Book Review #126: The Fury by Alex Michaelides

A former movie star and a group of her family and friends take a spontaneous trip to a private island. By the end of the vacation, one of them has been murdered. 

I've read Michaelides' first two books, and I didn't love either of them. I rated them a 2.5 and 2 respectively, out of 5. I pre-ordered this book because I wanted to give the author one more chance, and this seemed like the perfect way to do it. The premise was reminiscent of 'The Guest List' by Lucy Foley, which I loved. But I was completely aware going into this that, if I didn't like it, it would probably be the last Michaelides book I pick up.

So yeah, I hate using the word 'hate' to describe the entirety of how I felt, but I really really didn't like this book.

The only thing I really liked was the length of the prologue. I'm not a huge fan of prologues, but this one was the perfect length. 

My first gripe is with the narrator. I hated his voice from the very beginning, as it was quite jarring. Some people may like it, but breaking the fourth wall while telling a story in this format doesn't really work for me (though it might work better if it was on screen). So because of that, I didn't like the way the entire story was told.

I was 100 pages in when I realised, not only did I not know who had been murdered or why, but I didn't care about any of the characters. In fact, I didn't even feel like I knew them. And all in all we never really get to know them as well as we can - the only thing we know is how unlikeable they are!

The storytelling strays so far from the main story that so much of this book feels like a giant waste of time. The story could have been told in half the pages - it's crazy how little time we spend on the island considering that's the main plot!

And in that, not much actually happens. The book feels like it could be a short story because the actual events are limited, and then other things we don't care about are unnecessarily drawn out.

While I will say that the book is never boring, and is not badly written at all, it just felt a bit pointless. I don't understand why this story had to be told.

The ending was really disappointing. While reading 'The Silent Patient', the ending was absolutely what saved it for me. And even with 'The Maidens', the ending wasn't great, but it was a good read. This ending was so disappointing I had to roll my eyes. What was the point of that character??

I've read a couple of Goodreads reviews and it's worth noting (something I didn't think about), the end of this book spoils 'The Silent Patient' in a major way, so that's definitely worth considering if you want to read this and haven't read either of the first two (only semi-related) books. 

Overall, I don't recommend this. It felt like a real waste of time, and while I'm glad I read it, I don't think I'll be reading anything else from this author.

1.5/5