Review: Fury by Shirley Marr

Let me tell you my story.
Not just the facts I know you want to hear.
If I’m going to tell you my story,
I’m telling it my way.

Strap yourself in...

Eliza Boans has everything.
A big house.
A great education.
A bright future.

So why is she sitting in a police station confessing to murder?

Pages: 277 (Paperback)
Author: Shirley Marr
Add It: Goodreads
Publisher: Black Dog Books

Fury was a book I was fully prepared to love. I have high expectations for any book with a badass looking redhead on the cover. I have spent many years lamenting the fact that I am not, in fact, a badass redhead. Any chance I have to live vicariously through a literary character to attain my Ginger dreams is a chance I am eager to take.

Unfortunately, the contents of the book did not live up to the cover for me. Perhaps I am a little burnt out on books that use high-school as a setting, which is why I am gravitating more towards YA set in the Fantasy genre lately. I have been out of high-school for several years now and I tend to relate more to characters in YA that come across as older. The characters in Fury were very immature and catty. Girls vs. Girls. It annoyed me and did not endear me to them. The biggest issue for me in books is not feeling connected to the characters, and unfortunately that was the case here. I couldn’t care about the outcome because I didn’t like any of the characters.

One thing I liked was the idea of girls taking things into their own hands. It was sad to me that this was often overtaken by the girls fighting amongst themselves and competing for status. There were some nice moments when Eliza was thinking about what had happened to her friend. I thought a lot of the quotes about [spoiler: rape] were spot on. I was happy to see that [spoiler: the rape] was a large part of the plot and wasn’t just inserted as a throwaway incident, which too often happens in books, and always angers me.

Another thing that really bothered me throughout the book was the dialogue. I thought that it was strangely wooden and it didn’t feel to me like things people would actually say. I also didn’t think there was a good balance between the dialogue and Eliza’s thoughts. Chunks of dialogue would often take up a lot of space with nothing in between and girls would be in the middle of cat fights for no reason before I even knew what was going on.

I also didn’t think that the way Eliza’s case was handled was entirely realistic. I don’t think subjects of a murder investigation would get to walk around in bloody evidence and go out to dinner at diners. It just made the whole thing too implausible for me.

I hate to say that this book wasn’t for me as Shirley is a lovely person and very respectful of reviewers. Everyone knows we need more authors like that these days. But no book is going to be liked by everyone and this just wasn’t one I can say I enjoyed.

Check out some different perspectives on Fury: The Midnight Garden & Cuddlebuggery Book Blog

This book was provided as a touring copy by The Midnight Garden. For more information about the tour click here.