I thank NetGalley and Michael Joseph, Penguin Random House for providing me with an ARC copy of this book, which I freely chose to review.
I read and reviewed The Silent Patient, Michaelides’s first novel, which became a bestseller, almost five years ago, and I wasn’t totally convinced by it. There were aspects of it I liked, for example, the writing, but others didn’t work so well for me.
I didn’t read his second novel, but I was curious enough about the third, and because the setting was quite different, I decided to give it a go. And well... again, there are things I like, and others I’m not so keen on.
It is very difficult to talk about this book without giving too much away, because rather than having a twist... I’d say it is built and narrated in such a way that it twists and turns readers forward and back in time and space, and it also relies on an extremely unreliable narrator. Elliot is not my favourite unreliable narrator (and I do like them), but there is something appealing about the way the story is told by somebody who keeps breaking the fourth wall (and he tells us he writes theatre plays [and he has written a very successful one, in fact] from the beginning, so it seems fitting), and, of course, doing everything he tells us he is determined not to do.
The story itself sounds quite familiar. We’ve all read books and watched movies based on a similar premise (even the exact same, and Elliot refers to Agatha Christie more than once): several characters (seven in this case) are alone in an isolated place (a private Greek island here, but it might be a mansion, a train carriage, a hotel...) and one of them is murdered. We are told that this is not a standard Whodunnit, and that is true.
Reading this novel is a bit like trying to get out of a maze. You confidently advance down a path, only to discover that there is no way out and you have to turn back and retake the route at some other point, and then your efforts are thwarted again, and again, and again...
This book will work better for those who like the main character, Elliot, who, as is the case with many narrators, goes beyond the facts of what happened and ends up revealing a lot about himself. We read much about Lana Farrar, the movie star and friend of Elliot, but we learn far less about the rest of the characters, and as it is all filtered through Elliot’s eyes, this has to be taken with a pinch of salt. We have another actress and long-time friend of Lana, Kate; Leo, Lana’s son by her first husband; Jason, Lana’s new husband; Nikos, the Greek caretaker of the island, who lives there all year round, and Agathe, a Greek live-in housekeeper (and friend) of Lana. The island (with its troubled reputation), and its extreme-at-times weather (the fury of the title is an apt description of the wind) also play a big part in the story, which is one of friendship, envy, love, jealousy, secrets, lies, and troubled, damaged, and misunderstood characters.
Writers are likely to be intrigued by the process of building up this novel and by its use of an unreliable narrator. Other readers will enjoy it if they connect with the style of writing and the narrator, but if they don’t care for the characters or the way the story is told, it could turn into a frustrating read.
I won’t comment on the ending in any detail, but, as other reviewers have done, I’d also warn those who haven’t read The Silent Patient and are planning to read it soon, to not rush to read this one, because although this is a stand-alone novel, its the epilogue contains a spoiler about the author’s first, so you might want to wait until you’ve read that one before reading The Fury.
I enjoyed the way the story was written and some of the asides and comments of the narrator —whom I wouldn’t say I liked, although that has never been a prerequisite for my enjoyment of a good novel— but I wasn’t that fond of the rest of the characters, and I think that perhaps the emphasis on the mechanics of the storytelling ends up emptying it of any deeper meaning or feeling. As usual, I’d recommend that anybody interested check a sample of the book and see if it hooks them; and if they’re happy to be taken for the proverbial ride, then go ahead. You’re likely to have fun.

I still have to read The Silent Patient and I have two copies so there is no excuse, but when I saw this one I liked the synopsis and it turned out to be a very enjoyable read. This is a dark slow burner of a thriller and one that focuses on a small group of friends.

Told from the perspective of Eliot, one of the group the whole narration comes from him. He tells of those involved, the past and the present and takes the reader on an enigmatic journey through to the final scene. The story is laid out in acts and this does work well as the story is about theatre, an actress, movies and the connections between the characters. It is a tragedy as such but one that is not as straightforward as it first appears.

I really enjoyed this story and I liked how devious the characters become. The story lays out the scenario and then the fun begins, getting to know the characters and how they all came to be on the Greek Island. You don't immediately know why there was a death but you know there was one. It is the journey to the answers rather than the answering of questions that makes this a good read.

The isolation of the island gives it an atmospheric air, especially with the mythological histories and also the strong Hitchcock presence in the story, he is mentioned a few times and is a muse as such. Again this adds to the atmosphere and intrigue.

Having a group of people in the story is good, but having just one narrator was ideal for this story and it worked so well. It gave a one-sided view of events, but then it changed and became a battle and turned into a psychological thriller as well.

This is a story that has a lot going on but it is told in a well laid out way and this is what made the story so addictive. Watching the twists develop and appear was great. It is a whodunnit and there is a lot of misdirection, the characters are flawed and not really that likeable if I am honest. The end of the story came in a whirlwind with a frenetic feel as the truth finally emerged.

A mix of psychological, thriller, mystery, whodunnit, murder, suspense and a very, very good read. It is one I would happily recommend.

Thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Random House for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Elliot is a playwright who participated in a trip to an island off of Mykonos, owned by Lana, his friend and an ex-Hollywood star. Lana's husband Jason, her friend Kate, her son Leo, her assistant Agathi, and her caretaker are all there and someone dies. Elliot is recapping how all of these people came to be on the island and how the death ensued to us in the form of a play.

I liked The Silent Patient, I didn't like The Maidens and I mostly liked this book. It didn't have the mythology references that I disliked from The Maidens. It was a short quick read and I was mostly engaged, although I did think it started out a bit slow. It was an interesting enough story overall, filled with completely unlikeable people, and I was interested in finding out, first who died, and then how and why. The play format was interesting. I will say that so much happened at the end, that I was a tad confused, but overall a good read. I will read more from this author.

Interesting and intriguing.
The book is narrated by Elliot talking to the reader to tell them the story of a murder. I don’t recall ever reading a book told in this format before so it drew me into the story.
The fact that it’s Elliot’s take on events throughout the book means the reader is never really sure if what he says is the truth and if we can rely on him as a narrator, we are left to wonder which bits are true throughout and even left guessing who the murder victim and murderer is until very late in the story.
Overall an enjoyable read with lots of twists and turns.

THE FURY - ALEX MICHAELIDES

If you love an unreliable narrator and multiple timeline jumps then this book is for you. This story is so uniquely written in that it feels like an open, casual conversation with Elliot Chase, the narrator. The plot unfolds over five Acts and is full of twists and turns and as much as Elliot Chase assured you this isn’t a “whodunnit” it’s a “why dunnit” it sure has you wondering who!

This isn’t a fast paced gripping thriller and honestly if I wasn’t charmed by the narration then I’m not sure how much I would have enjoyed reading so I really do think the unique style of prose is the only reason I would consider recommending this! I’m the type of reader who has to like the characters to be full engrossed in the story and aside from the narrator I didn’t like any of the characters and found them to be quite tedious!

I would give this 3.5/5 stars (rounded up to four). It was an enjoyable, unique read and keeps you on your toes but don’t expect The Silent Patient 2.0!

Lana Farrar invites a group of people to a private Greek island.
Just for a holiday in the sun but a murderer has other ideas.
And who has secrets they don't want revealed!

Alex Michaelides has become an auto buy author for me so when I saw this new title was available on NetGalley I jumped at the chance. The book being set on a Greek Island set the perfect environment and atmosphere for a who-dunnit as the characters were isolated from everyone on the mainland and forced into close proximity with each other.
For me, The Fury didn’t have the same psychological element that I loved from The Silent Patient and The Maidens. Michaelides might have wanted to take a different approach to this book so that is completely on me for having my standards set so high. The narrator speaks to the reader directly and even comments that we most likely don’t trust what he is telling us making him an unreliable narrator.
I didn’t start to enjoy it until 3/4 of the way through but as always, Michaelides is amazing at writing endings to a book and I loved this one, the way he manages to link his books together is *chefs kiss*. Definitely recommend if you are already a fan of this author.

We go into this murder mystery being told by the narrator that this is not a “whodunit” but rather a “whydunit”. That is an accurate description as the next maybe two-thirds of the book is background to the characters of Elliot, our narrator, and others with whom he is stranded on an island during a storm when one of them is killed. The others are the movie star Lana, her son, her husband, her best friend and two members of staff.

The background stories of the characters and the events that led them to being on this island together at a time murder is committed are intricate and cleverly woven. I always enjoy thrillers that talk to the psychology of the cast, and had fun guessing what was going to come next – often being completely surprised. The author did, in my opinion, overuse the carrot dangling à la “if only we knew how this would impact x and y”… “we had no idea how worse it was about to get”… etc., etc., which is a pet peeve of mine. However, this only marginally hampered my enjoyment of this rather noir-y tale where we see scenes played out from different points of view to lead to an ultimate reveal of what happened and why.

I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys a suspense mystery or psychological thriller, and look forward to reading what the author does next!

My thanks to the author, NetGalley, and the publisher for the arc to review.

After reading The Silent Patient and loving it I couldn't wait to read this book. In all fairness it had a lot to live up to. It is a slow burn and I loved the premise, however I felt it just didn't really work for me.

After reading The Silent Patient, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on another Alex Michaelides book.

Unfortunately, The Fury just fell a little flat for me. I didn’t find myself hugely invested in the story and the twist didn’t shock me as much as I had hoped.

Deliciously macabre.
The Fury is your classic group of friends holidaying on an island cut off from the outside world due to mad weather (in this case The Fury, interpreted something along the lines of crazy Greek winds) and yes, you’ve guessed it, one of the friends is murdered. There is no way on or off the island which means the murderer must be one of the group of said friends.

And there my friends is where the classic ends and the rules and rule book are thrown out the window and it’s time to embrace the weird and wonderful mind of Alex Michaelides. Having read some of the other reviews, this book is Marmite as a lot of books that push boundaries are, you either love it or you hate it. I’m definitely in the ‘love it’ category. It’s unique and innovative, how can you not applaud that in a piece of fiction.

Thanks to Netgalley for providing an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Secrets and lies twisted together in a murder thriller that whisks you away to the Greek islands. Hold on to your hats as you ride through the intricacies of this page turner

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book with no obligation to review.

This is a great read - in fact, I feel I need to read it again to appreciate properly all the twists and turns and any clues I might have missed. You think you finally know what has happened but then you are told something else. Very inventive and, unlike some books with twists, I think the twists were plausible.

The only thing I found a bit annoying at first is that most of the story is told as "I" who is Elliot Chase and "he" has a habit of addressing the reader directly along the lines of "dear reader, you are sitting reading and I wonder what you think of me" - i must admit I found that irritating, keep that fourth wall where it is!. Obviously Elliot is able to tell you all the things that he does and feels etc., but sometimes the book describes what other characters such as Lana are doing, thinking and feeling and how could Elliot know that? As i say, this was mildly annoying but you soon get used to it and you gallop on through all the events and twists and turns and it is a great read.

I received an advanced reading copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley, Michael Joseph, Penguin Random House, and the author Alex Michaelides.
Although it was relatively gripping at times, this was a frustrating read as it descended in to completely unrealistic farce towards the end.
In order to keep going you had to suspend disbelief to an almost intolerable rate, and it all became just too ridiculous to be enjoyable.
The plot was incredibly thin, as were the one dimensional characters' motivations. A frustrating narrator, and a bit disappointing I'm afraid! 2 stars.

I’m so gutted! I was expecting a fantastic psychological thriller full of twists, but what I got was a thin plot, a terrible narrator and undeveloped characters who I didn’t care for.

I think I can see what the author was trying to achieve through the narrator breaking the fourth wall, but it just didn’t work.

The whole thing was weird and slow.

1 ⭐️ Thanks to Netgalley, Alex Michaelides Michael Joseph, Penguin Random House for an ARC in return for an honest review.

I think it's safe to say that Alex Michaelides is an author who excites us all. Most of us loved The Silent Patient, and since then we've all been waiting for the next best thing. So I have no doubt that The Fury will be one of many of our most anticipated 2024 releases. But that's also what made me so nervous about his latest release... Would it live up?

Oh boy, it definitely did!

Although I found the first 30% a little slow, building up to the promise of a murder and delicately setting the scene like a classic play, I was still intrigued by the structure of this slow-burn character study. And from that point on, The Fury had me hooked.

The story is told in a brilliantly clever and original way as our narrator, Elliot, breaks the fourth wall and talks to the reader as he recounts the events on/before/after the island. Of course, I'm always wary of this type of narration as you know that the narrator hasn't experienced everything first-hand, so you have to take some parts with a pinch of salt. But you can't help but trust him. He's witty and entertaining, which all builds up to fool you into believing that he is an honest and trustworthy character (No comment on whether he is or not, because that's all part of the fun!).

But from experience, we know that Michaelides likes an unreliable narrator. So while I was expecting this narrative technique to be where all the twists stemmed from, this story is about so much more than Elliot's reliability. It's definitely not that straightforward.

And the twists don't stop! I read If We Were Villains last year and hated it because it wasn't what I expected it to be from the high expectations I made from the brilliant plot. But this is what I wanted from a synopsis like this! A thought-provoking story about motivation, dark truths, twisted secrets, unforgivable deceits, and layers upon layers of mystery. I'm in awe of its brilliance!

If you're after a unique and fun mystery, make sure this one is at the top of your TBR!

Brilliant. This book is very cleverly written. It makes for a very twisted read! Some of the twists you might see others you won’t but you should enjoy the story along the way.

I really wanted to like this book having read The Silent Patient (which I loved) and The Maidens (which I liked) but unfortunately it just didn't grab me. It had some good parts for sure but ultimately I found it to be over complicated with too many characters that I just didn't care about. I can see that some people will love it and there were some good twists but it was a no for me.

"This is a tale of murder. Or maybe that's not quite true. At it's heart, it's a love story, isn't it? The saddest kind of love story – about the end of love; the death of love."

Playwright Elliot Chase is invited to his best friend's private Greek island. Ex-movie star Lana Farrar has also invited her husband, son, actress friend, and housekeeper, while the island's only permanent inhabitant, the groundsman, prepares the mansion. It won't be long after the guests arrive, before one of them is found murdered.

While the identity of the murderer isn't revealed until close to the end, the narrator – Elliot – tells the reader that the story is not a whodunit, but rather, a 'whydunit'. It's about the motivations of the characters: why did they do certain things and to what end. All the characters have secrets and flaws, and for some, it will be their ultimate downfall.

This is a compelling psychological suspense novel that is heavily character-driven, though the plot – written in the structure of a play – is interesting enough to hold your attention throughout. I didn't find it particularly tense, but I was engrossed in the narration. The twist I'd rather call a 'reveal' as it didn't really shock me. Still, the book is definitely worth a read.

I've just spent about three days with Elliott. Elliot is telling me a true story about how is best friend, Lana, got murdered on holiday on a private Greek Island. Elliot tells me that there is no twist in this tale. Seven people were on the island at the time, Elliot, Lana, their friend Kate, Lana's son Leo,, her husband Jason, her housekeeper, and there 'handyman'. Some of them are living with Childhood trauma, some of them are holding secrets, and all of them love Lana. The story isn't about who murder her, the story is about why one of the would...Read it!