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A review by emma6544
The Fury by Alex Michaelides
Did not finish book. Stopped at 58%.
I have read both of his previous books, The Silent Patient and The Maidens which I think are great so when this book was announced, I was really excited as it had all the tropes that I like: isolated location, closed circle of characters and a hint of inspiration of classic mysteries. However, it is important to note that the book is actively going against the grain of the classic mystery, which is what enticed me to the book.
Sadly, this book failed to deliver. From the start, I found Elliot, the main narrator and one of the main characters, extremely insufferable. I decided to finish Act 1 to see if there was any redeemable qualities but I found none. He was a very needy and obsessive character (which is important for the ending, which I googled once I decided to DNF): he is love with Lana so he plants evidence of Kate and Jason’s affair for her to find and encourages her to confront them during the island getaway. Once she is “shot”, he uses this to turn Jason and Kate again each other so Kate will shot Jason to get him out of the way so he can be with Lana. Turns out the gang knew about his plan all along and pretended to go along with it. Which results in Elliot being confronted and humiliated, accidentally killing Lana for real.
I was disappointed in this because the twists in The Silent Patient and The Maidens were shocking and had real impact so I was expecting something great.
While I appreciate the Greek tragedy of this twist, warning us of the dangers of obsession and unrequited love (plus how Alex Michaelides uses acts to provide the atmosphere of a Greek drama), it was predictable as Elliot’s obsession with Lana was clear to me from the first chapter. And, as I continued with Act 2, other predicable revelations were revealed the affair between Jason and Kate.
Another reason why I DNFed this book was the fact that many chapters repeated the same information over which frustrated me as I felt no progress was being made into furthering the narrative. This is done, which as the book makes clear, this novel focuses on the characters. However with the main character so obsessive, narcissistic, attention seeking and controlling, it is hard to find any redeemable points in him unlike the other characters (Lana, Jason, Kate, Leo and Nikos) who display both likeable and undesirable qualities which helped to humanise them and drew my attention to them.
If you like unreliable narrators, unlikeable characters, Greek tragedies and a character focused mystery/thriller with a weak plot structure then this is for you. It is also important to note that despite the comparisons made to classic mystery offers such as Agatha Christie, it does not follow that structure.
Sadly, this book failed to deliver. From the start, I found Elliot, the main narrator and one of the main characters, extremely insufferable. I decided to finish Act 1 to see if there was any redeemable qualities but I found none. He was a very needy and obsessive character (which is important for the ending, which I googled once I decided to DNF):
I was disappointed in this because the twists in The Silent Patient and The Maidens were shocking and had real impact so I was expecting something great.
While I appreciate the Greek tragedy of this twist, warning us of the dangers of obsession and unrequited love (plus how Alex Michaelides uses acts to provide the atmosphere of a Greek drama), it was predictable as Elliot’s obsession with Lana was clear to me from the first chapter. And, as I continued with Act 2, other predicable revelations were revealed
Another reason why I DNFed this book was the fact that many chapters repeated the same information over which frustrated me as I felt no progress was being made into furthering the narrative. This is done, which as the book makes clear, this novel focuses on the characters. However with the main character so obsessive, narcissistic, attention seeking and controlling, it is hard to find any redeemable points in him unlike the other characters (Lana, Jason, Kate, Leo and Nikos) who display both likeable and undesirable qualities which helped to humanise them and drew my attention to them.
If you like unreliable narrators, unlikeable characters, Greek tragedies and a character focused mystery/thriller with a weak plot structure then this is for you. It is also important to note that despite the comparisons made to classic mystery offers such as Agatha Christie, it does not follow that structure.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder
Minor: Animal death