Name: FURIES.
Rating: 2.956896551724138 (58 reviews)
ISBN: 9780008288983

KATIE. LOWE

FURIES.

Katie Lowe

This page-turning, harrowing debut is the story of a girl trying to fit in, whose obsessive new friends and desperation to belong leads her to places she’d never imagined...dark, dangerous, and possibly even violent. “The Furies is a haunting tale of angry, young women, the fates they hold and furies they possess. Katie Lowe steers her juggernaut through twists of madness, revenge and murder to a finish that resonates deeply. It still hasn’t left me.” —Peter Filardi, screenwriter of The Craft “Murder and witchcraft mix with a heady cocktail of drugs, booze, and revenge in this elegant, pitch-perfect coming-of-age story.” —Kirkus ~~~ In 1998, a sixteen-year-old girl is found dead. She’s posed on a swing on her boarding school’s property, dressed all in white, with no known cause of death. Whispers and rumors swirl, with no answers. But there are a few who know what happened; there is one girl who will never forget. One year earlier: a new student, Violet, steps on the campus of Elm Hollow Academy, an all-girl’s boarding school on the outskirts of a sleepy coastal town. This is her fresh start, her chance to begin again in the wake of tragedy, leave her demons behind. Bright but a little strange, uncertain and desperate to fit in, she soon finds herself invited to an advanced study group, led by her alluring and mysterious art teacher, Annabel. There, with three other girls—Alex, Grace, and Robin—the five of them delve into the school’s long-buried grim history: of Greek and Celtic legends; of the school founder’s “academic” interest in the occult; of gruesome 17th century witch trials. Annabel does her best to convince the girls that her classes aren’t related to ancient rites and rituals, and that they are just history and mythology. But the more she tries to warn the girls off the topic, the more they are drawn to it, and the possibility that they can harness magic for themselves. Violet quickly finds herself wrapped up in this heady new world of lawless power—except she is needled by the disappearance of a former member of the group, one with whom Violet shares an uncanny resemblance. As her friends’ actions take a turn for the darker and spiral out of control, she begins to wonder who she can trust, all the while becoming more deeply entangled. How far will these young girls go to protect one another...or to destroy one another?

A Novel

The Furies

I don't know what everyone's issue is with this book. I absolutely adored it. It was wild and visceral. A horrific show of being a teenage girl in a certain kind of world.

I have so many thoughts and I'll be thinking about this all day trying to organize my feelings about this book.

But in that way you push at a bruise, I loved this book.

Christine Bruce

I don't know what everyone's issue is with this book. I absolutely adored it. It was wild and visceral. A horrific show of being a teenage girl in a certain kind of world.
I have so many thoughts and I'll be thinking about this all day trying to organize my feelings about this book.
But in that way you push at a bruise, I loved this book.

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. They've kept their silence. Until now.

this book was such a bore. it just made me feel quite miserable while, i feel, it did not actually have much to say.

maybe i was not in the mood for it, maybe i have already seen it one too many times.

Grace O'Callaghan

I can’t say that I went into this book with high expectations, but I still find myself disappointed.

I will say that I enjoyed the atmosphere of the place. The academy and the town it’s set in had some gothic elements that made this feel like a spooky book.

As for everything else, not so great.

You go into it expecting a great mystery with occult elements maybe playing a role. But instead you get unlikeable characters that you don’t care for and a weak mystery.

I don’t mind reading about unlikeable characters, but you have to make them interesting. All the girls are just stereotypical that you don’t actually care about them. Violet, our main character felt like a ghost because she was so bland and just followed with whatever the plot needed her to be.

The plot also left a lot to be desired. The mystery isn’t even one you could actually have figured out. And the way you find out is just by the murderer telling us. You could argue that the focus is actually on the toxic friendships girls can have, but even that was very surface level.

Basically, I wouldn’t recommend this. If you’re looking for YA murder mystery set at a school with cliquey girl groups, People Like Us by Dana Mele does it better.

mary

2.5 stars! 

This book was underwhelming. While the book had a good premise, I couldn’t bring myself to care about any of the characters. The writing style was easy to read and I enjoyed the setting of the private girls school, but everything else fell flat. This book had so much potential and I’m so sad it didn’t meet my expectations!

Jordan Robinson

Zoe Smolen

This was a fine book. For all the press about it - I was hoping to like it a little more than I did - but I did enjoy reading it. The story is enjoyable - the comparisons to the Craft, Pretty Little Liars, etc are all apt comparisons and setting the book 20 years in the past was a nice touch (wow can you believe 1998 was 20 years ago?!). None of the characters are quite likable - but that's what made the story work well. 

The chapters are LONG - the whole book is only 17 chapters, and I found it a little challenging to follow the narrative of events at a few times - I would ask myself how they got to a party etc. In the end the story pulled together well and it was a great October read. 

Thanks for NetGalley for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

Megan Leprich

Thank you so much to St. Martins Press for the complimentary copy of this book for my honest review. 

I was instantly intrigued by this book as it was compared to the movie The Craft and I have a guilty pleasure for witchy reads. Add in the boarding school setting and I was completely sold on this. 

But then I started reading it and normally I’m a pretty fast reader but this book was taking me forever, I’m talking weeks forever to get through just a few chapters. It’s not that I wasn’t interested, I was having a hard time with the author’s writing style. It’s definitely lyrical but it’s almost over the top lyrical and way too descriptive. It shouldn’t take so many words to describe someone’s hair or how a character was feeling. 

I was already considering DNFing this book due to the confusing (to me at least) way of writing and lack of liking the characters when the animal sacrifice and abuse came in. I understand this is just fiction and it’s not real but I’m the girl that can’t watch sad animal movies and reading Old Yeller made me cry for a week. That is one topic in books that I will never stand for, like I said, even if it’s fiction, so I DNFed. Call me PETA or whatever you want, I just can’t read these types of books.

FURIES.

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