Furious by Jill Wolfson

Furious by Jill Wolfson
Series: N/A
Source: Won
Publisher: Henry Holt & CO.
Publication Date: April 16, 2013

Three high school girls become the avenging Furies of Greek legend.

We were only three angry girls, to begin with. Alix, the hot-tempered surfer chick; Stephanie, the tree-hugging activist; and me, Meg, the quiet foster kid, the one who never quite fit in. We hardly knew each other, but each of us nurtured a burning anger: at the jerks in our class, at our disappointing parents, at the whole flawed, unjust world.

We were only three angry girls, simmering uselessly in our ocean-side California town, until one day a mysterious, beautiful classmate named Ambrosia taught us what else we could be: Powerful. Deadly. Furious.

We are straight out of mythology, goddesses who avenge, retaliate, punish, haunt, hunt, and don't stand around being victims, but make things happen.

I was really expecting to love Furious. And while I liked it, this didn't add up to "love" for me; although I wish it could have. The first seemingly small thing that I couldn't get past was the fact that it's based in America. Normally, this isn't a big deal, as most YA books are based in America. But the fact still remains that this is a GREEK myth come to life. Why isn't it based in Greece?

I realize that this is a small thing... but come on! I never got an explanation for it. And I would have liked to have seen one. The other thing that bothered me was "The Plagues". I could possibly see how someone might come up with a set of nicknames like that, but I really doubt that it would be a group of teenage boys. It just doesn't ring true for me. I can't imagine boys going by nicknames such as "Gnat", "Bubonic" or "Pox". This is also a small thing. The rest of the book was fairly enjoyable!

I liked the character of Stephanie; I believe that she was my favorite. I could relate to her, because in her own way she was trying to change the world. I loved that about her. Even when she could have (or even should have) given up, she kept trying to stand up for what she believed in. As a result, I admired her. Alix and Meg, however, didn't really do it for me. Alix was too tough and hardcore (with no sense of mercy) and Meg was... how do I say this gently? I felt like Meg was way too power-hungry, which threw her sense of justice out of whack.

Meg definitely grew as a character throughout the book, though, which is a bit more than I can say for Alix. Stephanie figured it out too, eventually. I was proud of them for that. I felt bad for Meg's friend Raymond, though. He always seemed like such a happy light-- I wish that he had gotten a bit more character time, you know? I also wish that the romance between Meg & Brendon would have been given more time. They fell "in love" by the second date, which is a big no-no. Thankfully, the romance was such a small part of the book that I easily overlooked it.

My favorite part of this book was the myth of the Furies. I loved it when the girls took out their fury on people; it gave the story so much. It was so easy to see why they did, and I'm positive that the story would have been lacking if they hadn't thought that they were justice itself. As Furies, they were superbly power hungry and mildly insane.

All in all, I would definitely recommend Furious is you're in a mythology mood (like I was), and don't mind a few minor things.