Book Review - The Fury

Title: The Fury
Author: Alexander Gordon Smith
Series: The Fury (book 1)
Publisher: Faber and Faber
Release Date: 5 April 2012
ISBN-13: 978-0571276165

Synopsis
Imagine if one day, without warning, the entire human race turns against you. Every single person you meet becomes a bloodthirsty, mindless savage, hell-bent on killing you - and only you. Friends, family, even your mum and dad, will turn on you. They will murder you. And when they have, they will go back to their lives as if nothing has happened. The world has the Fury. It will not rest until you are dead. Cal, Brick and Daisy are three ordinary teenagers whose lives suddenly take a terrifying turn for the worst. They begin to trigger a reaction in everybody they meet, that makes friends and strangers alike want to tear them to pieces. These victims of the Fury - the ones that survive - manage to locate each other. But just when they think they have found a place to hide from the world, some of them begin to change . . . They must fight to uncover the truth about the Fury before it's too late. But it is a truth that will destroy everything they know about life and death.  


My Review
Alexander Gordon Smith is a Legend, he is one of the authors on my list that I will drop everything for. As soon as one of his books arrive I have to pick it up and read. 
I went out on the day it was released and bought my copy, delighted at it's size and in awe of it's amazingness. I knew this was going to be good.
If you follow my blog regularly, you will know I am a total wimp, I can't do horror or murder or things that go bump. My imagination is a little over-active and I end up seeing things in every shadow. So why am I excited about this book, you may well ask, simply because it is by Gordon and I know he tells an amazing story.
This book is a bit like a crash site - you know you shouldn't keep looking, but something pulls you in and you can't look away. I was reading this biting my nails and gasping, fascinated yet completely horrified at the same time. 
The book starts right in the heart of the action, Benny is being ignored by everyone, until something snaps and suddenly his own mother and sister are trying to kill him. It's violent, it's bloody and it sends chills down your spine, but I had to know why, what was making this happen, where could it go from here?
This book is quite big at 530 pages, but it doesn't feel that long, the pages just fly by, every word captures your attention and pulls you in further. I actually read this in 2 sittings, mainly because I made myself put it down when it got to about 7pm as I didn't want to read it too close to bedtime - I could get nightmares. :P
This story is told from 3 main characters perspectives, Brick a tough looking 18 year old, Cal a football mad 17 year old and Daisy a sweet young 12 year old. These characters are all so different yet somehow they work together really well. Although he was the angry, keep to himself sort I actually really liked Brick, something about him made me think he really was a good guy. Cal annoyed me at first, the 'everyone loves me attitude' is something I can't stand, but that soon changes and he does endear himself more to me later. Daisy is sweet, a bit naive and obviously very scared, a right little sweetheart, but again someone who you can tell has inner strength.
There are more characters introduced as you go on and the excitement builds with each one. Rilke scared me, she is intense! 
The very idea of this book is a lot of people's worst nightmare I'm sure, I mean a lot of things in this world can scare us, but having the very people you love turn on you is just terrifying, finding that wherever you go someone will try to kill you. 
I was utterly hooked by this book and I can't wait for the next installment, this one doesn't explain everything and sets up a lot more questions and I just have to know what happens. I can see now why people like to be scared, my heart was racing, my blood pumping but I could not stop. Just genius.

My Rating