Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

A fúria by Alex Michaelides

10 reviews

nicoleanthony's review against another edition

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Death, Infidelity, Alcoholism, and Gun violence

lanternheart's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

A gripping, exhilarating, and at turns deeply suspenseful story that was difficult to put down whenever I began a session of reading it. This is my first time reading Michaelides, after being recommended another of his books, The Silent Patient. Having now read The Fury, specifically the last ninety-odd pages in a dizzying haze of twists, accusations, revenge, and sickening realization, I can confidently say that I look forward to reading Michaelides' previous works, as well as whatever he writes next.

The conceit of this book very much, at turns, reminded me of Donna Tartt's The Secret History, with the first-person retrospective of a narrator telling us their increasingly twisted, increasingly murderous, tale. Like Tartt's Richard Papen, Elliott Chase is a manufactured man of sorts, a desperate outsider to a world of privilege (here, Hollywood and the London theater scene, in TSH an elite group of students) and insularity that the desperate, painfully lonely child within the narrator seeks to become a part of at any cost.

Where the books diverge is the sheer number of twists, and the sheer Machiavellian ways that Elliott Chase, as The Fury continues, twists from semi-sympathetic narrator, gathering the reader to a story, to villain as the realization hits that he

orchestrated faking his best friend and near-lover Lana's murder to be with her

. That Elliott

does not succeed, but is instead foiled by Lana's having found out his plan, found it disturbing, and decided to betray him from the outset in her own form of justice, her own betrayal, and chooses to take back her life from every man who's ever orchestrated it,

is a brilliant climax.

As much as Elliott tells us he loves Lana, it's clear that his own attitude, his own belief that the others in his life he can orchestrate to make them love him, because he believes it will end in love, is folly of the utmost, a quest for self-fulfillment in a way that made me, as a reader, question everyone he says he loves. Of course, some of his affections felt genuine, but how much was this always about Lana herself? How much, in the end, as he describes himself having

murdered her out of potent rage, out of fury, yet still seeing her in his mind as the woman on the big movie screen while he sits, glowing, in front of it as a child,

was it always about having fallen in love with the image he wanted of a woman who loved him?

Elliott's near-fatal mistake is believing that he, like the novel itself, like the structure of it, holds all the power: that the people in his life are characters whom he can control. When he tries, in his own narration, to want to "interrupt them—to say, No, no, you're not meant to be saying that and This shouldn't be happening. But it was happening," he all too late realizes the sheer unpredictability of others, and in turn the sheer unpredictability of himself, embodied by the furious island winds into murdering the woman he thought he'd loved in cold, furious blood.

Needless to say, this was a gripping, disturbing, and deeply fascinating read that will doubtlessly offer a fruitful future reread which, despite my discomfort with Elliott as a narrator (the further you go, the less likeable he is), will likely propel me to return again, knowing all the twists, to see the eventual tragic ending. Like a good play, I have a feeling you could read this book more than once, see it more than once, and pick up something new each time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Alcoholism, Cursing, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Blood, and Vomit

nicolesbookreviews's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Bullying, Death, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Stalking, and Toxic friendship

kshertz's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I thought this was quite the thriller. You realize it’s an unreliable narrator and you’re not hearing the truth so the whole time you’re trying to figure out what actually happened. It was excellent and kept me glued to the book. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Murder, and Violence

sara_marie4815's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Bullying

miggyfool's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Stalking, Alcoholism, Bullying, Death of parent, Classism, Alcohol, Blood, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Sexism, Suicide attempt, Adult/minor relationship, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Gun violence, Infidelity, Misogyny, Body horror, Drug use, Addiction, Drug abuse, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic friendship

honeybeewitched87's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Grief, Alcohol, Gun violence, Infidelity, Murder, Death, Gaslighting, Drug use, Mental illness, Toxic friendship, Violence, Blood, and Stalking

Minor: Sexual content

kimveach's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book was a long, slow tease, but it worked for me.  I liked the twists and turns, misdirection, and unreliable narrator.  If you like this author's style, I think you'll like this book as much as I did.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexism, Vomit, Sexual harassment, Alcohol, Classism, Alcoholism, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Gaslighting, Murder, Abandonment, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Cursing, Medical content, Medical trauma, Blood, Suicidal thoughts, Death, Grief, Gore, Toxic friendship, Violence, and Panic attacks/disorders

kris386's review against another edition

slow-paced

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Mental illness, Bullying, Murder, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Addiction, Emotional abuse, Vomit, Alcohol, Infidelity, Drug use, and Gun violence

Moderate: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Child abuse, and Blood

kayceeisbookish's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

A bewitching blend of Agatha Christie, Clue, and Knives Out/Glass Onion. This spectacular performance left me on the edge of my seat at curtain call.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Grief, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Cursing, Bullying, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Murder, Toxic friendship, Animal death, Blood, Drug abuse, Abandonment, Addiction, Alcohol, and Death