Reviews with content warning for Toxic relationship - The Fury

Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

The Fury by Alex Michaelides

70 reviews

libreroaming's review against another edition

2.5

dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

A thriller that doubly relies on an unreliable (and annoying) narrator as well as some outlandish contrivances to make the "twist" happen. I will say I give props to Alex Michaelides for consistent form of short chapters and mostly keeping the pace tight, except for the chapters that's entirely the narrator's "teehee it's just what I wanted to happen" which should dock a star rating on it's own demerit. It's really hard to write a deeply unpleasant narrator and still be compelling, so keeping my attention is still a good feat despite not really liking the book.

Content Warnings

readwithmaryam's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I finally picked this one up after I bought it more than a year ago. I read the silent patient by the same author in 2023 and I still remember how much I loved it-

The story starts off with the main character, Elliot as he tells us this whole story about a unexpected murder that happened on a private island, we see the following characters: Lana Ferrars (the main protagonist you could say?, also very close friends with Elliot, an ex movie star) Kate (a friend of Elliot, and bestfriends with Lana.) Jason ( Lana ferrars husband) Leo (son of Lana ferrars with her ex husband) Barbara west (Elliot’s friend, Elliot lives with her )and 2-3 other side characters- the starting didnt really pull me in exactly and it was boring, but i just trusted my gut and kept going and oh lorddddd the writing is beautiful not too fast paced that it feels like im reading something by a gen Z author, and the biggest pro is that the chapters are very short, and each chapter kind of ends in a cliffhanger which makes you want to turn the page and keep on reading.

I could tell in the middle of the book that Elliot, was an unreliable narrator Z he kept telling about things that never happened and the author showed it beautifully how he struggled with it. I took Elliot for the quite, main character but oh boy was I wrong 💀

I also loved the friendship between Elliot and Lana. You could tell that Elliot definitely fell for Lana when he saw her for the first time- the way they could tell each other anything without any hesitation was so good. I did not like Barbara west at ALL she was a nosy old woman and I know Elliot and she lived together but I did not like some of her actions throughout the book that totally changed a whole side plot. Lana and Jason’s relationship was also very toxic to me and I didn’t like Jason’s character from the start, neither I liked him at any point in the book (you will know why when you read it)

Now let’s talk about the ending, I did not feel that the ending was rushed at all, and I was shocked a lot. I had to close my book for a sec and I just stared at the wall, it was a very un expected twist for me

Also, this book does contain cheating, mention of drugs, drug abuse etc.

Overall I really enjoyed reading this and I would recommend this book to people who love thrillers and have already read lots of them, wouldn’t recommend it if you’re just starting to read thrillers.

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Content Warnings

lulusreads's review against another edition

3.25

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

brookey8888's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I really enjoyed this book! Especially the journey and the way it was told. The ending I didn’t necessarily love, but was entertaining and it didn’t ruin the book for me. I can see why people might not enjoy this with the ways it’s told and also the ending, but like I said I did. Also if you haven’t read the silent patient there’s a spoiler in this book so be warned.

Content Warnings

amyradak's review against another edition

2.0

dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I'm so bummed - I really enjoyed the first 1/3 or so of the book, but by the time I made it to the end, the book ended up being a big miss for me. I found the cast of characters very interesting and well described, and I was enjoying the build up to what I thought would be a thriller-like, 'locked-room (island)' murder mystery. What I got instead was a disjointed story told by an unreliable narrator who had an extremely unhealthy obsession with his unrequited lover. The events of the days leading up to the murder were described several times, each time with a bit more breadcrumbed information that made the reader re-think who the villain was and try to decipher who was backstabbing whom. There were so many simultaneous double-crosses going on that at several points I was truly not sure who, if anyone, had been murdered, let alone who might have done it. There was also so much opining on Elliott (the narrator)'s traumatic past that the book actually ended up being just as much a portrait of Elliott's mental illness as it was about the murder mystery. To top it off, almost all of the characters were extremely unlikeable and treated each other terribly. That and the addition of an infidelity plot really tanked this book for me.

Content Warnings