The Fury by Alex Michaelides is a fun who dunnit mystery filled with drama on a remote island location. The Fury relies heavily on an unreliable narrator which is sometimes annoying but overall effective. The narrative is a clever twist on Shakespeare’s Othello. If you know the story of Othello nothing will be ruined or spoiled, but I found a lot of similarities in the story. The pace of this story is rapid, I was able to easily knock this book out with a few hours of reading. A few of the twists and turns make this book hard to put down. The characters are not that likable which for most stories wouldn’t work, but for this story, it adds to the drama of any of these characters can kill or be killed. The writing of the story though fun is a big step down in quality from previous works that were very sophisticated where this story is more sophomoric. The writing had a reality TV show feel whereas The Silent Patient had a True Detective feel to it. That being said I liked this novel quite a bit more than The Maidens. Michaelides does reward the readers in connecting The Fury to The Silent Patient through Theo. I got to read The Fury thanks to Netgalley and Celadon Books for giving me a free copy for review. The Fury was published on January 16, 2024.

Plot Summary: Lana is a retired famous actress who owns a remote island in Greece. Her vacation getaway is the only home on the island. She has invited friends and family to a getaway from a rainy London to the island. On the island out of 7 people will be murdered. We don’t know who the murderer is and who gets murdered, but our unreliable narrator who we know is one of the people on the island said the who is not the question but the why?

What I Liked: I love a good twist and there are a few great ones in this story. As a reader, I do appreciate the Easter Eggs he has placed in both novels after The Silent Patient connecting them all to The Silent Patient in some way. The unreliable narrator for the most part works well, some of it’s annoying, but there’s a twist at the end that explains some of my complaints. I do like the way each suspect is broken down they are done in an unlikable way since the narrator doesn’t like most people which worked for the story. I feel all the twists and turns were explained well and plausible.

What I Disliked: The title and how it related to the story did not work for me. The story has a weather motif that just didn’t work for me and I felt was a bit distracting. The word choices for Michaelides were shockingly basic it was something I looked forward to in other works, there’s a twist in the story that explains it later. I liked the first dream sequence, but the second one kind of made me mad as it went on for too long.

Recommendations: I will recommend this fun mystery as a quick easy read with lots of twists and turns. The novel is filled with lots of drama it reminded me so much of reality television. Under the surface, it is a remake of Othello with enough twist to make it fun and new. This is way different from the other Alex Michaelides works The Maidens and The Silent Patient. I liked The Fury more than The Maidens, but this is a far cry from the near-perfect The Silent Patient.

Rating: I rated The Fury by Alex Michaelides 4 out of 5 stars. I feel that the fun factor pushed this novel to a 3.6 rating.