When I first heard about THE FURIES, I was intrigued. Four friends, a private school, and witchcraft. I absolutely needed to read it. It was darker and, at times, more gruesome than I expected, but it was also suspenseful, thought-provoking, and gripping.

The story is told from the point of view of an adult Violet who remembers and reflects on her teenage years when she started attending Elm Hollow Academy, a private girls’ school in a small English town. A tragic accident took away her father and her sister and left her mother in a catatonic state in front of the TV all day long. So it's not a surprise when Violet finds herself drawn to Robin, Alex, and Grace. Not only she is accepted in their exclusive group, but she is also admitted in their secret club led by Annabel, one of the teachers in the school.

THE FURIES is a story about toxic female friendship, obsession, witchcraft, and murder. It will creep you out, it will make you uncomfortable, but you won't be able to put it down until the very last page.

A contender for one of my books of the year - outstanding! Such a dark mix of teenage angst, witchcraft and murder. How far would you go to fit in to a new group? Cannot wait to see what is next from this author.

A difficult book to review and even harder to like. I found the events jumped somewhat making it difficult to follow. Obviously, the book was intended to show evil as the result of bad girls but also witchcraft when used for ill. Whether witchcraft worked or was coincidence was well portrayed. The premise that a teacher should pluck out girls with issues in order to encourage them to believe women should be strong to the detriment of men was difficult to accept. That these girls spent so little time in lessons and showed no respect for their teachers in a supposedly superior school also didn't ring true. Having said all that I did want to keep reading and find out what happened.
Many thanks to Netgalley/Katie Lowe/HarperCollins UK for a digital copy of this title. All opinions expressed are my own.

Violet at 16 is a vulnerable and isolated young girl. Her father and sister died tragically in an accident and her mother simply can't cope with her own grief never mind Violet's. No-one else had seemed to want to take responsibility either so Violet was told to take however much time she needed off school until she felt better. Now tell a 15-year-old girl that and you just don't see them for dust.
Twelve months later exams had been taken and Violet had returned to school for them. She had miraculously done ok but knew that with the right teachers that she could have smashed it. When her mother suggests that she uses insurance money from the accident that she had been in with her dad and sibling to further her education then she jumps at the chance. Violet enrolls at Elm Hollow Academy for girls.
Elm Hollow Academy is a pretty creepy place, with a creepy colourful history of strange goings on to go with it. Violet is taken under the wings of a group of girls, with one girl, Robin, having a particular interest in her. The four of them are invited by the art teacher to take extra special classes. The story takes on a real dark side and opens up a 'secret school' tradition that only a handful of pupils can be part of.
The things that bind the girls together are also the things that drive them apart as the more they learn the hungrier they become to get to the ultimate goal. They find themselves on a roller coaster of events that they can't seem to stop. Friendships and trust are pushed to the limit in the tight group.
Now I will make it clear that this felt more like a book for teenagers and seems to focus more on the story than the characters. There are a couple of shocking storylines that the girls follow, which are a little disturbing but at the same time make thrilling read that left me feeling uneasy.
Murder, mystery and the occult are all busy storylines in this book. A very creepy read for teenagers.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-copy of this book which I have reviewed honestly.

My review: 🌟🌟🌟🌟



The Furies by Katie Lowe is set in 1998, in the UK, in a coastal town of no name. Violet is 16, and has just changed schools after a car accident which killed her father and baby sister, and from which she walked away. Her mother is seeking forgetfulness from the horrific accident by drinking all the time.



The new school is a private one, called Elm Hollow Academy. Violet has the usual problems changing school, of not knowing anyone, and feeling like she doesn't fit in. Then she becomes part of a group of 3 other girls, who have special lessons from the art teacher, Annabel, but these aren't art lessons.



This is a story of teenagers trying to take control of their lives, drinking, taking drugs, and taking out their anger and confusion on rituals that might actually have power. And at the same time, we know where it's going to lead to, as it's at the very beginning of the book: a young woman found dead on a swing.



This is Katie Lowe's debut novel, and it's powerful! You are swept along with them on their adventure, and as the book is from Violet's perspective, and we have an older Violet telling the story. I haven't watched the Craft, but it felt like a mixture of the Heathers (actions have consequences), and Gossip Girl (for the bitchy, private school). The fact that my two reference points for this are TV and film shows I haven't read many books like this.



The Furies was published on 2nd May 2019, and is available to buy on Amazon and on Waterstones. I've found a link to where you can search for local bookshops, including independent!



I was given this book for free in return for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to Harper Collins (the publishers) for this book.




Check out my GoodReads profile to see more reviews!

I really wanted to love this book, however I just couldn't connect to the characters at all. So this meant I just didn't care about their journey at all.
The 'good girl gone bad' trope really didn't keep me engaged and everytime I put down this book I felt myself being forced to give it another chance.
I didn't feel as though there was any suspense throughout this book - even though the first couple of pages were so brutally descriptive I did wonder what I was letting myself in for.
This would probably suit younger thriller readers a lot more due to the juvenile behaviours of the characters, unfortunately it just wasn't for me.

I was drawn to The Furies as it was described as having the same vibes as The Secret History by Donna Tartt, but aside from a group of students thinking themselves elite to the masses, I didn't draw any comparisons. I did find myself thinking of that amazing 90s movie, The Craft, at certain points though due to the witchcraft element in the story.

The lead character Violet find herself a new girl at a posh school and due to her rebellious ways is chosen to become part of an elite (secret) society of women. They study the stories of great women from history, as well as exploring ones closer to home - their school was the site of witch trials back in the day. I did like this feminist feel to the narrative, but overall, the pace wasn't there for me and I kind of feel like I've read this book before. Sorry, this one just wasn't for me.

Recommended if you like: YA, Vigilante Justice, Witchcraft and Goth novels, some amount Historical Fiction and all Female leads.

"Art isn't supposed to look nice. It's supposed to make you feel something." This is what I had to keep telling myself while navigating through the mess this book blossomed out to be, the mess reaching a crescendo and then screeching to a halt and completely arranging itself in perfect order. It was difficult reading the whole story, but it was absolutely worth it.
The Furies is a frustrating novel, mainly because of the feeble, unreliable, fickle and frankly hopelessly lost protagonist. She was an intelligent kid and so it was pretty difficult to see her fuck up her life with every page, getting pulled into deathly company; high school is bad enough as it is without being sucked into a group of sociopaths with violent, killer tendencies.
But aside from the irritation and exasperation one might feel while getting to know Violet and her excrutiating-to-read-about self-destructive tendencies, there were deep depths to analyse on a psychological level for several characters and the underlying theme of the story.
Revenge, lust and feminism (often bordering on misandry) were three of the running themes. Of course, the lure the dark magic and witchcraft played an obvious role in the direction the revenge plans took. But the witchcraft, the rituals and the spells were mainly a cover, a safety net, for the girls just discovering their sexuality, while fending off stranger touches that do not wait for their consent. Not to mention the fact that the school's history with the Witch Trials and executions inspired that sort of an atmosphere.
Other than the regular growing up to and beyond adolescense, pettered with experimentations, disappointments and discoveries, Violet's apathy and cold detachment from her mother shocked me. The traumatic accident that left her father and sister dead and her the only survivor wasn't something either she or her mother coped with well- Violet drowning in bad company, booze and drugs and her mother, well, drowning in social isolation and TV. But her mother tried to reach out to her daughter more than a few times to ask about her detoriating physical being, but Violet time and time again harshly pushed her away till the time she finally moved out for good. None of them seeked the professional help they both so clearly needed, but Violet's shirking away of her mother seemed grossly over-the-top and almost unforgiveable to me.
I appreciated the slot. but not the prose. Many sentences were knotted, long and a riddle to read. The prose jumped from dream to reality, from past to present, from one person speaking to another abruptly, with little notice, made it tiresome to read. Another thing that bothered me was the animal cruelty and the lack of remorse displayed at murder. But then again, sociopaths.
In conclusion, this book- much like the description suggests- gives you plenty of gory murders, gory descriptions, ritualistic dark magic and Witchcraft. Not a bad read, overall.

Violet has faced tragedy in losing her sister and father to a car crash she survived, but found that she was on her own, her mother having sunk into a despair so deep she would never come out of it. Violet educates herself and gains entry to an exclusive girls' school with a reputation for witchcraft in the seaside town she calls home. Fearing being an outsider among mostly wealthy girls, she sees a red head and is drawn to her. Robin finds Violet and introduces her to her friends, Grace and Alex, the school's odd set, and Violet finds a replacement for the family she's lost.

For Violet, the close friendship she's forged with Robin is always precarious, always not quite settled, always something to be anxious about. It is also as destructive as it is comforting for her, and she soon starts to drink, take drugs, lose weight, but finds an acceptance she didn't think possible.

How far, then, would she go to remain part of this group, limned with darkness, tragedy and fear. How far do es she believe what her teacher Annabel is telling them, and do the books owned by Alex's mum really record magic spells fuelled by righteous female vengeance? I mean, they can't work, can they?

A slow starting novel, this, more a portrait of teenage female angst and the cliquey nature of friendships and the the suffocating existence in a dead-end seaside town that has little going for it beyond a small university and the private girls' school, Elm Hollow. But it grows darker almost without being noticed, and the antics of the girls take a sinister twist. A horror story at its most basic, psychological, paranormal, and bloody, the skill of the writer is to never allow it get silly, never become parody or melodramatic. Stark, deep and engaging.

It is hard to admit, but this book didn’t work well for me.

It took me a while to get into the story. Even had to go back and reread pages. For me, it has a very weak start and struggles to gain speed to keep readers attention. I put a lot of efforts not to fall asleep.

This book was really anticipated. Not only because it has a beautiful cover. The blurb was so promising. If you’ve read some of my other reviews, you will probably know that I love mythology. And The Furies are not that familiar as characters in comparison with The Fates. I was so excited, but…

First of all, the author’s writing didn’t work for me. Sometimes I really got confused and as I already said- I had to go back and reread paragraphs or pages. It is a huge mess. We have a dialog or monologue and somewhere between we have the character’s inner thoughts. But they sound with the same voice it is hard to separate them. On the other hand, we have a series of events which are completely different but again they sound the same.

For me, she failed by giving each character their own voice. To make them pop and be distinguished from the mass. Our narrator – Violet, felt not so convenient. While Robin pops a bit more. I don’t want to talk about Alex and Grace because although they are part of the crew, their presence is as unnoticeable as their absence. The story is said to be about four reckless girls, not so sure about it tho.

A bit about the plot. As I said the story is told by Violet point of view. Everything begins after she joins private girl school Elm Hollow Academy. The school itself has a dark history of witch trials and secret clubs of witch crafting. There she meets Robin, Alex, and Grace and soon became part of their advanced study group led by their art teacher Annabel. A strange thing happens in these classes. Their previous member, Robin’s best friend Emily, mystically disappears and later she is found dead. Violet is involved in Robin’s lifestyle. She is manipulated by Robin to take drugs, sleep with older men, get drunk. To be fair – a lot of drugs, booze and reckless, uncontrollable girls are involved. It was too much for me. There is no page without a description of the girls getting wasted. You somehow want to feel bad for Violet, but with her actions, she doesn’t show affection or that these situations bother her. Again – the characters were light and didn’t make you care for them.

There were some murdering scenes, which I didn’t completely understand. They were so naive and were mentioned somewhere between the drugs and stayed unnoticed. Like someone said that the story should have a couple of deaths. Yes, they are there, but completely out of place.

It is more focused on the girls-going-bad theme, as well on toxic girls friendship. How easy you can be manipulated while you are grieving and lonely. To be involved in a life-ruining environment. It tried to reach very deep and disturbing subject but it was simply not engaging.

The ending was… I don’t know. Like the story is cut with the sharp knife and just end there. A lot of things stayed up. What happened with Alex and Grace? With their teacher- Annabel? I don’t think that the officers are that stupid to put a couple of deaths, clearly forced ones, into ‘incident’ cases. Lots and lots of misfits and unclear points.

Maybe I wasn’t in the mood for this book, but I really struggled with it. In the end, I tried to clear my head and find any sense in this ending, and I’m not quite sure I fully understood everything that had happened. It didn’t manage to pull me in the story.

This was such an atmospheric and twisting read that left you questioning weather the events of the book were true or the exaggeration of the narrator. The choice of the narrator is a truely fascinating element of this novel. It is told from the perspective of Violet, our main character, as she reminices back on her teenage experience from 20 years in the future. Violet is now in her 30s looking back to 1998, when she was 16 and was trying to cope with the loss of her father and little sister, dealing with survivors guilt by isolating herself, before being placed at an elite all girls school, where she is determined to make friends and not feel like the outsider.

I enjoyed how unreliable Violets perspective was. Her disillusionment with the run down sea side town in which she grew up was fantastically atmospheric, you could feel the greyness of it all seeping into your imagination. It captured the feeling of being a British teen, stalking the streets, haunting the parks and huddling from the rain in school playgrounds all to be out of the house. It captured the sheer excitement of trying to act older than you are to attend parties in run down, dreary and often sticky flats with your friends. All of this with a voice that is both fond of the memories but also with the knowledge of how stupid teenage you was.

This also all made the ancient institution of the Academy make it stand out as almost magical and mysterious. It lends the element of darkness looming over violet and her group of friends, its historical links to witchcraft proving an inviting and potential escape from the girls troubles. All bolstered by the encouragement of their Art teacher, Annabel, whom teaches them to explore how women were exploited through out the history of art, and to stand strong as promising female artists themselves.

All of this allows the reader to explore Violets memories, the trails of teenage friendship, navigating the world at the edge of adulthood, feeling up against it all by yourself, and focusing all your energy on friendships that may not be healthy. It isn’t afraid to go dark, and violent, twisting and turning but also leaving enough doubt to have you questioning if the events really happened or if it was just Violet, imagining and misremembering events, to provide rational to herself for how she acted during those years. The calm tone of Violet, especially in moments of violence, made me question her sanity and the events as they unfolded. That made my spine tingle, questioning weather the witchcraft was real!

I enjoyed this book, while i wish it touched on some topics a bit more and I wish I got a bit more characterisation for some characters, the inclusion of the relationship with Annabel would have been nice to explore more. As it was told in such a way that we are only getting the unreliable memory of one participant of events, the lack of information about these elements was not fully a detriment to the book. At times the language could be a little flowery, some of the action scenes were confusing and required a re-read to full grasp what had happened and often relied on further elaboration in subsequent pages before I understood why these scenes had played out, but again that was a factor of the interesting narration. It was a creepy book, with parts I am sure most brits will relate to, all of which acted to make the violent and dark areas even more jarring, to me at least.

This is a dark, intense book about Violet, a troubled teenage girl who survived a car crash and is now attending a private girls school which has a history which involved witchcraft. She soon becomes entangled in the dark world of her new friends.

There are lots of books exploring similar themes to the ones in this book and this one falls a little short of the mark. It is a bit of a slow burner but I did keep reading until the end. The characters were all quite unlikeable, and I didn’t particularly like the ending.

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Furies is a perfect blend of mystery, witchcraft, peer pressure and toxic relationships.

Suffering from survivors guilt and being unable to cope with her mothers drinking, Violet is given an opportunity to study her A levels at a prestigious girls school. Hoping to find the friendships she has always longed for Violet is drawn to Robin, Grace and Alex in a spiral of parties and witchcraft.

If you're a fan of Pretty Little Liars, or 90s pop culture witches like The Craft and Sabrina the Teenage Witch then I suspect you'll enjoy Katie Lowe's deliciously dark tale of high school witchcraft.

It follows in the vein of other YA witch titles such as The Merciless and The Graces, a tight-knit group of friends with whispered rumours that they may be witches. It relied a little heavily on tropes for my liking - three girls waiting for their fourth to join, a group of outcasts and wild behaviour. However it gets points for the atmosphere. Setting the story in a prestigious girls' school the story unfolds in a tense and claustrophobic manner, with lead character Violet forming an almost instant, unhealthy bond with rebel Robin.

I really enjoyed the first few chapters as they set up the story, but sadly for me it descended from there. It became almost a bingo of witch novels - stamp your card for a rebellious leader, recreational drug use and a troubled, but kind friend. I also found some of the later chapters rushed and confusing.

I enjoyed the premise, and I'll always be here for a book about teenage witches, but sadly this one just didn't light my fire.

My thanks to Harper Collins U.K. for an eARC via NetGalley of Katie Lowe’s debut novel ‘The Furies’ in exchange for an honest review.

An intriguing opening recounts the discovery in the summer of 1998 of a teenage girl’s body clad in white and posed on a swing in the grounds of a private girl’s school.

The story is narrated by Violet who in 1997 at age fifteen has transferred to the prestigious girl’s college, Elm Hollow Academy. This move was made possible by a financial settlement granted following the death in a car accident of Violet’s father and younger sister. The tragedy has left Violet’s mother barely functioning and Violet deeply traumatised.

The college has a reputation linked to an infamous 17th Century witch trial. Violet is soon drawn to a group of outsiders: Robin, Grace and Alex. A charismatic teacher, Annabel, invites Violet to join the others in her secret advanced class where they study aspects of mythology, art and history.

Annabel warns them off undertaking any ancient rites or rituals but, of course, the lure of magic proves too seductive. The four are soon trying out spells and calling on chthonic deities such as Hecate and the Furies. A great deal happens before we loop back to the macabre discovery that opens the novel.

While it has young protagonists this doesn’t read as a YA novel as it explores mature themes and contains a fair amount of drug and alcohol use and graphic scenes.

Some publicity material and editorial reviews cite it as evoking elements of ‘The Secret History’ and ‘The Craft’. I feel that this is a fair reference as the concept of students dabbling in forbidden lore and getting in over their heads is a popular theme in horror and Gothic fiction. Just add some murders, toxic friendships, mysterious tomes, an atmospheric setting, and innovative twists and voila an almost perfect novel for my tastes.

I was completely hooked and zoomed through it in a single sitting. I certainly will look forward to Lowe’s future projects as this was a very promising debut.

If I don’t hit it off with a novel right away – if I’m not feeling ‘it’ – it’ll be difficult to turn that feeling around and, unfortunately, that’s what happened when I started reading The Furies. The fact is that for some reason I didn’t take in some of the narrative in certain paragraphs and I had to go back and reread parts of the story. I believe the reason for this could be because of the lyrical and descriptive writing style and the plot didn’t really capture my attention after the – I must admit – wonderful first chapter.

I loved the rich history of the school and how the author broached the Greek mythology in the story but the characters fell flat for me and weren’t all that interesting. The plotline involves four girls (Violet, Robin, Alex and Grace) but in reality there are only two stealing the show which are Robin and ‘Vivi’. These girls have quite a toxic relationship where one is being manipulated by the other and I should maybe have felt for Violet but she didn’t really say or do anything to make me care for her very much.

There was even one disturbing scene where she was involved (I might say it merits a trigger warning) and it didn’t sit well with me at all, not her behaviour at the time but I was appalled by her reaction afterwards as well. Let’s just say that her way to deal with a situation was taking revenge with some witchcraft where she should have acted rationally. I do love young adult and have enjoyed many novels in this genre before but I feel this one must be for younger readers. I know I was looking too hard into their actions and struggling with the decision-making in the novel so much I wasn’t able to really enjoy it like I should have. The Furies contains storylines of peer pressure, revenge and assault so it does touch on some interesting and not so easy topics but the girls are naïve and the surface was only scratched for me, I was not able to feel the emotions that such tough subjects could provoke.

The Furies reminded me of tv shows as Pretty Little Liars and The Craft, and it does show some similarities so if you really enjoy voodoo-doll and animal sacrifice rituals then you’ll find the storyline to your liking. I think this might work better for me as a tv show.

https://lynns-books.com/2019/05/06/the-furies-by-katie-lowe/
The Furies is a book that grabbed my attention immediately with it’s mention of the Greek Furies, a school setting, a small clique of girls and a murder. How could I possibly resist? I couldn’t. And, I’m pleased to say that from the dramatic opening chapters in which the narrator paints a scene where a young girl is found dead in a staged pose I was quite hooked to the page with the need to discover more.

Violet is the narrator, an adult now, she is reflecting on a period in her life that was a dark and dangerous time full of obsession and toxicity that starts off with a hint of glamorous danger and spirals fairly quickly into something desperately dark and at times a little seedy.

The story gets off to a fairly intense start. We meet Violet and soon discover that her family life has been torn apart by tragedy with both her father and sister being killed in a terrible car accident, that Violet survived and her mother going into a state of numbness from loss. After a year of home schooling, and making use of compensation from the accident, Violet makes a fresh start accepting a place at an exclusive private girls school set within its own grounds.

Almost immediately Violet makes friends with a group of three girls who keep themselves remote from the rest of the students and appear to be something of an enigma. Particularly Robin who decides that Violet will be her new best friend. Violet is much more lonely than she realised and this attention makes her desperate to fit in and be part of the group although she struggles to feel like anything other than an outsider.

The story takes place in the UK and the author has written it so that we have the contrast between the expensive school and the dilapidated and rather tired seaside village it neighbours. It’s a rather sorry place with very little going on and a bleakness that made me despair a little. Alongside this we have Violet’s very sad home life. Her mother seems to spend the majority of her time inebriated and the house is slowly turning into a wreck. This is all in contrast to the rather grand appearance of the school, Elm Hollow Academy. This is a school that expects it’s students to excel. It has a feeling of almost casual indifference,a laziness to the teaching that almost comes across as boredom of going over the same ground. Except for Annabel, a teacher who all the girls seem to want to impress. Violet manages to find herself one of only four students invited to her exclusive (and secret) extra curricular lessons where discussions on art, philosophy and the role of women over the centuries inspires the girls and empowers them.

Then we have the characters. Violet and Robin play the major roles here. Violet ever desperate for acceptance and Robin keeping her dangling, drawing her in in tantalising snippets followed by pushing her away whenever the mood suits. Robin is an unusual character, I’m torn between wanting to help her or shake her. She’s on a self destruct mission that’s for sure, dating older boys, constantly drinking alcohol and mixing that with a heady cocktail of drugs. Violet is completely in awe of her and in her shadow and will do virtually anything to gain favour. There are whispers around the school that Robin only befriended Violet because of her uncanny resemblance to a very good friend of Robin’s who went missing and hasn’t been found. Then there are Alex and Grace. Alex seems to live a charmed life, her mother is incredibly wealthy and she lives in an impressive house, but, you wouldn’t exactly call it a loving home. Grace’s home is even worse. Her father is abusive and she is constantly hiding bruises and making up falsehoods to hide the truth. All told this is a group of girls who have their own reasons for misery and despair and to be honest it comes out a little in their behaviour and makes them quite often difficult to like. They’re prickly and unapproachable, not the easiest characters to champion and yet you can’t help but have sympathy for them.

I enjoyed this. The writing is good and the tension mounts in a twisted way. You just know everything is going to go bad, very bad indeed.

In terms of criticisms. Well, like I mentioned above, the girls can be prickly, they can be nasty, calculating and manipulative, but, you have to look at the bigger picture, although even then it’s not easy to get on their side sometimes – the author does manage to do a good deal of twisting herself when it comes to these girls. The thing is, this is a dark story with some ugliness and so you can’t really expect the characters to be all soft and fluffy. I enjoyed the author’s style although every now and again she does become a little over the top with her prose – fortunately, not enough to become too much. And, I think I would just point out that the Furies are more a suggestion here than an actual presence. I quite like that though. Violet is telling the story with the benefit of many years in between to deaden the memories and give them a different and more sensible explanation. Even with that though there’s still an element of ‘what really happened’. I will also say that some of the threads here really do push the limits of credulity – but, it’s a story of ‘what ifs’ so it doesn’t make sense to scrutinise the finer elements too much.

All in all, I think this was a very engaging read. If I was going to chuck a few extra thoughts into the mix I’d say this is a story of obsession, of cliques, of secrets and lies. A dark tale where magic and myths are made possible and overall a cautionary tale – be careful what you wish for.

Be aware that there is an element of language, mention of drugs and alcohol and sexual content including rape. None of these elements feel out of place but I wanted to mention them.

I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.

Every book that has it’s setting within a school/university is compared to The Secret History from Donna Tart. This masterpiece book stands out and every book with a similar topic has to stand up against it. This is hard. And unfair. But Donna Tarts book is exceptional and this book is not.

I had a hard time getting into this book. As a matter of fact I never got into it. There is the problem with the characters. Violet is a whiny and needy person. She lost her father and sister in a car accident years ago. She was there, too, but wandered out of this accident unharmed. Her mother drifted into an alcohol infused oblivion after that. Violet got into Elm Hollow Academy. She is insecure and shy but soon becomes friends with 3 other girls who are also in a secret class about mystic things. Violet is an awful character. She has no real profile. She just wants to please her new friends, especial Robin. I don’t understand why anybody would be interested in Violet because she is absolutely uninteresting. And Robin is just awful. She is doing awful things all the time and she is absolutely manipulating Violet. All the characters are just horrible persons and they are doing horrible things. The four friends are all kind of psychopaths. And I never really got what was going on.

English is not my native language but I am reading English books for many years now. But this book made me ask myself if I really understood what was going on. I just kept asking myself if I got everything right and understood everything because the writhing was kind of weird. This did not happen to me for a long time. I really thought I did not understand this book because it was erratic. I missed the promised topics about the female power and witchcraft. The secret society part was just a side note and it was never deepened.

This book just did not grab me and I never got into it. The characters are horrible persons and the story also did not work for me.

A deliciously dark thriller that begins with a sixteen-year-old girl found dead on school property, with no known cause of death. What slowly unravels is a hauntingly intense tale of obsessive friendships, the power of sisterhood and the sinister revenge that comes at the cost of keeping secrets, all skillfully rooted in witchcraft and murder.

I received a copy of The Furies in exchange for an honest review, so thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins.

I saw The Furies described in a review on Goodreads as The Secret History meets Girls on Fire. These are two of my favourite books, so immediately, I was super excited.

The Furies follows Violet as she joins a new school, and is invited to join a secret study group. This isn't a school approved study group, though. Annabel, the art teacher, talks to Violet and her three classmates about witchcraft, mythology, the history of the school. But as Robin, Grace, and Alex introduce Violet to life in the study group - and outside of school, that involves rituals and ceremonies, the body of missing teen and former study group member turns up on campus, leading Violet to question her new friends, her new teachers, and the rituals she's been carrying out.

This mix was always set to be a killer, in my eyes at least. A private school, a selective clique, witches, murder. What more do you need in a novel?

While I can see the similarities between The Secret History - lessons on mythology, a tight knit group, secrets and lies and murder - and Girls on Fire - witchcraft, intense friendships, worship - this was much slower paced book. 

I loved the focus on the friendships between the girls, and the toxicity of them. This wasn't a simple high school friendship gone wrong though, with jealousy, falling out, the usual. This was heavy on the manipulation, lying, coercion. Robin was not kind to Violet, and pushed her to do things she didn't want to do, forced her way in where Violet didn't want her, and dragged her into a world that Violet wasn't capable of dealing with. But Violet was no angel either, and together they made for a messy, harmful relationship. 

Above the friendships, I loved the focus on women. Women taking power, and women taking revenge, taking back what was taken from them. They are belittled and overlooked and taken for granted, and these four are trying to put a stop to that.

Similar to The Secret History, a lot of the secret study group's lectures revolve around mythology, myths, and ideas above these girls heads. But, while in The Secret History I could follow along easily despite not knowing anything (and I mean, literally anything) about Greek mythology, in The Furies I found myself getting lost in Annabell's lectures and often skipped those parts. 

It was, however, enchanting from start to finish. Albeit, a little slow paced, and sometimes Violet's voice became somewhat monotonous, the plot and the fire behind The Furies was enough to keep me going. 

4 out of 5 stars, and I'll definitely be checking out what Katie Lowe writes in the future. 

The Furies is out now.