When a sixteen year old girl is found dead at school dressed in white and sitting on a swing no one knows the cause of death or what happened.
Four girls know the truth but will they keep the secret?
Murder mystery teenage witchcraft his book has it all.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and of course the author for this digital ARC in exchange for my unbiased review.
This book is a twisted psychological thriller and was a very enjoyable read!

This book held my attention for the entirety of it. Not my usual genre of books to read, but it was intriguing, interesting and my curiosity was most definitely piqued.

I seriously cannot wait to see what this author brings to us next. An incredible debut!

I am torn with this book.

I didn't love it but I also didn't hate it.

I am stuck somewhere in the middle of love and hate, and there are not many books that leave me in this state.

Going into this book I had conjured up feelings of it being very much like The Craft - and whilst there are some elements (4 girls ancient texts) it fell flat. The Furies were only mentioned a few times and "seen" once, which left me sorely disappointed. I wanted more witchcraft, more spells, more Furies. But instead you get the toxic friendship that Robin, Alex and Grace have with Violet. Mainly between Robin and Violet, Alex and Grace don't seem to want to pass the time of day with Violent with Robin isn't around.

I think reflecting on the story for me the main line was the peer pressure and toxic friendships rather than the whole witchcraft one. Violet comes to Elm Hollow Academy looking for a new start following a year off school after a tragic car accident that saw her father and sister die. Violet is in a place where having the attention of Robin is something that she is craving, but she soon gets caught up with drugs, drinking and sex (actually rape which lead to the girls calling on the power of the Furies).

This is a very ominous and foreboding book that left me questioning what really happened. Was it the Furies or was it just the fact that these girls were just plain evil?

This is a book all about toxic teenage friendships and the lengths some people will go to fit in with the ‘in’ crowd. The book is set in an elite private all girls school rich in sordid history and I was just as interested as reading about the schools history as I was about any other aspect within the book.

Robin, Grace and Alex used to be a ‘foursome’ until their friend Emily tragically passed. So when Violet starts at the school she is soon snapped up by the three girls to join their group. Violet comes from a troubled home and seems to desperately seek friendship and approval from her peers so it’s no wonder really that she allowed herself to be taken in so completely by the group.

I wouldn’t say any of the characters are necessarily likeable in this book, but it still has that general pull that makes you want to read on to find out what happens to them. I think I was personally more interested in the mystery and magical side to the story and I would have liked the book more if these aspects had been expanded but still a very good debut from this author.

Fantasy fiction isn’t usually my thing but Lowe’s debut novel treads the line between fantasy and realism perfectly, leaving you wondering exactly what has gone on. Like The Secret History but with an all-girl gang, this novel of teenage “witches” in a drab 1990s seaside town is dark, intelligent, gory, and extremely entertaining.

I received a free ecopy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to the Harper Collins and Netgalley for the opportunity.

First of all TRIGGER WARNING for date rape both in the book and the review.

This book opens with a dead 16 year old girl, sitting on a swing, as described by a very sad older female teacher, then slides straight back to the time before this death. Despite the backwards time jump, the feeling of melancholy pervades the whole book. However, it is a hypnotic read that pulls you in and keeps you turning the pages, right to the end.

The main character and narrator, Violet, loses her father and baby sister in a car crash in the opening pages. She reluctantly uses the compensation money to fund an education at a local private school, that was built on grounds where witches were burnt in the seventeenth century.

Violet bears an uncanny resemblance to a pupil called Emily who has recently gone missing. Violet becomes friends with Emily’s three best friends, in particular Robin who has a history of drink and drugs. She is invited alongside them, to join an exclusive study group, which looks at art through a feminist perspective, including the local history of witchcraft. The girls obtain a book on witchcraft and attempt to curse two people, the school gossip, and a date rapist on whom they call down the Furies.

Much of the book is dedicated to Violet’s feelings of being an outsider. She is described as resembling Emily, but not as pretty. The teen friendships seem to be a game of which she is never clear of the rules and therefore destined to fail. Feelings I remember myself from high school. I felt for the character, and understood her feelings of alienation and frustration. Violet’s life goes into a downward spiral as she desperately tries to keep up with Robin and remain part of the clique. The consequences are unexpected and brutal.

Lowe describes herself as an ‘angry feminist’ and this comes over throughout the book. Male characters are infrequent and unsavoury. The girls, and by extension, the readers, are educated in the misogyny of art and literature via tuition from teacher, Annabel. I have no problem with being offered new ideas through storytelling. I will admit it piqued my curiosity.

On the down side I found some of the action paragraphs so overly descriptive that I wasn’t entirely sure what had happened, even after slow rereadings. I had to infer the action from what came afterwards. This might have put me off reading further but actually, this is one of those books which, just as you think you know what is going on, pulls the rug from under you, turning the story on its head and pulls you into the next few chapters. Even the closing pages offer another twist to mess with the reader’s head.

This is not a book to read if you’re depressed. Lighthearted and cheery, it’s not. It is though a cracking first novel from a writer whose career I will follow with interest.

This book perfectly depicts peer pressure, and the pressure put upon girls, by men and by other girls, it also shows just how toxic some friendships can be. Violet is clearly still grieving after the accident which took her dad and sister, and in all aspects except physically, it took her mum too. Robin comes along into her life and seems to be clearly what Violet needs, a breath of fresh air, but all isn't what it seems and she is led down a path of alcohol, drugs and murder.

I really liked Annabel's character, although as their teacher and spending so much time with the four girls in her extra lessons with them, I would have hoped she would have picked up on their reckless behaviour and possibly stepped in. 

My favourite line in the book, and possibly because I think every woman can agree on just how true the statement is; "It is the actions of men that make them vengeful, not through mismanagement or absence, as the text says, but out of cruelty and selfish desire."

A real page-turner with more twists and turns than a twisty-turny thing!! Could not put it down and ended up reading in one sitting. Was expecting something similar to The Craft, and got a mash up between The Crucible, Heathers and Girl Interrupted. It is mysterious, ominous and foreboding and you're often left doubting what really happened. Lowe nails the disturbing toxic teenage relationships and successfully maintains the suspense and tension right up to the last page.

Recommended for those who like Pretty Little Liars, Little Monsters and stories of angry young vengeful woman.

This is an intense novel, is follows a troubled teenage girl through the darkest time of her life and plays on all the turbulent emotions we feel during that time in all of our lives.

I love books about angry women, angry YOUNG women are even more brutal and this book thoroughly explored that. It covers the intensity of best-friendships between teen girls, rivalries, schooling and relationships in general.

This book reminded me very much of the 90s classic film 'The Craft', in terms of both storyline and characterisation, but with less of the campiness.
I was sucked in by the pure angsty goodness and tempered rage in this book, the writing style is mysterious and completely compelling. I can't recommend it highly enough for anyone who wants to relive/get insight into the weird vibrancy of being a teenage girl and believing that anything is possible.

The Furies
By Katie Lowe
Published by Harpercollins
Available from May in hardback

Katie Lowe's thrilling debut novel, The Furies delves into the darkness of adolescence full of toxic friendships, poisonous situations and witchcraft. Think of Donna Tartt's The Secret History but set in a creepy private school in an English rundown seaside town in the 90s.

Violet, an unreliable narrator who is now telling the story from a distanced, adult perspective, looks back at her teenage self when she was full of grief and isolated from her friends, her life, her mother after the death of her little sister and father in a car crash. Violet, the only survivor, is numb and her mother withdraws from her, spending her days on the sofa. An insurance payout allows her to attend a private school, Elm Hollow, just a bus ride away, giving her an escape from her past, and from her present. At school, she can reinvent herself, hide away from her grief. Nobody will know the secret she carries.

Pulled into the clique of three other girls, introducing her to an exclusive study group, cigarettes, drugs and older boys. She won't listen to the warnings to stay away from the rebellious girls. Katie Lowe builds up the tension as the girls become tangled up in witchcraft and spells. Their friendship starts to spiral out of control as they seek out to avenge the people who have hurt them. Tension pulls the reader into their world, and you know there is something sinister lurking just out of sight.

The girls want to be heard, want to be respected. They will get what they want by using their sexuality and witchcraft. There are power struggles within themselves to shed their childish ways and become an adult, to struggles against men as they take a stand against the college boys and male teacher who wrong them. Their bond holds them together as they become more powerful after every struggle for power.

The Furies is available from the 2nd May but you can pre-order now and you'll love this book if you're a fan of The Secret History and The Virgin Suicides. This is a dark thriller full of sinister power struggles and good girls turned bad. This will make a great bank holiday read.

I was sent an ebook version via Netgalley.

A year after a terrible family tragedy Violet takes up a place at a prestigious school for girls, Elm Hollow Academy, whose pupils often go on to do great things. The school has a dark history with links to witchcraft and the 17th century witch trials. Violet soon falls in with a clique of three other girls who lost one of their friends in mysterious circumstances a year earlier. The school specialises in art and literature studies and when Violet catches the eye of one of the tutors, Annabel, Violet is invited to join an exclusive, secret group where her studies delve deeper into the meanings behind art and mythology and the history of the school. What follows is a dangerous story of intense and destructive female friendship, murder and revenge. And perhaps a little witchcraft.

This isn't the most original story, particularly the first half, and many readers may recognise scenes and scenarios from various other books and movies. What I did find very effective and original was the English seaside setting. Descriptions of the grubby, rundown town and often bad weather added a lot to the story, giving it very atmospheric, dark and slightly menacing feel. And the ending is very effective.

I had a couple of other small niggles with this book. The fact that the girls were studying and/or up to various shenanigans at school until late in the evening was very unbelievable and for a while I was under the (wrong) impression that it was a boarding school, especially with the exclusive reputation and general grandeur of the place. Also, although I found Annabel's lectures about art, literature and mythology really interesting at times, these occasionally became too long and rambling and distracted from the actual story.

So, despite my few little moans and groans, I did like this book, just not quite as much as I'd hoped to.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.

First, the cover is absolutely gorgeous! One of my favourite cover designs this year, hands down!

This book is definitely more The Craft and less The Secret History; the level of it is more teen witch summer read than high literature. If the characters had been more deeply developed, perhaps it would have hit that level. I felt the characterisation was light and predictable. This made it difficult to really care what happened to any of the girls. That said, I love a good coven, if that is what these girls actually are.

It felt a bit like the author started with a few scenes in her head, like a dead girl in a tree and the secret room with the mysterious, witchy teacher (who should have been fired ages ago, to be honest), and was trying to wrap a story around it. A lot of the scenes felt pulled from teen fiction, which I love so I didn't mind, but could put some readers off.

It was a decent read but certainly didn't meet my expectations given the blurb and promotion.

Literally can not wait to read more from this author. big things are happening. Very "The craft" like in the teen witch path these teens follow through the course of the book. the story unfolds well and is well paced.

In 1998 a sixteen year old girl is found dead on school property, dressed in white and placed on a swing, with no known cause of death. Violet, looking back on the night it happened from the present day, before returning to relate the series of events leading up,to the girls murder. After an accident involving her dad and sister, Violet joins Elm Hollow Academy, a private girls school in a quiet coastal town, which has an unpleasant history as the site of famous 17th century witch trials. Violet becomes the fourth member of an advanced study group.

Sixteen year old Violet was the only survivor of a car crash that killed her father and sister. She goes to Elm Hollow Academy, a private school for girls, to study for her A levels. She soon meets and becomes friends with Alex, Grace and Robin. The Academy has a history of witchcraft. The girls take extra classes with the art teacher, Annabel, who teaches a few students about art, literature and mythology. The history of Elm Hollow Academy is a place where witches were burnt at the stake. I did not like any of the characters in this story.

I would like to thank NetGalley, HarperCollins UK, HarperFiction and the author Katie Lowe for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I am teetering somewhere between 4 and 4.5 stars with this one, for reasons I will explain, but I feel as bewitched (fitting) by this book now as I did by its premise when I first came across it.

Everything about teenager Violet's world is tinged with grey. She lives in a run-down seaside town somewhere in England. Her father and younger sister were recently killed in a car crash, from which Violet emerged as the only survivor. In the accident's aftermath, Violet's mother has withdrawn into a state of grief and numbness, barely able to function, let alone look after Violet. The atmosphere in the house is melancholy and dark, filthy and silent.

An insurance settlement provides Violet with the opportunity to attend a prestigious private girls' school, Elm Hollow Academy. The school is located on the historical site of witch trials where an accused witch was burned in the 17th century. Adding to the school's dark and mysterious allure, a current Elm Hollow student, Emily Frost, has disappeared and is still missing. The backdrop of the school's history and the descriptions of the physical campus set the scene for this eerie and intriguing story and I was immediately drawn into it.

Despite her tendency to isolate herself and indulge in her feelings of loneliness, Violet makes the acquaintance of grungy, confident and carefree Robin, who introduces Violet to the rest of her clique: quiet Grace and aloof Alex. Our protagonist is led to experiment with cigarettes, alcohol, drugs and older boys, and as her 'pledging' to the small girl-pack intensifies, she learns about witchcraft, going on to secure a spot in a secret and exclusive study group fronted by Annabel, a charismatic and alluring art teacher at Elm Hollow. After a series of events, with her friendships intensifying to the point where she feels trapped, Violet begins to doubt everyone around her as well as lose her own grasp on reality.

You might be thinking you've read this story before, right? It feels like a combination of Donna Tartt's The Secret History and spooky thriller "The Craft", with a little hint of the highschool clique-culture of "Mean Girls" thrown in for good measure. This is initially why I was drawn to The Furies; I have a weakness for these kind of female-friendship-led thrillers. However, this novel surprised me with its differences and its uniqueness. The creepy premise is wonderful and if the witchcraft element and disappearance of Emily Frost wasn't enough, the book opens with an unforgettable image of a dead girl found on the grounds of Elm Hollow, dressed all in white and propped on a swing. Violet, now an adult, is looking back on this scene and the night it happened from the present day, before going back in time to relate the events leading up to the murder, beginning with her enrollment in her new school.

The story itself is engrossing - in fact, it led me to do some research on witchcraft in the U.K., my assumption being that witch trials were rooted only in the history of Salem and the U.S. The concept is rich and dark, and is brought to life so well by the author. I particularly enjoyed the evocation of the unlovely setting: the sketch of a bleak, crumbling, dilapidated and neglected town, "caked in bird shit and graffiti", "the kind of place people came to die". The characters feel authentic, with Violet, especially, emerging as vivid and engaging. Despite her tendency to fall within the realm of unreliable narrator - is our narrator remembering correctly or merely presenting the traumatising imaginings of a teenage girl, present-day Violet serves as a crucial adult perspective to help us make sense of the past and put us back on track.

This novel can be commended for its projection of teenage life and teenage insecurities, which doesn't come as a shock given Katie Lowe's background as an academic and the founder of the Fat Girl PhD blog, through which she writes about health, feminism and body image. The prose is alive with the energy and liberty of adolescence, while also being smeared with the uncertainty, nastiness and grime of it all. And, while the prose can come across as a little overdone at times, the elaborate word play and use of similes and imagery serve to emphasise the visceral and surreal nature of the story. With undercurrents of dread and decay, the atmosphere of this novel reminded me of that of Dark Places by Gillian Flynn.

Despite the sometimes blown-out prose and a brief and fleeting moment in the middle where it seemed like the narrative was going to lull, The Furies is a riveting story of dark magic, obsessive friendship, teenage life and murder. It is dripping with atmosphere and intrigue. I got lost in it from the first page and felt both repulsed and consumed by it. I expect this will be received as a triumphant debut. Bravo, Ms Lowe. (Let's call it 4.5 stars, then.)

To be honest I didn't actually know lots about this book when I requested it, i'd seen it around and was intrigued, but I went in pretty much blind. I'm glad I did as I actually do think this is a book best explored with little prior knowledge. There's no way to really put into words here all that this book really contains. It's a thrilling ride about death, murder and witchcraft but it also truly explores the depraved toxicity of female friendships.

After the death of her father and sister in a car accident Violet is sent to a private girls school - Elm Hollow. She doesn't have high hopes for her future here, never having had many friends, but she becomes instantly immersed as a new member in a friends group with Alex, Grace and the enigmatic Robin. She also becomes part of a secret society which their teacher, Annabel, who teaches them about witchcraft trials, myths, legends and ancient rituals but what happens when the girls decide they need revenge and use her lessons for damage.

What makes this book is the writing. The writing is so atmospheric. I really felt I could see all the events clearly playing out in my head, and I was right there with the girls. It's definitely quite flowery writing which actually usually isn't for me, but I found it worked perfectly here.

Honestly, i'm so impressed by this book. It's definitely one i'm going to be thinking about a lot. This was truly the perfect mix of The Secret History and the movie Thirteen, a combination I never knew I needed but i'm so glad I got. I can't wait to see what else is to come where Katie Lowe is concerned!

The Furies by Katie Lowe is an interesting YA novel.
It's a 3.5 star story which opens with a fantastic scene which is set in 1998 finding a girl dead sat on a swing.
The story revolves around the narrator Violet who's world has just been torn apart.
The only good outcome is she can now afford to go to private school Elm Hollow Academy where she gets invited to join an advanced study group with Robin,Grace and Alex run by Art teacher Annabel.
This story had undertones of the film The Craft and I really enjoyed Katie Lowe's writing style.
It's graphic,haunting and sometimes predictable but enjoyable.
It hooks you in with the first chapter and answers everything you may need to know.
I enjoyed reading this book and finding new author Katie Lowe.
I'm voluntarily reviewing an advanced reader copy of this book given to me by Netgalley.

I liked this book as much as I was expecting to. So many twists and turns and it had me wired from start to finish.

I really struggled with this. I didn’t really empathise with Violet, or understand why she was so compelled by Robin, Alex and Grace. Nicky was frustratingly peripheral and could have been a much more richly drawn character, as could Annabel.

Maybe I’m not the target audience, but this one wasn’t for me, and the ending left me with more questions than answers.