I really enjoyed this novel. Told in a style of hindsight, we experience the story entirely from Lucy’s perspective, in such an intimate way, it's almost as though we are inside Lucy, experiencing her pain, her anger, her insight, her self-doubt, and her self-loathing. I liked Lucy a lot, I understood her, the way in which she had given up her individual existence for motherhood and home-making, putting her own work last, her own needs to the bottom of the list. She did this without resentment, without self-pity; this I could understand as well.

When she finds out her husband is having an affair, lying to her about breaking it off, and then subsequently inferring that she has brought it onto herself, a dormant part of her character uncoils. The Harpy begins to rise within. A mythological creature that has long fascinated her since childhood, the Harpy taunts Lucy as she begins to unravel the mess her life has rapidly become. A repressed anger moves within her and she is motivated to hurt her husband as a form of reparation. He agrees, somewhat patronisingly, in my opinion.

I enjoyed this tale of revenge, and yes, I will admit it, I feel he got what he deserved in every instance. I have no time or sympathy for cheaters, so this story appealed to me instinctively. Lucy’s introspection of how her past may have shaped her present is broken up with passages about the Harpy: memories, facts, musings, until eventually, within herself, Lucy becomes the Harpy. The ending was surrealistic; open to interpretation. I would have preferred something more concrete and assured, although I certainly understood where the author was coming from: the illusion of an untethering, a ceremonial letting go, a reckoning between Lucy's past, present, and her future.

I love the way in which Megan Hunter writes; her narrative is warmly intimate, engaging and immersive. I read this novel rather quickly without even realising I was doing so; the best kind of fiction. I'll definitely be reading more of her work.



Thanks is extended to Pan Macmillan Australia for providing me with a copy of The Harpy for review.

I loved The End We Start From so much and was keen to read this new one from Megan Hunter, albeit a little apprehensive that it wouldn't live up TEWSF. I had absolutely no need to worry because this novel is really wonderful. It's got so much of the author's unique style which is somehow simultaneously detached and extremely visceral, and there was even more emotion and conflict infused into the plot.

Another spellbinding read from Megan Hunter! The Harpy is about love and revenge, about crime and punishment, about destruction and self-destruction. It is about a woman who finds out her husband has been unfaithful to her but to simply describe it this way feels too pedestrian. It is a gorgeous kaleidascope of myth, domestic noir, feminism & poetry. It defies categorisation - just read it!

I found this book creepy and disturbing & I didn't really enjoy it because it's not my usual type of read. It is very well written but I was dreading what was going to be happening on the next page that I read right up to the end. A very good read if you like a disturbing and unsetting plot but unfortunately not for me.

The Harpy by Megan Hunter is a rumination on womanhood, broken marriages, and mundanity of domesticity with a dollop of rage, revenge and magical realism. Lucy, a thirty-something woman, who has placed her intellectual pursuits aside and is "happily" married to her college sweetheart, Jake. They have a son and live a supposedly pleasant life. As the story progresses we see her increased obsession with the myth of harpies. Lucy's world, however, comes crashing down when she finds out about her husband's affair with an older colleague, spending her days in a rage filled fug. She craves revenge and makes a disturing pact with Jake- to hurt him three times and they'll be even. As disturbing and unsettling as that sounds, it's during these dark moments that The Harpy soars. T

It's a,dark and gritty read that could have worked much better as a short story.

Thank you Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for the advance copy, which was provided in exchange for an honest review.

A strange book, gripping and gothic, and left me thinking about it for weeks afterwards. I was expecting more from the end though, after a long slow build up.

I very much enjoyed this book. It has a good story and excellent main characters. I would definately recommend this book.

This frankly stunning book, begins like many women’s normal, everyday evenings: getting the children ready for bed on their own, waiting for their husband to get in from their commute.

Lucy enjoys her alone time think, and enjoys the time she spends with her children. She works from home since having had the children. She had a good job, had even started to study for a PhD at one point, and she appears to be happy with her life as it is. Until an unexpected phone call one evening. Jake, her husband, is late home from work, and the stranger on the phone tells Lucy that her husband is having an affair with his wife. Lucy is stunned. Jake is full of remorse when she tells him, and he tells her that she can punish him three times - as long as they stay together.

This book looks at how punishment skirts very closely to revenge, and the effect that it can have on your own sanity. It uses mythology and the myth of the Harpy, to exact that revenge. As time progresses and Lucy becomes more embroiled in her Harpy-like acts of revenge, there are excerpts that seem to come from a Harpy’s point of view. I liked these parts. They seemed to revel in the feelings of vengeance, something that all ‘nice’ girls are taught not to do. Instead of turning the other cheek, Lucy goes for full-on retribution.

I thoroughly enjoyed this. It’s a short, totally absorbing read, and is the second book I’ve read and enjoyed by Megan Hunter. I’m looking forward to whatever comes next!

From the opening pages, I knew that I was going to inhale this book, it is the perfect cocktail of relationships, motherhood and folk lore/mythology all rolled into one, I was hooked early doors and it didn’t let up.

I spent a lot of time after I had finished this book, Googling Harpies, I fell down a bit of a Harpy shaped rabbit hole – It got pretty dark! For those of you who are not familiar with the term, a harpy was a creature usually from Greek Mythology, that would take on the form of a winged body with a woman’s face. There are many conflicting accounts of Harpies, some are reportedly sexual creatures, who hypnotise men and lead them astray. In other stories they are depicted as monsters, those who steal the wind and bring with them destruction. In the present day, you are more likely to hear  the term Harpy, as a derivative term one which has negative connotations.

A seemingly happy couple, living comfortably, hosting dinner parties, managing work and children however all that is shattered when Lucy find out Alex has had an affair with someone at work.

Heading up each chapter are either notes, a conversation, a book chapter, a tit bit of information about the Harpy. Lucy has always had an affinity and obsession with this creature, this stems right back to her being a child, she would ask her mother questions, read books, write stories and eventually would write her university paper about the mythological creature, nothing would quell her thirst. A phone call one afternoon from a man who tells her, that her husband is sleeping with his wife, and that thirst awakens.

In the early chapters, as Lucy is made aware of her husbands infidelity, we are invited into Lucy’s past, the life in which she was a child and witnessed the domestic abuse her mother suffered at the hands of her father, she remembers the sights, sounds of this time, as well as her father inviting her to punish him for hurting her mother. A game which now Lucy will play out with Alex.

‘The Harpy’ is a refreshing take on the cliched affair story, woman is wronged by man, woman seeks revenge in order to even the playing field. However, Megan Hunter has twisted this on it’s head completely, so that Lucy while vulnerable, hurting and completing devastated by what has happened, she takes back some control by playing a sinister game with her husband, where she can hurt him three times.

I found myself drawn to Lucy, Alex I wasn’t particularly bothered about but Lucy as her fragility became more erratic and her behaviours chaotic, I felt myself concerned with how it would end for her and her children.

The use of the Harpy, is a clever concept, this is conveyed perfectly through Megan Hunters lead character; As Lucy struggles with her own sense of self and her identity as a mother, wife and individual she begins a metamorphosis into a Harpy, the creature which has been lay dormant inside her for years, and now begins to seek a way out. As the chapters progress we see that a transformation is taking place.

As Lucy is drawn further into the complex game, her hunger intensifies, she cannot abate what has awoken inside of her. In stories, from Greek mythology it is said that the Harpies steal food from their victims, I loved that we saw this intense hunger replicated in Lucy and her eating habits, as the metamorphosis began to take place.

As the book reaches its final few pages, and the transformation takes hold, the writing switches to an almost dreamscape sequence writing style, which reminded me of the third part of Lanny by Max Porter. It was frantic, fervent and incredibly powerful.

It has been almost 2 months since I finished reading The Harpy, the ending is still whirling around my brain, that for me is the mark of an excellent read.

A poetic and unsettling story of a woman’s response to infidelity. She and her husband agree she will hurt him three times in response for his betrayal, but as she chooses her punishments, the edges of the narrator’s reality seem to shift and blur.

My thanks to Pan Macmillan for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘The Harpy’ by Megan Hunter in exchange for an honest review.

The basic premise of this novel is quite a standard one for domestic dramas: a woman discovers that her husband is having an affair. However, Hunter’s lyrical prose and her integration of mythic and surreal elements elevates it as does the unusual route the couple takes once the affair is revealed.

Lucy works from home devoting her life primarily to her children and the house itself. Then one afternoon a man calls with the shattering message that his wife has been having an affair with Lucy’s husband, Jake. She confronts Jake and he declares that he will break it off with his colleague. They agree to stay together, yet also make an arrangement to allow Lucy to even the score. Lucy can hurt him three times, though Jake won’t know when it is coming or the form that it will take.

This game of crime and punishment is complicated by Lucy’s increasing obsession with the Harpy, the mythic creature that she knows from the classical texts she once studied. She begins to feels that she is slowly transforming.

Not knowing when or what form a punishment will take is torturous for Jake, though I couldn’t help but be reminded of the long-running Slap Bet from the comedy ‘How I Met Your Mother’. Still, this isn’t a comedy.

The layout of the print edition was interesting and furthered the sense of its mixture of standard and poetic prose. I was able to borrow its audiobook edition from our local online library, read by Clare Corbett, and combined reading and listening. Hearing ‘The Harpy’ read aloud further highlighted the beauty of Megan Hunter’s writing.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

I've had some difficulty writing this review, despite having finished reading a few weeks ago. Perhaps this is because my own feelings towards the subject matter are difficult to unravel.

I can't help feeling that Megan Hunter *knows* what it feels like to be the victim of infidelity: the twisting of the insides, a change of self-perception and perception of a partner which is thrust upon you, how nothing is the same once you know. The language is absolutely beautiful, heartbreaking in it's depiction of the breakdown of a marriage which means we simply can't look away from the page. It is a short book, easily read in a long afternoon and interspersed with a sense of dark magic as the narrator hearkens back to her more youthful interests of the Harpy in Greek Mythology and her feelings of transformation into a cruel, mythical being.

Unfortunately, I felt a little let down by the ending. The last 20% or so took a steeply dramatic turn which ended in a dream-like sequence which I found difficult to blend with what had come before. It felt jarring and "unlikely", which may well have been the deliberate intention, though it left me feeling robbed of what could have been a perfect book. I'll round up my rating to 4 stars, though my realistic rating is 3.5. I wish I could have given it more.

This is a deep exploration of marriage and the lengths a couple may go to to ensure its survival. When Jake has an affair, the couple agree that Lucy can hurt him three times to make things fair, even or right. Lucy's first choice of punishment is cruel and unpleasant for Jake, but her subsequent actions cause long-lasting and catastrophic pain for both of them.

This dark novel explores places that many authors do not dare to venture to. Hunter reaches into the most hidden aspects of a relationship to show how far two people might go to hurt each other, whilst trying to save themselves. I was gripped but this novel from the first page.

I really liked this story overall. The plot was interesting and had some interesting discussion points in this. The way that Lucy behaved was interesting, it was grounded yet it seemed to have these believable spikes of drama that did not seem out of place in this world. Overall this was a dramatic and slow-burning contemporary. This is one i would definitely recommend.

I absolutely adored this book!
It's a lyrical novel about adultery, and an original recount of how that would happen and be "solved" during marriage.
It's short but poignant, a fast read that's hard to put down.

Revenge is the name of the game in this complex study of interpersonal relationships. The story of a scorned woman inflicting pain like no other on her spouse is to be expected, but the repercussions are not... Highly recommended!

When Lucy finds out her husband Jake has been having an affair with an older colleague, they agree that she can hurt him three times. He won’t know how these acts of revenge will happen or when they will take place.

What follows is a chilling exploration of the dark side of family life and alienation. As Lucy’s state of mind deteriorates and her obsession with the mythical harpies increases, I wondered just how far she would go in her quest for revenge.

The prose is lyrical and the observations of modern domestic life are perfectly perceived.

This book reads like a thriller but it’s so much more than that. It refuses to be defined as a specific genre and this makes it all the more interesting. It really worked for me and I read it very quickly and found it difficult to put down.

A brilliant second novel and I’m eager to read what Megan Hunter writes next.

The Harpy by Megan Hunter is a pretty short book at just 256 pages but, whoa does it pack a punch! It’s dark, tense and unsettling, and wholly compelling. Some parts I found shocked me, some were disturbing, and the way a mythical element was threaded through the novel was unlike anything I’ve ever read before. It’s an extraordinary piece of writing.

The story centres around husband and wife Lucy and Jake. Mum of 2, Lucy, works from home and shoulders the majority of the domestic burden. One day she receives a phone call from a man claiming that his wife has been having an affair with Jake, shattering Lucy’s world and unleashing a darker side of her character; one which she has managed to keep largely suppressed until this point in her life.

As Lucy tries to hold it together and decide how to move forward, she and Jake come to an agreement whereby she is allowed to hurt him 3 times in any way that she likes and without warning. There are some real “read it through your fingers” moments as she makes him atone for his misdemeanours, in more dramatic ways than I could ever have imagined. Her feelings of resentment, hunger for revenge and a sense that she’s edging towards a huge transformation make for a fascinating and thought-provoking read.

While I think “enjoyed” is possibly the wrong word to describe how I felt about The Harpy, I read it in just 2 sittings and I thought it was a great, well-crafted, beautifully written and evocative novel. I think it would make for an excellent book club selection as there is so much that I wanted to discuss with someone!

With thanks to the publisher for gifting me a digital review copy.

I loved this. This reads like a modern tale - I liked the passages about the harpy - and it was incredibly moving. It made me anxious to think of what she would do next and I read it very quickly - maybe too quickly - because it was so gripping. It is beautifully written. The characters are mostly kept at a distance except for the narrator, you feel her rage and her disbelief through the pages. It was beautiful and poetic.

Well this was a delight - clear, concise prose that gives way to a surreal ending.

I'm going to assume that some Yellow Wallpaper comparisons have been made.

I didn't think I'd really like this because the blurb made it seem a bit more pulpy thriller rather than what it is - a dense diatribe on the world as it sees women, mothers, childhood trauma, a cheating husband and the suburban dream.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a copy in exchange for an honest review.