Fury (Fury Trilogy) by Elizabeth Miles
| Fury (Fury Trilogy) by Elizabeth Miles | |
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| Category: Teens | |
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Reviewer: Jill Murphy
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| Summary: An interesting new entry into the overheated paranormal romance genre, using the mythological Furies and eschewing a neat and tidy ending. I liked the high tragedy feel, which gives it an original slant. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 384 | Date: September 2011 |
| Publisher: Simon & Schuster | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 0857071998 | |
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Both the central characters in Fury have dark secrets. Em is in love with her best friend's boyfriend. So when Gabby goes away on a winter holiday and Zach starts flirting with her, Em just can't resist even though she knows she's doing something unforgivable. Chase lives on a trailer park but runs with a rich crowd. He'll do just about anything to maintain his place in the group - and there's something he has done to that end of which he's deeply ashamed.
But their small American town has come to the notice of three otherworldly sisters. The Furies have come to Ascension and Em and Chase are about to discover that feeling guilty isn't the only price they'll be paying for their misdeeds...
Reviews of Fury so far seem very mixed - there are a quite few naysayers. This surprised me because I rather liked it and I'm not the biggest fan of paranormal romance.
Miles has borrowed from the Ancient Greek mythos, using the Furies as her villains, and both her plot and characters also take elements from that canon. So, just as in the legends, Em and Chase aren't particularly sympathetic - they're selfish and petty and jealous. But they are very real. It might be wrong to hook up with your best friend's boyfriend, as Em does, but plenty of teen girls are doing it right this very minute. It might be wrong to shore up your own precarious position in the school social pecking order by picking on someone weaker, as Chase does, but plenty of kids are doing it right this very minute.
As the legends run too, the punishments in Fury don't really fit the crimes. Em and Chase are sinners, but their sins are commonplace. Much worse is going on in the world. They're not even the meanest people in the book - in Em's case particularly, the main mover is Zach, with Em shown as weak, a little bit spoiled and easily manipulated rather than wicked. So why do the Furies choose these two kids to punish when there are dozens of candidates from whom to choose? I liked this randomness, this injustice, this sense of being helpless at the hands of capricious, spiteful deities. It gave Fury a high tragedy feel, missing from many paranormal romance stories, which are, for the most part, Mills & Boons with fangs or wings or whatevers.
Perhaps this difference is what disappointed some reviewers? They wanted something more familiar and didn't get it? There certainly isn't a hero or heroine you'd really want to root for in Fury, unless you count the rather underwritten JD. I thought this was a good thing, but I can see why some fans wouldn't.
So I'm recommending Fury to fans of paranormal romance who feel the genre is getting a bit stale and are looking for something new. I think they'll find much to like. There's a lot of romance, a little touch of horror, and plenty of moral ambiguity.
My thanks to the good people at Simon & Schuster for sending the book.
There's a super dedicated site for Fury. Take a look!
This, as I'm sure we all know, is an overheated genre. Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick is also free from an entirely happy ending in which all loose ends are tied up. Angel by Cliff McNish is set in the UK - which makes a nice change from the American freshmen, juniors and seniors - and has more in the way of philosophy and less in the way of snogging.
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You can read more book reviews or buy Fury (Fury Trilogy) by Elizabeth Miles at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
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