damsel in distress.
Once we’re on the Greek island, the action and suspense starts picking up. A murder occurs on the island and everyone scrambles to not only figure out who did it, but what to do since they’re stuck on an island. The chaos that ensues and the motives that are revealed make it quite a tricky game to accurately guess who’s the murderer. I would honestly be surprised if anyone guessed the murderer correctly given all the little twists.
I don’t want to spoil anything so I’m going to jump right to the ending. What a wonderfully twisted ending. It was almost comedic (or at least it made me chuckle). And the best part was how this book was tied to The Silent Patient (for those who read that book, let’s see if you catch it). It was a masterful ending.
I found this book to be pleasantly surprising. I’ll be honest, I didn’t think I’d like the book in the beginning because I found the narrator to be annoying. As I kept reading, he became more and more interesting as did the story. This book is not what it seems on so many levels and I really appreciated that. I would still put The Silent Patient above this one if I were ranking Alex Michaelides’ books, but The Fury is a close second.
Who should read this book?
I definitely recommend this book to anyone who has read The Silent Patient. And for those who haven’t read The Silent Patient, read that one and then read The Fury. You can’t truly appreciate the ending of this book without first having read The Silent Patient.