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A review by marik0n
The Fury by Alex Michaelides
slow-paced
0.0
*Spoiler free review*
The only book I enjoyed by Michaelides was -and is bound to remain as it seems- The Silent Patient
I didn’t like The Maidens but I was willing to give him another chance with this book.
However, I was kind of worried before I even picked up the book because it takes place in Greece. As a Greek person, I hate when books written by non-Greeks take place here since they often tend to portrait modern Greek people as ‘noble savages’. I don’t know. The overall vibe makes it seem like we are naïve, borderline uncivilized and live behind the moon. I absolutely hate it, but of course, despite my high hopes, this book was no exception to the rule. Also, I hated how Lana was refered to as Greek goddess all the time. Like, have you seen statues of Aphrodite? She would be brutally body shamed nowadays, stop trying to convince as that a skinny American could ever be compared to her.
Other than that, I found myself endelessly annoyed by the narrator. Right from the start, it is obvious that he is extremely self-absorbed and continuously messes up the narration. Then he proceeds to writing a whole paragraph to pinpoint that he messed up the narration. I mean, come on. At some point (early on) we learn that our narrator is Elliot, a leech. I hated him just for the way he was narrating this story. He didn't have to do anything else for me to absolutely despise him, but of course he did. All this back and forth without actually progressing anything was extremely tiring.
I don’t know how or why this book is characterized a thriller. It is just ‘deep complexes meet money and we also threw in some theater-related crappy wanna be philosophy’. There is not really a point in the whole book. It keeps trying to lure you in with the murder, but the actual murder doesn’t take place until almost the last chapter and frankly the plot just doesn’t hold. The ending and the supposedly plot twists didn’t do anything for me. Lastly, I did not really get to know the characters, connect with them or even come to care what happens.
Overall it was a great disappointment for me. If you really want to read something by Michaelides I would suggest sticking to the Silent Patient, even though this book isn’t everyone’s cup of tea and has its fair share of negative reviews. Personally, I would advice investing your time to other books that happen to be simply… better.
The only book I enjoyed by Michaelides was -and is bound to remain as it seems- The Silent Patient
I didn’t like The Maidens but I was willing to give him another chance with this book.
However, I was kind of worried before I even picked up the book because it takes place in Greece. As a Greek person, I hate when books written by non-Greeks take place here since they often tend to portrait modern Greek people as ‘noble savages’. I don’t know. The overall vibe makes it seem like we are naïve, borderline uncivilized and live behind the moon. I absolutely hate it, but of course, despite my high hopes, this book was no exception to the rule. Also, I hated how Lana was refered to as Greek goddess all the time. Like, have you seen statues of Aphrodite? She would be brutally body shamed nowadays, stop trying to convince as that a skinny American could ever be compared to her.
Other than that, I found myself endelessly annoyed by the narrator. Right from the start, it is obvious that he is extremely self-absorbed and continuously messes up the narration. Then he proceeds to writing a whole paragraph to pinpoint that he messed up the narration. I mean, come on. At some point (early on) we learn that our narrator is Elliot, a leech. I hated him just for the way he was narrating this story. He didn't have to do anything else for me to absolutely despise him, but of course he did. All this back and forth without actually progressing anything was extremely tiring.
I don’t know how or why this book is characterized a thriller. It is just ‘deep complexes meet money and we also threw in some theater-related crappy wanna be philosophy’. There is not really a point in the whole book. It keeps trying to lure you in with the murder, but the actual murder doesn’t take place until almost the last chapter and frankly the plot just doesn’t hold. The ending and the supposedly plot twists didn’t do anything for me. Lastly, I did not really get to know the characters, connect with them or even come to care what happens.
Overall it was a great disappointment for me. If you really want to read something by Michaelides I would suggest sticking to the Silent Patient, even though this book isn’t everyone’s cup of tea and has its fair share of negative reviews. Personally, I would advice investing your time to other books that happen to be simply… better.