Alex Michaelides’s, “The Silent Patient”, has been my favourite psychological thrillers of all times. His next book, “The Maidens”, was good too but didn’t match his debut work. “The Fury” is his third book and I was eagerly awaiting its release. To say I was disappointed with it would be an understatement. For the most part it didn’t feel like Alex’s work. It felt as if an overbearing, overindulgent and arrogant writer has written this shoddy story masquerading as a thriller, who is supremely confident that his readers will like it no matter how abysmal the plot is.
As far as the story goes, it’s about this famous Hollywood star, Lana Farrar who goes on this impromptu trip to an isolated Greek island along with her second husband Jason, her friends Kate and Elliot, her son Leo and her assistant Agathi. One of them gets murdered on the island and the rest of the story is about finding the killer. The narration is lethargic and it takes forever for events to unfold. Also, the writer has deployed one of the characters as the storyteller who takes you on this never ending journey and keeps dangling the proverbial carrot of something exciting and unexpected to happen, in front of us readers; only that it’s never as what is promised. I have to say, the narrator is irritating, irrelevant at times and nauseatingly pompous. Lana is the most boring one dimensional character I have ever read. So are the rest, mostly brimming with one particular emotion for the entire narrative. I also wondered why is everyone acting the way they did; what is prompting them to be so unlikeable and monotonous. The climax is extremely make believe, stretched beyond imagination and utterly implausible. What happened to Alex Michaelides?
Some people are one time wonders. If that is the case, swallow that tough pill and stay put. Don’t write a fury!
~ JUST A GAY BOY. 😖😠
the shiny diaries 