The Fury follows Elliot as he uncovers the murder on Lana's island. Although this book is branded as a psychological thriller, I would argue that this book is a psychological mystery. As we uncover the clues to this who done it. We also peel back the layers of Elliot and his psychological journey. So join me as we unpack The Fury. In this episode we will be looking into plot, characterization, and themes in the novel.
The Fury follows Elliot as he uncovers the murder on Lana's island. Although this book is branded as a psychological thriller, I would argue that this book is a psychological mystery. As we uncover the clues to this who done it. We also peel back the layers of Elliot and his psychological journey. So join me as we unpack The Fury. In this episode we will be looking into plot, characterization, and themes in the novel.
Alex Micahealides is the king of Psychological thrillers and this book is no exception. I particularly like how this book plays with the tropes of mystery books and typical novels. It is difficult to write a unique thriller, but Michaelides manages to surprise me a bit more with every book. So let’s dive into the plot, characterization ,and themes in The Fury.
The plot of this book was very interesting. The narrator Elliot starts off the book by explaining that this is not your typical who done it. He alludes to Agatha Christie’s at least one or two books throughout the books and keeps telling us that it is not a who done it, yet the book follows all of the typical tropes of a typical who done it until about half way through the book when we start over. So let’s look at the exposition.
What do we know at the beginning of the novel? In the exposition the narrator sets the scene by introducing us to the island and the fates and a beautiful ode to the classics. Elliot also sets the stage by telling us this is not your typical who done it. We know that this will be a different sort of tale. The book is written in second person narration which is an interesting way to approach a thriller. It puts us in the story with him. However, as we continue the story it is unclear if you are us or if it is someone else.
Throughout the novel Elliot leads us to what we think is the climax of the novel and then we backtrack into the past. It starts by backtracking a few days, then a few weeks, then we back up all the way to Elliot’s childhood. Instead of being like detectives in the novel, we are more like Elliot’s psychologist unburying the things he isn’t telling us.
Was I the only one curious to know how he knew everyone’s thoughts and secrets during the first book? I was so confused as to how he knew about Jason’s business doing poorly or how Kate was doing a line of cocaine when he wasn’t there. However, as you peel back the layers it is clear why Elliot thought that he knew what everyone was thinking because he thought that he was the mastermind of the whole plan, until everything back fired. He also kept saying, this is where I knew that everything went wrong, but he just kept pushing through to the end.
I am not going to lie, I got a bit annoyed about the cyclical nature of this book. There are only so many times I want to rehash events that have already happened through a new lens. However, all of the bits and pieces that lead to climax were very exciting. I did think learning about Elliot’s past and where he came from made this whole tale make more sense. And it made the ending make more sense as well.
The climax of the novel is Elliot’s meltdown and his ending of Lana’s life. I thought that this was very well done. Elliot taking the fury into himself and going mad brought the symbols and themes together. Also, when Lana betrays him and everyone gangs up on him it is like he is a kid all over again, and since he had a terrible childhood he is finally lashing out against the person he loved the most.
Honestly after what happened to Elliot on the beach I wasn’t sure that anyone was going to get murdered and then he shoots Lana. I honestly didn’t see that coming. Not with how much elliot loved Lana. Did you see it coming? I will talk more about this scene later when I delve more into the themes of the novel.
So let’s unpack the resolution of the book. For me the book ended with more questions than it answered, so here were some of the questions I had and my thoughts about them.
Question #1 The question is who was elliot talking to? Were we the audience or was it someone else?
I think that elliot was talking to his inner child. At the very end he talks about taking his inner child out and telling him a story. So it makes sense that this was the story that he was telling. Also, keeps saying that he you, you being the audience member, are just sitting there and listening. So it makes sense that it wasn’t us he was talking to but himself. Now instead of lying to himself about what happened we see him embrace his whole self. Instead of the lies he has been telling himself. Maybe he was finally able to grow up by the end of this book at the age of 40.
Question #2
What do you think the ending of this book meant? Why do you think Micahaelides chose to end it like this?
Because this book was as it I have said multiple times “your typical who done it” I think the ending of this book was a way to set this book apart from other mysteries and thriller novels. Micahaelides reminds me of a modern Edgar Allen Poe. He writes to explore the darker side of people’s minds and seeks to explore what crazy people might see the world. I enjoy this lens because it helps me to understand how they see the world and how I need to change the way I see the world to avoid stepping into a similar pattern
#3 Did Marian say that her friend theo was in the pysch ward now? Is this the same theo that we saw earlier in the book and he is out of revenge or has been affected by what happened on the island? Or was this just something I misunderstood?
#4 what happened to kate and jason after the island?
#5 Did Elliot actually kill Barbara West or do you think it was really an accident? I was actually surprised, but not really surprised, that Elliot didn’t actually write that play. It was a plagiarism of barbara west, but I guess he felt like he deserved the credit since he took care of her and she didn’t leave him anything else.
Those were just a few of the questions I had by the end of the book. Did you have any unanswered questions that I missed? Make sure to let me know in the comments below.
Characterization:
Elliot is such an interesting narrator. From the beginning of the book, we know that we cannot trust him. He starts by talking about how he is not trustworthy because he is part of the story. Not a main character, but someone in the story; however, he also talks about unreliable narrators. In a monologue he says“And before you accuse me of telling my story in a labyrinthine manner, let me remind you this is a true story—and in real life, that’s how we communicate, isn’t it? We’re all over the place: we jump back and forth in time; slow down and expand on some moments; fast-forward through others; editing as we go, minimizing flaws and maximizing assets. We are all the unreliable narrators of our own lives.”
So we know at the get go that we cannot trust him; however, like in Michaelides other books Elliot grows on us, or maybe it was just me, and I came to accept his narrative although it was clearly very biased.
The longer we read the book the more truth we are able to uncover about Elliot and how his name wasn’t actually Elliot at all. In his younger years Elliot struggled with his home life, we knew from the get go that his parents paid little to no attention to him, but not only that he was bullied at school. Elliot didn’t have anyone to stand up for him, and he didn’t stand up for himself either, instead he just keeps taking it hoping it will stop. As he grows up, Elliot falls in love with the screen version of Lana and then finds a way to insert himself in her life.
He meets Barbara West at a bar and she takes him under her wing. I am still unsure about their relationship, but it seems like he just moved in with her so she wasn’t as lonely. Elliot grows closer to Lana, and if it weren’t for his notebook and his psychotic rambling, it seems like she would have fallen for him as well. At least, that is what elliot wanted us, aka himself, to believe.
Elliot is clearly a tortured character.
What I found most interesting about Elliot is that we considered himself a playwright, even though he had not successfully written a play. In this book he is staging his own life. He gives everyone a role and people play their parts. He dissects his world as if it were a screenplay telling us about the acts and the rising action as if his whole life were just one play. It was an interesting way to view the world and I enjoyed it.
It was interesting being in Elliot's head and seeing the world through his eyes. I feel like we move from Elliot lying to himself to him being able to tell the truth of what happened as the book progresses. Although he felt like it was only worth telling his story to an audience, it is clear that him telling himself this story was the best thing he could do for himself.
The rest of the characters in this novel were there as stock characters for Elliot to take the main stage. It is unclear whether we can trust Elliot’s analysis of them because who knows how much of it he made up for dramatization and how much of it was actually true. So while we can dig into Elliot's characterization, the characterization of the other characters give us more insight into our main character's mind and not really the people who they were.
And that leads us perfectly into themes.
The first idea this book covers is that life is all just one big performance. Elliot says:
“I often think life is just a performance. None of this is real. It's a pretense at reality, that's all. Only when someone, or something, we love dies, do we wake up from the play-and see how artificial it all is-this constructed reality we inhabit.”
Later he says:
“The real tragedy is, of course, by always looking outward, by focusing so intently on the other person's experience, we lose touch with our own. It's as if we live our entire life pretending to be ourselves, as imposters impersonating ourselves, rather than feeling this is really me, this is who I am.”
Now while some parts of our lives might feel like a performance, I think that most of Elliot’s life was constructed. He hid his true self from Lana and the rest of the world in order to fit in. He shows the version of himself that he wants people to know. He is not himself but a fake person.
Now I do not think that there are many people like Elliot in the world, but it is hard to say. With social media and other internet apps it is easy to create a persona and become someone that you are not. What we learn from Elliot is that keeping that true someone deep down is very dangerous.
An interesting symbol in this book was the wind. The wind gave us insight into what was going on in Elliot’s mind. Like wind used to in the tradition of greek stories, the wind showed that something bad was coming. Here is a quote about the wind and ties it to this idea that elliot is constantly staging a play in his mind:
“We suddenly realize that life is in no way lasting, or permanent; no future exists—and nothing we do matters. And in desolation, we howl and scream and rail at the heavens, until, at some point, we do the inevitable: we eat, dress, and brush our teeth. We continue with the marionette-like motions of life, however unhinged it feels to do so. Then, ever so slowly, the illusion takes over again—until we forget that we are actors in a play.”
Like the wind, he howls and screams and rails. I do love when authors use the setting to help tell a tale, and here the narrator knows about the classic tradition and uses it to set his scene.
So what can we take from this? I think we find the answer in this short quote here
“If you're afraid, you can't be authentic.”
The next idea from this book is the idea of the inner child. After seeing going to group therapy Elliot learns about this idea of the inner child from Mariana. Here is the direct quote:
“Trapped here.” Mariana tapped the side of her head. “A frightened child is hiding in your mind—still unsafe; still unheard and unloved. And the sooner you get in touch with that child and learn to communicate with them, the more harmonious your life will be.” I must have looked dubious because Mariana delivered the killer blow directly to me: “After all, that’s what he grew you for, isn’t it, Elliot? A strong adult body, to look after him and his interests? To take care of him, protect him? You were meant to liberate him—but ended up becoming his jailer.”
This is an idea that Elliot internalizes and really becomes the main struggle in the book. Elliot feels like he was forever a child, frozen in the moment of when everything bad happened to him. He wasn’t really able to grow and progress emotionally. So he will always be looking for someone to love him unconditionally like his parents did not. Here is a quote from Elliot about his childhood:
“Don’t feel bad for me; this isn’t a misery memoir. Just a simple statement of fact. It’s a familiar enough tale, I suspect. Like all too many children, I endured an upbringing characterized by long periods of abandonment and neglect, both physical and emotional. I was rarely touched, or played with, barely held by my mother—and the only time my father laid a hand on me was in anger. This I find harder to forgive. Not the physical violence, you understand, which I soon learned to accept as a part of life, but the lack of touch—and its repercussions for me, later, as an adult. How can I put it? It left me unused to—even afraid of?—the touch of another. And it has made intimate relationships, emotional or physical, extremely difficult.”
This difficult childhood kept him from getting a proper education and a proper understanding of life. I really do feel bad for Elliot. He tried his best to move on from his past, but it kept wiggling out like a worm. I guess that is why you shouldn’t repress your feelings.
One quote that really stood out to me was this:
“Once I saw the kid in me, I started seeing kids in other people—all dressed as adults, playacting at being grown-up. But I saw through the performances now, to the frightened children beneath. And when you think of someone as a child, it’s impossible for you to feel hatred.”
I love the idea that each of us has an inner child. It is similar to the idea that we are all dealing with things that are not always visible. But when you think of it of everyone having an inner child it is a nice way of having empathy for them. It is difficult to hate children. They are so young, perfect, and innocent. Therefore, if we look for everyone’s inner child we are able to see past the mistakes, or choices they have made and see them as a person who is trying their best. Just like you.
The last idea that is repeated over and over again in this book is the role between fate vs freewill. This is a topic that is covered by many classic pieces of literature. We see it in greek plays, retellings of greek plays such as julius cesar and percy jackson. It is a question that haunts many of us. Are we the masters of our own fate or like in this book, is fate just a character in our own lives.
I am not sure that this book really answers that question. Was Elliot in control of his own life, or was he doomed to become this person? I am not sure. He did not have a great childhood, but many people are able to overcome an unhappy childhood and become high functioning adults. However; Elliot didn’t finish school, and he did “questionable things” in order to live, but he didn’t have to kill lana.
I for one believe that we have control of our own fate. Yes, your choices might be terrible, but fate is just a character in our lives. We cannot control what happens to us, but we can control how we respond to it.
I think the message the Michelaides wanted us to take about fate from this book is that you aren’t doomed to be a bad person or a good person. We are all a combination of both. We are our own narrators creating our own stories, yes, and that may make us unreliable, unless we tell our stories, we seek to see our story in an unbiased light. If we, like Elliot, tell ourselves the truth then we are able to make fate a character in our own story instead of letting fate control our story.
Overall I thought that this was an excellent and original novel. Though the book was a bit repetitive I enjoyed peeling back the layers of the story as we uncovered all of the truth. Instead of the author leading us to clue, he was leading us through the lies that Elliot had told himself. He was unpeeling the persona that Elliot created so we can see the real him. It was interesting, exciting, and a bit creepy. I hope that you enjoyed reading this one as much as I did.
I hope you have enjoyed this episode of according to your english teacher. I would love to connect with you on social media or feel free to send me an email. My email is atyet33@gmail.com or you can find me on instagram at according.toyourenglishteacher. I would love to hear more of your thoughts on this book or any of the other novels you have been reading recently.
Also if you liked this episode please make sure to leave the podcast a review or give the episode a thumbs up. That would mean that world to me.
Let me leave you with one final quote from the novel that stuck with me:
“But then, if I wasn’t the Tin Man … who was I? To my dismay, I realized I must be the Wizard of Oz himself. I was an illusion—a conjuring trick, operated by a frightened man, cowering behind a curtain. Who are you? I wonder. Ask yourself this honestly; and you might be surprised at the answer. But will you be honest? That’s the real question, I think.”
This episode was written by me, Sam Gunther, and edited by Dallin Gunther. The music was produced by Tom Brinton. I hope you have enjoyed this episode and please stay tuned for next week as we dive into The Huntress by Kate Quinn.