Hell hath no fury like a reader bored. Not only bored, but irritated at what should have been a succinct twisting tale full of drama and thrilling suspense. Instead, I seem to have been subjected to an unfortunate case of deja vu and a pretentious, unreliable narrator who cannot stand to listen to anyone else speak but himself. Alex Michaelides’s The Fury, a novel linked to The Silent Patient and The Maidens, is my third and final novel of his that I will read and I will be glad to get some distance.

It that a harsh way to start a review? Maybe, but I’m coming straight off the final page with this one and I have many things to be peeved about. For one, I seem to have become the embodiment of the book’s title with these 295 pages. I am Aura in all her wild and raw glory and all because of this book. Let me take a moment to grab a glass of water, maybe go outside and find my cat to pet, before I come back and dissect this novel for you to consider.

I will start with the following: if you are a fan of Alex Michaelidies and Riley Sager, then you will enjoy this book. If you enjoy chaos and messiness and characters who aren’t likeable then you will enjoy this book. If you enjoy a thriller that has a cast of characters that you cannot trust in any capacity, then you will enjoy this book. I know i said in my April Reading Summary that this narrative style felt reminiscent of Benjamin Stevenson’s Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone, but this took it several steps too far across the line for my tastes. I don’t mind a retrospective perspective, a narrator writing post event and adding their little fourth wall breaks here and there, but this felt like I was forced to listen to someone take digression after digression for the sake of making himself more important, more significant to the story, and more interesting to the reader. It had the adverse affect on me and, if anything, lead me to the conclusion a lot sooner than Alex Michaelides wanted.

I need to give you all a warning before you pick The Fury up, and I am in no way saying you shouldn’t read this if you know you will like it. Before you start reading know this – this narrative goes back and forward in time and makes many assumptions as to what others are feeling and thinking. When I say back and forth, I mean to the point that you will get annoyed that you have to be taken back to another point in time before getting any answers. I want a little pissed off while reading to say the least. 200 pages in I was debating whether or not I should just DNF it and move on because I didn’t care for any of the characters, didn’t want to know the full story, and quite frankly couldn’t care less what happened to anyone involved. There was no emotional attachment made between characters and the reader in part because of the heavily involved narrative voice and unreliability of this narrator. The other part is due to not having any of the characters in a position where the reader would feel sympathetic toward them outside of the narrator’s imposing voice. All I can say is I wish I spared myself the disappointment and the wasted time and switched it out for my next read.

This is entirely subjective – this whole review that seems to be more of a rant than a review at this point. I have learnt some things that I can take away from today’s reading so it’s not all doom and gloom. One, it is safe to say that Alex Michaelides is not the novelist for me. Two, hyped thriller and suspense novels on Booktok and Bookstagram tend to be underwhelming for me and I am better off finding something else. Three, thriller and suspenses don’t hit the same points they used to and it might be worth shelving some tbrs for a while until the itch comes back. If you do pick up The Fury, I hope you enjoy it. If you’re not sure about it, I’d say wait a few weeks and if you’re still not sold on it then pass it up.