Set primarily on a small private island in Greece, The Fury is the essential thriller with an unreliable narrator. With zero likable characters, and an interesting first person narrative we follow a reclusive ex-movie star and her closest friends and family to spend the East Weekend on her private Greek Island. In the vein of And Then There Were None (which is one of my all time favorites and what hooked me on thrillers at the ripe age of 12), this locked room thriller will keep you guessing and turning pages.
I both listened to and read The Fury. This isn’t my first Alex Jennings audio narration to listen to but his voice just did not fit with the story or the characters in my opinion. I adore audiobooks but even small things can turn me off a book and I would have been better off strictly reading The Fury.
I changed my rating on this book so many times. It was primarily a 2 star until about 50% where the pace picked up and the plot surprised me a bit, then I was all set to give it 4 stars. But the ending was just…blah. While I did have a strong desire to figure out what the heck was happening and where the story was going, rather than enjoying the outcome I just felt exhausted from all the anticipation. In other words not enough payoff to justify the many many false endings.
I will say that I have not been the biggest of Alex Michaelides. While I found The Silent Patient to be slightly better than average, The Maidens tried too hard and was on the more pretentious side of things. The writing in The Fury is more in line with The Maidens and paired with an unlikable/unreliable narrator just left me feeling unattached to the characters and thus the storyline. The added epilogue, while I’m sure intended to add closure, just confirmed as uninterested I ended up being in our narrator’s story.
Other Alex Michaelides Reviews :
The Maidens Review | The Silent Patient Review
The Fury comes out January 16, 2024. Huge thank you to Celadon Books and Macmillan Audio for my advanced copies in exchange for my honest opinion. If you liked this review, please let me know either by commenting below or by visiting my Instagram @speakingof.books.
