Fury Review

Fury
by Elizabeth Miles
From Goodreads:

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.

My Thoughts:  I love anything to do with Greek mythology, and I think the idea behind Fury is brilliant.  Do you believe in karma?  It seems true sometimes, but it also seems that people can do awful things and never really pay the way we think they deserve to.  The book focuses on Chase and Em, two deeply flawed teens.  Chase is ashamed of his poor background and has done some awful things in his quest to gain the upperhand, and Em is struggling with her feelings for her best friend's boyfriend and ignoring her own person Duckie from Pretty in Pink. The plot is what kept me interested, because I found both Chase and Em frustrating, Em in particular.  Although she doesn't think her "crime" was that bad, it works like that sometimes- some people suffer more than others.  The tag line of the book is is "Sometimes sorry isn't enough."  Feeling awful about your actions doesn't always make up for the hurt you've inflicted. 

The story starts with a bang, or a splash I guess, when Sasha, a classmate of Chase and Em's tries to fling herself of Piss Pass- so named because patrons of a nearby bar often stumble outside for a cigarette and end up peeing over the overpass.  I don't know why, but I kind of dug that detail.  Sometimes it's the little things that make this reader happy.

Sasha grew up with Chase but left him behind when she rose out of poverty.  While Chase found his own way up the high school popularity ladder, Sasha began slipping until her only friend was goth girl, Drea.  Em wasn't really friends with Sasha, but news of her attempted suicide upset her.  Because she was part of the crowd that shunned and made fun of Sasha:

"And she felt guilty caring this much, only after the fact."

It's so hard to see our actions in proper focus at the time they're happening, it's often only in hindsight that we realize how much we made an impact on someone else.  Em feels a bit like a hypocrite, choosing to care about the picked on Sasha, when she'd been part of the problem.  It's a reminder of the time we live in, and the awful bullying kids have to put up with in the age of cell phones and computers, and we learn later of Sasha's pain before her death. 

So what do the Furies, and for the record there are three of them, have to do with the storyline?  Well, it turns out Em and Chase caught the eye of unholy judges. Furies demand their own kind of justice, and it's time to pay!

Fury is part of a series, and it definitely left you prepared for the next book.  You get a glimpse of the larger picture, and side characters like Drea are likely to play a bigger role as the series continues.  I'll be honest, I'm a bit weak on my Furies mythology, but I like what Elizabeth Miles has created.  I wouldn't mind seeing Furies become the new zombies (which are just the new vampires). 

Fury does have some dark undertones, topics like suicide, teenage drinking, sex, and depression are featured, but I think Miles handles it in a way that doesn't glorify any of it (not that depression or suicide can really be glorified, but drinking and sex certainly can). Basically, what you do has consequences, and if karma doesn't punish you, then the Furies certainly will. Pretty sure that red flower I got the other day is a bad sign that they're after me now...

Fury gets a Midnight Book Rating of:

*I read this book as part of Around the World ARC Tours, but all opinions, snark and wit are my own, I received no financial compensation for reading this book, and since it's a tour I don't even get to keep the book.