Fury [Hardcover]

Elizabeth Miles (Author)

Book Description

Release date: August 30, 2011 | Series: Fury (Book 1)

Sometimes sorry isn't enough....

It’s winter break in Ascension, Maine. The snow is falling and everything looks pristine and peaceful. But not all is as it seems...

Between cozy traditions and parties with her friends, Emily loves the holidays. And this year’s even better--the guy she’s been into for months is finally noticing her. But Em knows if she starts things with him, there’s no turning back. Because his girlfriend is Em’s best friend.

On the other side of town, Chase is having problems of his own. The stress of his home life is starting to take its toll, and his social life is unraveling. But that’s nothing compared to what’s really haunting him. Chase has done something cruel...something the perfect guy he pretends to be would never do. And it’s only a matter of time before he’s exposed.

In Ascension, mistakes can be deadly. And three girls—three beautiful, mysterious girls—are here to choose who will pay.

Em and Chase have been chosen. "Achingly gorgeous. Fury seduced me."--Lauren Kate, New York Times bestselling author of Fallen "A fresh dark twist on paranormal, with surprises around every corner. FURY kept me up all night!" --Nancy Holder, NYT Bestselling Author of WICKED and CRUSADE

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Achingly gorgeous. Fury seduced me."--Lauren Kate, New York Times bestselling author of Fallen

"A fresh dark twist on paranormal, with surprises around every corner. Fury kept me up all night!"

--Nancy Holder, New York Times Bestselling Author of Wicked and Crusade

"The furies are reinvented in eerie modern form, wreaking havoc in the lives of a group of teens in a fictional Maine town in this spine-prickling debut, first in a planned trilogy.... Deliciously chilling." --Kirkus Reviews, July 15, 2011

“Pick up Portland writer Elizabeth Miles' first novel, "Fury," and you might wonder if Stephen King once drove to her house from Bangor, sprinkling handfuls of "Carrie" dust along the way.... Greater forces are at work here than raging teenage hormones. Greater achievements are at stake than basketball games or going steady. And greater consequences await than any of the young people of Ascension can envision.”  –The Portland Press Herald

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About the Author

Elizabeth Miles lives in Portland, Maine, and writes for an alternative newsweekly. Visit her online at ElizabethMilesBooks.com, at Facebook.com/ElizabethMilesWrites, and follow her on Twitter at @MilesBooks.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Simon Pulse (August 30, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1442422246
• ISBN-13: 978-1442422247
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (75 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,028,450 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars A poorly conceived story with mediocre characters and writing. September 19, 2011

By Wendy Darling

Format:Hardcover

The pitch for this book is fabulous, and it's easy to see why it got the green light: a group of beautiful girls, loosely based on the Greek Furies, punishes teenagers for their indiscretions. Add to that an insanely gorgeous cover using a model with glorious red hair in a flowing dress, and most people are going to be irresistibly drawn to it. I know I was. Even now when I look at this beautiful girl on the cover, I want so badly to forgive her for her toxic contents. But I can't do it, my lovely girl. I just can't.

The marketing package is actually very misleading. From the synopsis and cover art, I expected a fairly typical paranormal YA novel, but what's inside is actually much closer to horror-lite. Emily and Chase are both doing naughty, naughty things during winter break, and most of the book follows one drawn-out example after the other of all the dirty little things that kids can get up to. Emily's lusting after her best friend's boyfriend Zach. Chase is constantly looking for his next hook-up and may have been involved in the death of a girl last year. Pretty much all the teens in this town have some sort of sin to atone for, with the exception of the near-saintly, handy-car-service-provider J.D.

The Furies themselves are mostly just...pretty. Seriously, there is more time spent on descriptions of their physical beauty and their clothes and the red orchids they leave behind than on any real attempt to teach anyone a lesson. Because their lessons mostly involve luring people to their deaths, which isn't really helpful to anyone. Sure, the women in the original myths meted out death like candy, but they were also monstrously ugly and their stories were really short. If you're going to expect us to sit through several hundred pages of relentless pursuit and punishment, there has to be some sort of sympathetic quality in the main characters or some sort of redemption or justice in their deaths. And while it's true that nearly every boy in this book is a jerk and nearly every girl acts like a bitch (at least at some point) and the things these kids do are despicable, none of them are things they should actually be killed for.

The writing is inexpert (most of the back story and many events are just told, not shown), the dialogue is uninspired, the story is pretty sketchy and not very well structured, the characters are one-dimensional and mostly there to drive the plot, and the whole set-up just does not work. Why aren't these girls going after kids who have abused animals or pushed someone down the stairs or something like that? Because those scenarios aren't that sexy, that's why. This book is much more interested in exploring cheap, tawdry tricks and melodramatic or titillating scenarios. There is scene after scene of public humiliation, constant drinking, and disgusting behavior all around. I also despise the use of certain derogatory terms for the sake of fluff entertainment, even if the people using it clearly aren't supposed to be.

There is a marginally interesting event towards the end which is clearly the set-up for the next book, but overall, this first installment in the series has very little to recommend it. I'm sure this series is going to have its share of fans, but I personally found Fury to be nothing short of infuriating.

*An advance copy of this book was provided by the publisher for review.*

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Apathy is the the dominating emotion I feel having finished FURY August 30, 2011

By Abigail TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

FURY is the story of two loosely connected--at least initially--characters whose amoral actions cause them to become the targets of Furies, mythological creatures whose sole purpose is punish. The chapters alternate between Em, the rich girl in love with her best friend's boyfriend, and Chase, the poor football star who values popularity above all else.

The biggest problem I had with FURY are the characters. They just aren't very likeable. Given the premise, I expected there to be reasons why the Furies would target these two characters, but I didn't expect to struggle with wanting them to defeat the Furies as much as I did. They both crossed serious lines, Chase specifically, that made it challenging to get upset when the tables were turned on them. And Em, well, she was more stupid than mean, but I couldn't muster much sympathy for her either.

Another problem I had was how little we actually learn about the Furies themselves. They sort of flit in and out of a few scenes here or there, but never for long and never leaving the kind of impact I expected from a book titled FURY. Even when we learn that these three girls are Furies, information about where they came from, why they are so `furious' at wrong doings, and how they choose who to punish is noticeably scant. I understand that as the first in a series the author may not have wanted to reveal all, but a little information would have gone a long way.

Overall, I'm left feeling much the same as I did when I finished Lauren Oliver's BEFORE I FALL. I just don't know if I really liked this book or not. I know the writing was vivid and expressive. I know the Greek Mythology premise of Furies was a refreshing addition to the Paranormal YA genre. I know that the story felt uncomfortably realistic in several places. But the characters are just not the sort you want to root for, even as they fumbled through various redemptive acts, and the plot was never really engaging or exciting enough overcome that. Since apathy is the the dominating emotion I feel having finished FURY, I'll probably pass on the next two books in this trilogy, ENVY and then ETERNITY, which will be published presumably in 2012.

Sexual Content:
Kissing. Scenes of sensuality

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars I really enjoyed this debut! December 13, 2012

By Darlene

Format:Hardcover

Emily ("Em") Winters and Gabby Dove are best friends. Em breaks The Golden Rule when she fools around with Gabby's boyfriend, Zack McCord, while Gabby is away on Christmas vacation. Zack's best friend, Chase Singer, walks in on Em and Zack in a clinch, but he promises to keep things quiet. Em turns out to be the bigger fool when she realizes that Zack has no intention of breaking up with Gabby and that she is just one of a long string of girls who Zack has been fooling around with on the side. When Gabby returns from her holiday and finds out what happened, she drops Em like a bad habit but stays with Zack - go figure! Em is ostracized by her peers, and she becomes a little freaked out by a blonde girl who seems to turn up wherever she goes. She has no idea why this person is following her, but she feels threatened by her.

Meanwhile, Chase has met a beautiful red-haired girl named Ty, who is turning his world upside-down. Chase works hard at his preppie image, and he hopes that people forget that he's the poor kid from the trailer park. Ty single-handedly tries to destroy Chase's image when she takes compromising pictures of him and posts them all over the school. Chase can't figure out why Ty would want to ruin his reputation like that.

This is Miles' debut novel, and I found myself caught up in the story even though I didn't understand what was really going on. I did not like Em or Chase at all, and what kept me reading was to see their comeuppance. They both win the prize for "How Not To Be A Friend." It is an unusual way to hook a reader, but Miles pulled it off. All is revealed in the last 50 pages. Although this is a Young Adult title, there are sexual situations so I would recommend this for those at the upper end of the age-range.

I really enjoyed the book, and I'm looking forward to reading the next book in the series, Envy, which was released in September 2012.

I must comment on that simply stunning cover! It is total eye candy, and I would buy that book off the shelf in a heartbeat based on the cover alone!