Dark. Snarky. Unexpectedly clever. Fury pretends to be a surface-level story of spoiled, shallow, teenagers, but slowly reveals great depth. 

 

It subverts YA expectations and takes you on a thrilling ride as you work to decipher truths from lies. 

 

Teenage Eliza Boans is sitting in a police station, held on a murder charge. But who was killed - and why? On the outside, Eliza has a picture perfect life: a beautiful home in an exclusive community, a great education, and a popular friend group. 

 

But not everything is as it seems.

 

You’re led to believe Eliza is a cruel, unfeeling, unflinching queen bee. And to an extent … she is. But beneath her cold exterior, she’s a broken girl with a fiery, protective rage. She’s standing up for others that are wronged and struggling to find her own independence and stay safe (while essentially raising herself). 

 

She’s an unreliable narrator - both to readers and to herself - as her perception of events waxes and wanes, and everything is filtered through her cynical worldview. Eliza lives in a walled community, and she herself has giant walls. She’s unapologetic and never asks for your pity.

 

 

Eliza is unlikeable, yes. Even monstrous at times. But I found her to be a sympathetic character, warped by her circumstances and forced to view all vulnerability as a potential weakness that others might exploit. She’s intensely loyal to her friends. She’s a witty challenger to her distant mother. She’s even hesitantly sweet with a friend from childhood. 

 

Fury is a story of vengeance (with plenty of winks to the Greek Furies, who inspired the title). It’s about wronged women taking fate into their own hands, trying to unravel the threads and the “hows” and not understanding that sometimes life is out of your control.

 

Pick up Fury for its venomous prose, for its unflinching teenage rage, and for what shimmers beneath the surface.

 

CW: murder, death, rape, sexual assault, bullying, eating disorders, fatphobia, suicide, gun violence, animal cruelty, animal death, infidelity