Cover Image: The Furies

The Furies

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Member Reviews

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.

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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.

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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.

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I loved the opening and start of this book. I really enjoyed the description throughout and it's very well written from a narrative/plot point of view. It's the characters and dialogue that aren't quite right. The gang of creepy girls is supposed to draw us in, but the three of them are immensely irritating and the best friend, Robin is fairly sociopathic, but not in a cool way. I couldn't see why on earth the main character would want to be friends with her. The dialogue is quite clunky and there are attempts at quips, but they fall short - it feels awks and not the conversation of 17/18 year olds. They sound much more adult.

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There are lots of novel with similar themes to this. An elite school, strange cliques of girls, and, as we know from the beginning, a death. It has been done before, but I have a weakness for novels about schools, female friendships and so those words do pull me in, however hard I try to resist.

It feels to Violet as though her life is put on hold after the death of her father, and sister, in an accident. Her mother seems unable to move beyond her grief and, taking advantage of her disinterest, she opts out of school. Take your time, everyone says, until, finally, her mother suggests that she use the money they received after the accident to attend Elm Hollow Academy – a prestigious, artistic school.

Without really realising it, Violet is lonely and is soon attracted by the unconventional, carefree and confident Robin. She can hardly believe it when she is included in the small group – Robin, Grace and Alex, and – as there so often is in these novels – teacher, Annabel. There are warnings; word of a girl, previously included in Robin’s group, who mysteriously disappeared, but Violet doesn’t take it too seriously.

This novel has interesting characters, a slightly creepy premise, and is well written. Yes, there are other books that cover similar ground, but if you do like crime novels with intense female friendships –especially those set in a school – then you will enjoy this. I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.

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The Furies is a very well written and eventful story but for some reason I struggled to really engage with it. Maybe I just wasn’t in the right mood. Violet, even while recounting some very painful and intense experiences, felt strangely detached, and by extension so did I. By the end, I was trying to get my head around everything that had happened and why - I’m still not sure I fully understood it all. And I’m still not sure how a girl manages to die while seated on a swing and not immediately fall off.

I think a lot of people will love this book and I did enjoy reading it, but somehow it never quite pulled me in to the extent I hoped it would. That said, the author does a good job of depicting the febrile, dangerous world of these teenage girls and the character of Robin, in particular, is very well done.

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I raced through this book in a kind of surreal haze, coming up for air at the end and questioning what did I just read?! This is a dark, twisted whirlwind ride through adolescence filled with toxic friendships, a touch of witchcraft and murder. I loved it.

In a dilapidated British seaside town we meet 16-year-old Violet, only survivor of a car accident with her father and sister. With the settlement money, her mother elects to send Violet to elite private girl’s school Elm Hollow Academy on the edge of town. It’s there that Violet meets Robin, Alex and Grace, her first real friends, and is drawn into a decades old secret society; a history of myths and legends, powerful women and dark rituals.

Whilst there’s an element of this novel which focuses on the past; the creepy history of Elm Hollow as a place where witches were burnt at the stake and the society of women which has existed since the school’s inception, it also looks very contemporary issues in young friendships today, exploring themes of obsession, feminism and revenge. Violet is desperate for approval and quickly drawn into Robin’s wild lifestyle complete with drink, drugs, older boys – and witchcraft.

“We were close to the divine. we touched gods, felt them flow through our veins. Felt lust, envy, greed quicken our hearts – but for a while, we were truly, spectacularly alive.”

The writing is stunning; beautifully atmospheric and compelling as the author paints a vivid picture of the girls’ lives and environment; the derelict town juxtaposed with the grand, imposing school. It’s perhaps a little too flowery at times so it might not be for everyone – but for me it fits with our narrator, Violet’s voice and how she romanticises that period in her life.

“Though I have loved, and been loved, in the decades since we met, no infatuation could compare to the outrageous intensity of those first weeks with Robin.”

There’s a lot more I could say about this book and the issues it explores, but putting all that aside it’s also an excellent, compulsive thriller which had me racing through the pages. An great read; gripping, gothic, atmospheric and thought-provoking. I’m excited to see what this author does next.

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After the death of her father and sister in a car crash from which she was the only survivor, Valerie is starting over at Elm Hollow Academy, a private girls' school with a mysterious past. The history of Elm Hollow intertwines with 17th century witch trials and, far more recently, the disappearance of a student who was part of a secret society that Violet now finds herself invited to. Along with her new friends, Robin, Alex, and Grace, Violet meets their teacher, Annabel, in a secret part of the school each week to learn about women of art, literature, and history, including the school's own rumoured history of witchcraft that Annabel swears isn't real.

As Violet becomes entangled with her new friends, she starts to wonder about the girl they knew before, the one who went missing, who was Robin's best friend before Violet, and who apparently even looked a little like Violet. Robin envelopes Violet in her world of drinking, taking drugs, and spending time with older, university boys, and when this new world turns on Violet, Robin promises to make it right, using one of the rituals Annabel swore would never work. Violet falls further into the dark world that her new friends inhabit, tumbling deeper and deeper into the darkness, folding herself more and more into their group, until a body is found. Then, suddenly, Violet finds herself jealous of a dead girl, and unsure whether she can trust the friends she has become so linked to, after all.

The Furies is a dark, chilling tale of the intense friendships teenage girls can form and how that intensity can go horribly wrong. Annabel's lessons are meant to help the girls find a kind of power, but the power they try to harness is not the kind that Annabel intended. The novel is told from the perspective of Violet, older, looking back on the events of her teenage years, and it starts with the image of a dead girl on a swing. This vein of horror and decay permeates throughout the story, in the descriptions of the rundown seaside town surrounding Elm Hollow, in Violet's own home, where her mother has left her sister's bedroom exactly as it was the day she died, and even in Violet's interactions with her friends, shrouded in the smoke of cigarettes and pot, and flooded with wine.

This is a slow burn of a book, things take their time to come to fruition, but this works to give the sense of unease time to truly build. The girls' exploration into witchcraft and the myth of The Furies of ancient Greece being summoned to the school weave seamlessly into the almost claustrophobic friendship between the four girls, and make it all the more powerful that the true horrors in the story are not fantastical at all, but very human, and very real. Lowe's writing is extremely atmospheric, her descriptions enough to make anyone's skin crawl. The Furies is a dark and obsessive novel, perfect for fans of The Graces by Laure Eve, but who want something even darker than that.

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I absolutely adored this book. I requested it after seeing it described as The Graces meets The Secret History (two of my favourite reads). A delicious mix of witchcraft, a secret society and the struggles of toxic female friendship.

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I think the concept of this book is interesting which is why I requested digital download access. However, I honestly could not get into the book. I didn't like the main character and I didn't understand why she was so obsessed with her friend, Robin. I truly only made it to 25% completed before another book on my TBR caught my attention and I haven't felt the desire to finish the book. I have heard good things about this book though, it is all over my Twitter, maybe one day I'll dip back into it, but right now it will remain unfinished due to unlikeability of the main character and many of the secondary characters. It should be said that by 20% finished, I should have been hooked by the storyline, however, I was not.

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An enjoyable debut novel from Kate Lowe.
Following a family tragedy, we meet Violet as she enters Elm Hollow private girls school. Here she meets the enthralling Robin, and becomes entwined in the school's dark history.
The writing and imagery in the Furies is beautiful and captures the sometimes toxic and manipulative nature of teenage friendships and the lengths one goes to, to fit in and please others. I flew through this book in two nights and while the middle third stumbled a bit pace wise, I enjoyed the book overall. It is an appealing, alternative YA novel for those looking for a bit more bite
#NetGalley
#Thefuries

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This is sort of like The Secret History meets The Craft, with a bit of Mean Girls thrown in for good measure. When troubled Violet starts at a new school, she finds herself quickly wrapped up in a group of new friends led by the impulsive and enigmatic Robin. While taking part in extracurricular classes the girls become obsessed with the history of the school and rumours of witchcraft. Their interest in mythology and ancient rites sits in stark contrast with their modern adolescent lives, and as Violet becomes more entangled with Robin she begins to grow uneasy about her new friends, and the truth about what happened to another friend of theirs, who had died before Violet met them.

The book is written in dreamy, scattered prose, with edgeless stories and a tendency to jump around, leaving you unsure of what is real and what isn’t - which works to great effect in this case, as the reader inhabits Violet’s uncertainty and confusion about what is really going on. A twisty tangled tale that, in the end has a lot more to do with the complexities of adolescent friendship than witchcraft.

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Review: The Furies is a haunting, spell-binding novel set in the sinister grounds of Elm Hollow Academy. Witchcraft, wizardry and four wicked young women propel the plot behind this dark debut and, for me, it was an enchanting read, rich with beautiful prose, gorgeous, in-keeping, historical references and an interesting exploration of toxic teenage relationships.

The positives: The Furies is truly gripping at times. The characterisation is wonderful, especially Robin, the most devilish of them all. Robin takes Violet, our protagonist, under her wing and into the underworld of secret societies, alcohol-fuelled parties, drug-taking and criminal activity. The girls relationships were really twisted and I loved that about this book. I enjoyed the twist towards the end, too – which took me by surprise – and the almost supernatural imagery when we discover the Wych Elm’s secret. Beautifully harrowing!

The negatives: The story slightly loses its thrust in the mid-section, it’s not clear what the plan is or what we’re investigating. At times, a thread will be picked up and chased for a bit, then we’re onto something new, or not. As such the language, though beautiful, sort of gets in the way and I found myself skimming sections so I could get to the good bits that I knew, and were, right around the corner. For me, personally, the chapters could have been more concise – I think that might have helped keep things moving.

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What a fabulously entertaining and addictive novel! I simply couldn't tear myself away from this, and read the whole thing in 2 days. Katie Lowe's writing creates a fantastic atmosphere no matter what she is describing: the setting of a neglected seaside town is inspired, the relationships between the girls are horribly believable. While I did feel things went a bit "over the top" after a certain point and I couldn't *quite* keep suspending my disbelief, I couldn't help loving the book anyway. A great debut, a combination of literary thriller and horror that may also have crossover appeal for older teenage readers.

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Thank you for the advanced copy of this. I really enjoyed this, took me back a bit and reminded me a little of the Secret Circle series. Really well written and if you like the film The Craft then you’ll love this book!

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A gothic novel exploring the lives of four girls at a private school, The Furies looks into female friendships, toxic relationships, and jealousy, all whilst providing a gripping mystery to solve. I would recommend to any fan of female protagonists and complex characters

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This was a interesting book and enjoyed it, think its a fast read too and a lot of ups and downs. Enjoyed the characters and really wanted it to be longer.

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"It was all meant well, at the time (...) but in the cold light of suspicion, every kindness becomes a threat; a goodness made sinister."

The Furies is a debut novel from Katie Lowe. Violet is sixteen and she's been through a lot already. Her Father and little sister died in a car crash while she was a lone survivor. Her mother seems to gave up on life all together and is not helping her daughter anyhow. When she joins Elm Hollow Academy, the private school for girls, she doesn't have her hopes high for making her life any better. But suddenly and unexpectedly she finds herself befriended by a very interesting and popular girl Robin, who also introduced Violet to her two other friends. But this is not the end of surprises, she also gets invitation to a very exclusive advanced study group led by charismatic art teacher.
This book is many things. Firstly I thought it would be a contemporary with some thriller elements. Then after reading a few chapters we learn, that Elm Hollow has a long history of witch trials and that there are old books full of dark rituals in very convenient places waiting for girls to find them and experiment with magic. But then again, the witchcraft is not the main topic of this book.
The author explores vividly what toxic female friendships can lead to. Violet is shy and has very low self esteem, so when she met Robin, who shows interest in her, she is immediately fixated on doing everything to stay her friend. Even though it means doing things she would never do otherwise or changing to a person she doesn't recognize anymore. The author has PHD in female rage in literary modernism and it's clearly showing in the book. The advanced study's main topic is mainly female power, righteous rage and revenge on men through the ages. I really loved this little historical journey through literature and art, the different gender perspectives shown on the same situations. But for four young women, full of anger and impatience, those lessons become something more then theory.
The girls are convinced of their superiority and the right to avenge the wrongs that has been done to them by others. Firstly they are trying out ancient rituals, not sure if they do anything at all. But when unexpectedly their enemy is punished and no one blames them, they get a feeling of being invincible. They become more vicious and cruel with every passing day, and Violet still finds excuses to explain this behaviour as something normal.
I was quite hooked with this book. I started reading it as a side read while I was commuting (I have it in e-book format), but it quickly advanced to be my main book, because I was simply interested what the girls will come up with next. Not all the situations in the story were well explained or have an impact at the tale as a whole, and sometimes characters behaviour seemed very erratic and unexplainable. But then they were teenagers on drugs, alcohol and ancient rituals, so you can hardly blame them.
I like the book's structure. In the first pages we have a scene with a girl's body found in the school grounds and then Violet tells the whole story leading to that exact moment. And we get the answers at the very end of the book. It was a really pleasant read, and if you like the stories of high school girls gone bad with some elements of mystic witchcraft and revenge you'll enjoy this book for sure.

I've got the copy of book thanks to the publisher @HarperFiction through NetGalley.

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A fantastic debut. A gripping story, told with skill.. A work to immerse yourself in, with enough 90s nostalgia and wicked humour peeking through the darkness.

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You’d kill to be one of them.

1998. A sixteen-year-old girl is found dead on school property, dressed in white and posed on a swing. No known cause of death.

Four girls know what happened.

And until now they’ve kept their silence.

The idea of this book really appealed to me, and at first I found myself engrossed in it. I thought it was very well written, and there was always a dark, somewhat gothic atmosphere to it. I didn't particularly like the main character Violet, but I thought her desperate need to be part of a friendship group, whether she agreed with what they were doing or not, was portrayed well. It captured the angst, the bitchiness and the insecurities of the group of teenage girls in a compelling way, but I feel like their relationship with others, like their teacher Annabelle, wasn't really explored enough.
For me the story lost it's way a bit, and for a while I didn't feel it was going anywhere. I liked the ending but I feel it could have been built up to more. I wasn't rushing to find out what would happen, and I think that's a shame as the overall idea for the story was great.

I think anyone who enjoys a darker tone to YA books would like this

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