What happens at the end of The Fury?
There are a bunch of twists in this story since each act of the book reveals new information shedding light on the parts before it. In the initial story, Lana is found dead on the second night of their Greek island getaway.
In Act II, we learn that she had discovered that her husband Jason and best friend Kate were having an affair which is why she planned the trip to confront them.
In Act III, we learn that Elliot was in love with Lana. He was the one who discovered Jason and Kate’s affair, and he planted evidence so Lana would find out.
In Act IV, we learn that Lana didn’t die from those gunshots. It was a hoax to make Kate and Jason turn on each other. Then, Elliot tries to convince Kate that Jason actually meant to shoot her (Kate). He tells her that Lana was wearing Kate’s shawl and Jason wanted to shoot Kate to prevent her from revealing their affair to Lana. Elliot hopes that this revelation will cause Kate to shoot Jason, which was Elliot’s real plan all along.
In Act V, we learn that they all knew about Elliot’s real plan because Lana found his notebook describing it. Instead, they all faked going along with it. Their plan culminated with them turning on Elliot and shooting him (though it’s just a blank to freak him out) as punishment for his psychotic plan. Elliot is embarrassed and humiliated by all of this, and he shoots and kills Lana (for real) in anger. In the Epilogue, Elliot has been jailed for the murder.
Book Discussion (Spoilers) – What Did and Didn’t Work
As discussed in the review, I really wanted to like this book.
In the end, after all these layers are added to the story, a lot of which nullify other parts of the story, all we’re really left with is a (not very nice) guy who was bullied who decides to murder someone because he feels bullied again.
All the rest of it, the cheating, the stuff with Nikos being obsessed with Lana, any stuff about Agathi and that pendant — none of that really matters since all of these characters are just going along with this random plot they went through the trouble of cooking up for someone they don’t even plan to talk to anymore.
Beyond that, it just doesn’t make any sense. It makes no sense for Lana to come up with this convoluted plan to get “revenge” on Elliot. For what? He hasn’t even done anything yet. She should be way more fixated on the people in the life who ACTUALLY DID SOMETHING TO HER.
Elliot just wrote some garbage in a book. The solution here is just to cut ties with him if she thinks he’s secretly a psychopath. In what world does it make sense to trap yourself on an island full of guns with someone that unstable who has an unhealthy obsession with you?
I just disliked that instead of the ending feeling like everything clicked into place, the final act made it feel like everything else was just nonsense. I was disappointed.
Agree 100% with the review of The Fury. Additionally, if the narrator (Elliot) was telling mostly lies (as stated somewhere in the book)- was it all just twisted storytelling? STRONGLY DISLIKED THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CHILDHOOD TRAUMA RATIONALE & STEREOTYPICAL WAYS OF THINKING, ACTING, MANAGING INTO ADULTHOOD.
Oh yeah, I agree it’s pretty unsatisfying when a psychological thriller just has generic childhood trauma as the motivating factor
I waited and waited for the wasps to attack someone. Anyone! Michaelides should have used those wasps somehow. I was so disappointed!
I still can’t quite grasp the Barbara West play discovery at the end–was that to suggest that his notebook, discovered by Lana, was at least inspired by her writing?
The point is that Barbara West actually wrote the play that he’s known for. He found the script in her belongings after her death and he pawned it off as his own.
It’s just to show us what a fraud he is.
What I didn’t understand was how in the end Elliot wrote that I didn’t survive it either after shooting Lana once and for all but in the beginning of the same chapter he’s talking to Marianna about everything that happened at the island. Doesn’t make sense at all does it !!?
Did Elliot kill Barbara West or was it an accident?
I read the ending to mean that everything that came before was Barbara’s manuscript play. And Elliott was in jail for killing Barbara. And that none of the 5 acts were real.
What doesn’t make sense in the book, and all the reviews and comments that I have read is that in the end somehow we see Elliott in prison with Theo (from another book) in England. How could this be overlooked? If his shooting of Lana actually occurred on the Greek island, why would he not be imprisoned in Greece? Why and how would he have been extradited back to London? Therefore, the only logical assumption would be that the entire island episode is also fiction, and that he never left England to begin with. Perhaps he was actually imprisoned for killing Barbara, or just locked away for being insane.