Fury: Book 1 of The Cure
by Charlotte McConaghy
Pages: 348 pg
Publication Date: March 25th, 2014
Publisher: Momentum Books, Pan Macmillan
Book Description:
In the tradition of Divergent comes a novel about a world where negative emotions are stolen ... and only those with fury can stand up and fight.
Eighteen-year-old Josephine Luquet wakes naked and covered in blood that is not hers on the same day every year—when the blood moon is full. Josi has not responded to the "Cure"—an immunization against anger mandated by the government—and believes herself to be a threat to others.
Then she meets Luke. Luke has had the Cure but seems different to the other "drones"—and he's dead set on helping Josi discover the truth about herself before the next blood moon.
But time is running out. Is Luke willing to risk his life to be near her? Does he truly understand what violence she is capable of?
Raw and full of passion, Fury is a story of love in a dystopian world, and how much we are willing to forgive in the struggle to remember our humanity.
Book Links:
Author Interview
1. What inspired you to write your first book?
I was fourteen when I started writing Arrival, my first novel, and at the time I was reading avidly (I still am, of course) but I was frustrated with the types of novels I was finding. Children’s stuff was too young, a lot of teen stuff was too young, and adult books were a bit boring. Dry, somehow—not sweeping or romantic and inherently thrilling enough. There were gems, of course, like the novels of Guy Gavriel Kay and Isobelle Carmody, which were rich and complex and challenging. I was equally inspired by these and frustrated that I wasn’t finding enough of them, so I set out to write the book I wanted to read. Of course, there is a plethora of fantastic YA stuff on the market now – if I could give my current favourite books to my teenage self she would be in absolute heaven. Now I make that a rule for myself—to always write what I would wish to read, and hope that the passion I have for these stories will engage readers.
2. Do you have a specific writing style?
Well… I suppose it depends on which genre I’m writing in. For fantasy, I like my style to be expansive and descriptive. It needs to feel rich and lush and very visual—and I have to make sure I don’t let myself get too flowery. For sci-fi I try to write more simply—less adjectives, more action… And then when I write screenplays, it’s a matter of completely stripping the writing bare and still managing to make it feel engaging and poetic. I love to write in first person point of view, but I would never write an entire novel without exploring more than one character’s perspective—one would be too restricting. Recently I have been enjoying taking inspiration from the style of writing you find in fairytales and myths.
3. How did you come up with the title?
The title for Fury presented itself very easily—because the entire book revolves around which humans have been cured of their fury. It seemed like a good, striking name to go with.
4. Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?
If I try to distill it down to one message, I guess it would be simply to not be afraid of whatever emotions you are feeling. That light and dark must coexist in the world, and in ourselves, and to deny that is to deny what makes us human.
5. How much of the book is realistic?
Realistic… Hmm. Well, the world is very unrealistic in the sense that it’s an imagined future where most humans have been wiped out, and the remaining survivors have had their anger ‘cured’ out of them. But I fervently hope that the emotions of the characters, their interactions, their relationships—the characters as wholes—ring true, and fill the dystopian world with authenticity. That’s the challenge of writing in a made-up world—ensuring the characters are realistic enough to be relatable to readers.
6. What book are you reading now?
I am just about to finish reading ‘Dreams of Gods and Monsters’ by Laini Taylor, and man—I LOVE it. Probably my favourite series of all time.
7. Are there any new authors that have grasped your interest?
I thoroughly enjoyed ‘Half Bad’ by Sally Green—she’s a beautiful writer. Pierce Brown’s debut novel ‘Red Rising’ was fantastic, and one of my new favourites. There are so many… I’m loving all the fantasy/sci-fi/paranormal stuff that is coming out now.
8. What are your current projects?
I’m currently working on the edits for the second book in my ‘Chronicles of Kaya’ Trilogy, the first of which was ‘Avery’. That will be released in July. And I’m also writing the sequel to ‘Fury’.
9. Did you learn anything from writing your book and what was it?
I did a lot of research into the brain for this novel—types of memories, how emotions are triggered, the rational compartments versus the instinctive ones, where adrenalin comes from, etc—so that was an incredibly interesting thing to learn about. I researched weaponry, and the training procedures of secret agents. All of this was really important to the characters and the story. But beyond just the research I did, the writing of this novel itself was a learning experience, because it taught me to question the world more than I have done before. The science-fiction concept demanded that I be rigorous about how I look at humanity and its patterns, as well as the behavior of people under the strain of oppression.
10. What were the challenges (research, psychological etc) in bringing your story to life?
Oh, I think I accidentally answered the research stuff in the question above. But in terms of the psychological challenges for me, it was really ensuring that I immersed myself in the minds of the characters, which can be really confronting, especially when those characters are deeply damaged by their surrounds.
Author Interview
1. What inspired you to write your first book?
I was fourteen when I started writing Arrival, my first novel, and at the time I was reading avidly (I still am, of course) but I was frustrated with the types of novels I was finding. Children’s stuff was too young, a lot of teen stuff was too young, and adult books were a bit boring. Dry, somehow—not sweeping or romantic and inherently thrilling enough. There were gems, of course, like the novels of Guy Gavriel Kay and Isobelle Carmody, which were rich and complex and challenging. I was equally inspired by these and frustrated that I wasn’t finding enough of them, so I set out to write the book I wanted to read. Of course, there is a plethora of fantastic YA stuff on the market now – if I could give my current favourite books to my teenage self she would be in absolute heaven. Now I make that a rule for myself—to always write what I would wish to read, and hope that the passion I have for these stories will engage readers.
2. Do you have a specific writing style?
Well… I suppose it depends on which genre I’m writing in. For fantasy, I like my style to be expansive and descriptive. It needs to feel rich and lush and very visual—and I have to make sure I don’t let myself get too flowery. For sci-fi I try to write more simply—less adjectives, more action… And then when I write screenplays, it’s a matter of completely stripping the writing bare and still managing to make it feel engaging and poetic. I love to write in first person point of view, but I would never write an entire novel without exploring more than one character’s perspective—one would be too restricting. Recently I have been enjoying taking inspiration from the style of writing you find in fairytales and myths.
3. How did you come up with the title?
The title for Fury presented itself very easily—because the entire book revolves around which humans have been cured of their fury. It seemed like a good, striking name to go with.
4. Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?
If I try to distill it down to one message, I guess it would be simply to not be afraid of whatever emotions you are feeling. That light and dark must coexist in the world, and in ourselves, and to deny that is to deny what makes us human.
5. How much of the book is realistic?
Realistic… Hmm. Well, the world is very unrealistic in the sense that it’s an imagined future where most humans have been wiped out, and the remaining survivors have had their anger ‘cured’ out of them. But I fervently hope that the emotions of the characters, their interactions, their relationships—the characters as wholes—ring true, and fill the dystopian world with authenticity. That’s the challenge of writing in a made-up world—ensuring the characters are realistic enough to be relatable to readers.
6. What book are you reading now?
I am just about to finish reading ‘Dreams of Gods and Monsters’ by Laini Taylor, and man—I LOVE it. Probably my favourite series of all time.
7. Are there any new authors that have grasped your interest?
I thoroughly enjoyed ‘Half Bad’ by Sally Green—she’s a beautiful writer. Pierce Brown’s debut novel ‘Red Rising’ was fantastic, and one of my new favourites. There are so many… I’m loving all the fantasy/sci-fi/paranormal stuff that is coming out now.
8. What are your current projects?
I’m currently working on the edits for the second book in my ‘Chronicles of Kaya’ Trilogy, the first of which was ‘Avery’. That will be released in July. And I’m also writing the sequel to ‘Fury’.
9. Did you learn anything from writing your book and what was it?
I did a lot of research into the brain for this novel—types of memories, how emotions are triggered, the rational compartments versus the instinctive ones, where adrenalin comes from, etc—so that was an incredibly interesting thing to learn about. I researched weaponry, and the training procedures of secret agents. All of this was really important to the characters and the story. But beyond just the research I did, the writing of this novel itself was a learning experience, because it taught me to question the world more than I have done before. The science-fiction concept demanded that I be rigorous about how I look at humanity and its patterns, as well as the behavior of people under the strain of oppression.
10. What were the challenges (research, psychological etc) in bringing your story to life?
Oh, I think I accidentally answered the research stuff in the question above. But in terms of the psychological challenges for me, it was really ensuring that I immersed myself in the minds of the characters, which can be really confronting, especially when those characters are deeply damaged by their surrounds.
About the Author
Charlotte started writing her children’s fantasy series ‘The Strangers of Paragor’ as a teenager and has since gone on to publish five novels. After a Masters degree in Screenwriting she wrote ‘Avery’, the first in her adult fantasy series ‘The Chronicles of Kaya’, published by Random House. She now lives in Sydney, Australia, and has just released a new dystopian sci-fi novel called ‘Fury – Book One of The Cure’, published by Momentum.
***GIVEAWAY***
20 ecopies of Fury up for grabs.
