Fury - Elizabeth Miles

Hardcover, 352 pages

Published August 30th 2011 by Simon Pulse

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.

4/5 Stars

I've been seeing a lot of lukewarm and bad reviews for this title, so I was a little wary when I started reading it...but I gotta tell you, having read the book, I really don't understand what everyone's problem with it is.  I liked it quite a bit.

Fury is told in alternating points of view, switching between Chase, who sees himself as trailer-trash trying to fake it in a preppie school, and Em, who has made the mistake of falling for her best friend's boyfriend.  They have secrets, and those secrets aren't good.

I was first, like everyone else, attracted to the gorgeous cover on this book.  Look at it.  Gaze upon the pretty.   But where there lies beauty, there lies danger.  Because the girl on the cover isn't Em (and it certainly isn't Chase...because...well...he's a boy) but instead it's one of the Furies, a trio of creatures steeped in legend that find people who have done wrong...and punish them for it.

And after the attempted suicide of a classmate, it is Chase and Em that have become the Furies' targets.

It might just be me, but I like characters who are flawed.  I cannot stand perfect characters, of which there are many out there to torment me, so getting a chance to read from the points of views of two teens that have majorly messed up was kind of a treat for me.  But that might just be me.

I liked how messed up they were.  I liked that they made bad choices.  And I loved how they banded together to try and help one another when everything started to fall down around them, no matter what happened.  The relationship between Em and Chase, when they began helping one another, was wonderful.  (And JD...oh, how I love me some JD).  And, I gotta say, the Furies were creepy and evil and kinda scared the crap out of me.

The only thing I didn't really like was how the ending kinda broke my heart a little bit.  But it's the first of the trilogy, so hopefully everything will get better.  (It can get better, right?  Please?)

One last thing I want to address in this review, is something that has been mentioned in a bunch of other reviews out there...Why is Em the one targeted by the Furies?  She wasn't the only one in the wrong.  Why didn't the Furies target her best friend's boyfriend too?  Because that guy's a total skeeze.

Well, my friends (and I expect I'll have a little bit of discussion in the comments over this...which I welcome), my theory is that it's easier to punish someone who already feels guilty than to punish someone who truly doesn't give a crap.  Em knew that trying to steal her best friend's boyfriend was a crappy thing to do, and she felt bad about it, where as Zach, the best friend's boyfriend, couldn't care less.  That's my two cents.

So, basically, the moral of this review is, even if you're a little wary give this book a try.  Because I liked it.

I'd love to hear what you think!

-geekgirl