This book is all over the place. I liked the premise, but the unraveling is chaos, to say the least. Elm Hollow, I like the name, is where we find our young leading lady attending school. Violet is alone. Her father and sister, are dead, her mother lost in a bottle of booze, she's a mess too and understandably so. These girls just dive off into everything gross and dark, not in a good way. I was rather stunned. Robin, Grace, and Alex are her new friends, but what are they leading her into? Drugs, yes, and boys, and it just keeps going. How far down is Violet going to fall? What kind of redemption can there be with this mess? Some words got used so much that I was ready to throw this down and run, but I had to find the ending. I needed to find some glimmer of hope and light in the horrid, tragic, gothic mess this girl was living. I suppose that was a hopeless quest, as the language got worse and worse. It became degrading and not what I was anticipating. I started to care less about a school full of Carrie-like girls as I figured out this wasn't going like Pretty Little Liars, which is okay, but I feel like this crossed lines that I'd rather have skipped. It's well written, but just not my favorite in this case.

Thanks to Net Galley and St. Martin's Press for my digital copy of this book. This review is mine and a positive review isn't required.

This wasn’t for me. Everything from the writing to the plot just did not work for me. I liked the idea of the plot but it did not deliver for me.

I’m not sure how I feel about this one still. I liked it while I was reading it but I found it very forgettable. I did really like the characters and the story line.

Thank you to Katie, Netgalley, and St. Martin's Press for an advance copy of The Furies.

When a girl is found dead at an elite boarding school clearly left to be found in a specific manner, rumors fly as everyone flashes back to a year ago when a new student with a mysterious past transfers in. Violet is a little strange and has some trouble fitting in, however when a professor invites her to a study group she connects with three other girls feeling like she’s found her place.

Together, the study group dives deep into the school’s sketchy history which includes the 17th century witch hunt. The majority of the girls quickly become engrossed in all things occult and lore. As Violet discovers that the group used to have a fifth member prior to her, someone who resembles her, she starts to think she’s gotten in over her head and begins to try to get out of the dangerous web she’s become caught in.

Okay. This sounds so good in theory, right?
I felt like I was reading an elevated revival of The Craft, but the execution just wasn’t there. The relationships never came together, I didn’t care enough about anyone to root for either their safety or demise.

It’s really unfortunate because all of the pieces that should’ve led me to find a new obsession were there - small town, occult, boarding school, secret society - and yet…I felt nothing.

I will chalk it up to the first year of YA thrillers just all being complete and total letdowns, regardless of the author or subject matter…they all just did not pan out for whatever reason.

This book was full of potential. But what the world was going on in 90 percent of the book? I feel like this book was not edited as much as it should have been? There were tons of errors with spelling and grammar. But I couldn't get into it because if that.

The Furies is the debut novel by Katie Lowe, congrats on your debut. I’ll describe it as the movie The Craft meets The Secret History, or at least it tries to be. It was very slow to get started and I also did not like or care about the characters. It was overall meh for me. I really liked her second book, Possession but if I’d read The Furies first I’d never have read that one I don’t think. So my recommendation is skip this one and read her second book.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the e-arc I received in exchange for my honest review.

DNF
I tried twice and just couldn’t get into this one! It sounded super promising - murder, boarding school, witch trial history. Unfortunately, it didn’t live up to the hype and fell super flat. There was no “fury”, it was flat and boring.

I am a sucker for dark and depressing stories. The Furies was a clever and unique read. I will definitely be on the lookout for future books by Katie Lowe.

I really expected more from "The Furies" but it just fell flat as a novel for me. This novel just lacked depth and couldn't keep my interest.

The description of this book had me rearing and ready to read it, however, the entire story just fell flat for me and I was left disappointed. I love fantasy and witchcraft and thrillers, but this was really just a dark book with no depth.

I had hopes of this being a modern version of something like The Craft, but overall I was disappointed. Elite school, mysterious clique of misfit girls, and a murder, No one is particularly likeable, which isn't something I need, but I couldn't get invested in the characters. Overall it was a pretty dark novel with some particularly appalling events. I'm not sure I'd recommend it, but I may follow up with what the author does next.

I received an copy from the publisher via Netgalley for an honest review.

This book was likened to the film The Craft and presented as such....I feel like that was way off base. This novel wants to SEEM like that and hints a great deal at it, however, these girls aren't really witches and instead just prove to be some intense psychopaths that get away with a LOT of gruesome things. Violet, our narrator and main character, just seems like a follower. Obviously all four of our main characters were mirrored after our four ladies from The Craft, however, the character development seems non-existent. This novel was so long and tedious at times with a great deal of description of learning history of witches and magic and HINTING that they were going to participate in it and so forth.....and did not. They just turned out to be mean girls turned psychopaths. This novel had no real depth, but hey, the advertising for it was phenomenal for the novel being so disappointing.

Unfortunately, I have also read in quite a few places that this novel feels like blatant plagiarism to Natalie Haynes book with the exact same title published in 2014, some of the characters were just changed. That seems rather disappointing considering St. Martin's published both.

Overhyped but underdelivered. Unlikeable characters & confusing plot make this hard to follow. I wanted more development & less description. It felt pretentious.

Well, this was dull. I really wanted to like this book and went into it with an open mind but it just wasn’t meant to be. I did think about abandoning the book at several points but I pushed through in hopes that the ending would be exciting enough to make up for the incredibly slow-paced story. It wasn’t. I thought that the premise of this book sounded like it had a lot of promise. It should have been an exciting story with deaths occurring and the history of witchcraft at the school but it just fell flat for me.

I didn’t like any of the characters which made it hard to connect with the story. I thought that the very beginning of the book where we learn Violet’s history was very well done and I wanted to be sympathetic toward her character but it just didn’t happen. Violet, Robin, Alex, and Grace just were not very likable. Robin was the ringleader for much of the story and she really just seemed like a bad influence on Violet. I was bored throughout the book.

I listened to the audiobook and thought that Olivia Dowd did a great job with the narration. Honestly, I don’t think that I would have finished the book if it were not for her narration. She had a pleasant voice and I liked the distinctive voices that she used for the various characters.

This is not a book that I will be recommending this book. This was a very slow-moving story with characters I didn’t care about. I do think that some readers will like this one a lot more than I did.

I received a review copy of this book from St. Martin’s Press Press and borrowed a copy of the audiobook.

This book was very interesting and fast-paced, the author held my attention and the plot was very appealing. I would recommend this book to friends.

The Furies is like a literary British The Craft. Great for fans of dark academia novels a little on the dark side, but not graphic. The late 90s time period was the icing on the cake in this slow burn of a witchy coming of age novel.

I am sorry for the inconvenience but I don’t have the time to read this anymore and have lost interest in the concept. I believe that it would benefit your book more if I did not skim your book and write a rushed review. Again, I am sorry for the inconvenience.

I ended up dnfing The Furies by Katie Lowe. I lost interest while reading, it just couldn’t hold my interest. I was bored and what I read I had to reread to try to remember but that didn’t help. I thought I was going to love this.

I chose this book because the plot and situation are similar to one of my very favorites: Donna Tartt’s The Secret History. In both there is a school or college setting in which an outsider is drawn into a select society of friends led by a charismatic teacher. In both they fall under the influence of the Greek tragedian Euripides: the Bacchae in Tartt, Medea here. And in both to cover up the crimes they commit under the influence of dark divinities, they have to commit murder to keep their secrets. The school here is Elm-Grove Academy. Our narrator Violet is a new girl who is taking under the wing of her new friend Robin and meets her friends, Nicky, Alex and Grace. She is initiated into their secret society led by Anabel, one of the teachers. The society has been in existence since the seventeenth-century, with membership handed down from mother to daughter, employing occult means to punish men for their crimes against women. As it turns out, the girls themselves become some of the victims.



I knew something had gone wrong when I reached the third page and read: “Their lives ended and mom’s life stopped.” Wait a moment! Do English girls usually refer to their female parent as “mom”? Fortunately my copy of the English edition reached me a couple of days later so I could check the original and sure enough, someone had systematically, if carelessly, Americanized the text, turning “mum” into “mom” as well as “petrol” into “gasoline”; but these changes are not only unsystematic because sometimes the original contains Americanisms( “elevator” and “lift” both occur). One attempt by a cack-handed revisor I found hilarious. The girls have killed the Dean of the school (he’s no loss—refers to graduates of a girls’ school as “alumni”):

English edition: “I saw my chance. ‘I think I saw a petrol can in the garage.’

“’No way,’ Alex said. ‘If they find petrol on anything, it won’t look like an accident …’”

American version: “I saw my chance. ‘I think I saw a petrol can in the garage.’

“‘No way,’ Alex said, ‘If they find gasoline on anything, it won’t look like an accident …’”

No indeed, the police will know an American killed the Dean, and our girls will be in the clear.

We also get “vacationing” for “holidaying,” “cotton candy” for “candy-floss,” and “sneakers” for “trainers.” The problem isn’t just that the American expressions look uncouth in situ, but that they completely violate the first rule of realistic fiction: that characters remain believable and in character. It also shows the author believes that her readers across the pond are provincial boors.

Unlike The Secret History, where I thought I had a good idea of the author’s meaning, I cannot decide here what my take should be. Perhaps as a male reader, I’m not allowed an opinion. From the plot, I gather a tragic version of the sorcerer’s apprentice story, which also fits very well with Euripides’ Medea, as well is both pagan and Christian moral principles. Anger or Ira is one of the seven deadly sins, and when unleashed ultimately destroys the innocent, such as Medea’s children. (I had some real doubts about the author’s knowledge of the Classics when I read: “She [Medea] was the only survivor, walking from Athens wearing the blood of her children.” No, she killed the children at Corinth and she didn’t walk, she flew, in a chariot drawn by dragons to Athens.) But given the feminist beliefs that underlie this story, I suspect we’re supposed to sympathize with Violet at the end. Fortunately we are dealing with a character in a story-book.

Fortunately, American readers who want to read the authentic version don’t have to buy the dumb-downed US version. Given the difference in prices and exchange rates, you can buy the correct English version from Amazon.co.uk and pay the postage and still save on the American hardback, and have an English narrator speaking real English.


Posted on October 8, 2019 1 Comment

Violet's life changes forever when she is fifteen when her father and little sister are killed in a car accident. Although her mother is still there, she has checked out of life and spends her days drinking and watching tv until she passes out. Violet takes herself out of the public school she has been attending. When the insurance settlement comes through, all of a sudden there is money. Violet will now be going to the local private school which is considered a sign of prosperity and a doorway to upper class privilege.
Although bright, Violet doesn't fit in with the other girls, most of whom have known each other since birth. So Violet is thrilled when Robin, a girl with flaming red hair, makes friendship overtures. Soon Violet is in the clique that includes Robin, Alex and Grace. The fact that they are all considered outside the pale doesn't seem to matter.

The girls are picked out by their art teacher for special classes and they come to believe in the ancient Greek myths with their monsters and penchant for revenge. The girls feel that they know people who deserve a comeuppance and start to perform rituals to bring down revenge on them. When a boy who they targeted in their rituals has a car accident, they are sure they have brought The Furies to life and that they hold others in the palm of their hands.

Another girl had been in the clique but gone missing and is presumed dead. The girls are determined to find out what happened to her and to avenge her death. Can they be successful or will the evil they are playing with turn around and bite them?

This is a young adult debut novel. I don't read much young adult and this novel hardened that resolve. The tone of the book is one of teenage angst and can often seem whiny. Why does no one get counseling for a girl who has lost most of her family? Why can't teachers and parents notice that their teenage girls are coming home drunk or drugged, that they are rarely attending classes? I couldn't suspend my disbelief long enough to enjoy the storyline but those interested in young adult novels may find this one to be right in their comfort zone.