Name: Pam Sartain's review of The Furies by Katie Lowe
Item: The Furies
Rating: 4
Author: Pam Sartain

Katie Lowe

'An atmospheric, disturbing, even scary tale that touches on otherworldliness' THE TIMES 'Too-cool-for-school teenage girls, an outsider welcomed into their fold, and murder...a guaranteed good read' STYLIST 'Witchcraft, murder, and adolescent passion' HEAT 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.

The Furies

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

Paulina 

Są też niewidzialne dziewczyny: nikomu nie przyszłoby do głowy, żeby się ich bać. Dziewczyny kryjące się w najbardziej widocznych miejscach, rozchichotane i zawsze gotowe do flirtu. Ich cukierkowy urok to jednak tylko maska. To one bawią się zapałkami i wylewają kwas akumulatorowy na nagą skórę. Tych dziewczyn nie imają się żadne reguły.

Zastanawiałam się, czy właśnie tego chciałam, i przekonywałam się, że tak, chwytałam się pocieszające mysli, że przecież wcześniej tego dnia sama rozważałam pocałunek. Może to była moja wina. Może oczekiwałam zbyt wiele. Może coś mi się pomieszało. Może wysłałam mu niewłaściwy sygnał

Chyba instynktownie rozumiałam, jaką rolę powinnam tu odgrywać. Zachwycać się jego zainteresowaniami i niechętnie opowiadać o własnych (nijakie, płaskie, nudne). Miałam słuchać uważnie, chwytać się każdego słowa, doceniać jego znajomość tematu. Nie mam pojęcia, skad to wiedziałam. Chyba po prostu każda dziewczyna to wie.

Pam Sartain

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.

laura

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.

Imie Kent-Muller

Thank you so much HarperCollins for sending this my way!

The Furies is a hauntingly beautiful novel that captures the coming-of-age of a group of girls with fire in their hearts but manages to put a violent disturbing twist on the story that leaves you pouring over the pages to find out what happens next. 

The story follows Violet as she moves to a new school and becomes fascinated with a group of three girls who are part of a secret class held by the art history teacher. The school has a history of witchcraft, and the girls all have dark secrets, which all merge together through this friendship. 

Lowe manages to explore witchcraft, female vengeance, and philosophy (that is obviously well researched) all the while holding the reader in her grasp through a fast-paced thrilling plot that leaves you on the edge of your seat.

This gorgeous novel is definitely for fans of The Secret History, If We Were Villains and The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. It’s spell-binding!

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!

Jade Flynn

Lowe had all the elements of 'dark academia' but failed to deliver the witchy mysterious gothic darkness that was promised.

Ruth Parker 

This was compared to The Craft - British version of the amazing 90s film - and so I picked it up without a second thought. I don’t regret reading this book at all but man it was a slow burn and a half. I struggled to get through it and almost DNF’d it a few times. It was alright. I’m glad I read it. But I’m not sure I’d recommend it.

Lulu Bonning

I have to stop reading books just for the sake of it, it leads to too many disappointing books! I was expecting ambiance and atmosphere and instead got a disjointed story of some very messed up teenagers. I’m still looking for the motivation and some semblance of meaning but I think the search is futile :/

Jordan Robinson

Laume Zekas

I tried and tried but I kept getting tripped up on the writing style. I DNF'ed it.

The Furies by Katie Lowe is set in 1998, in the UK, in a coastal town of no name. Violet is 16, and has just changed schools after a car accident which killed her father and baby sister, and from which she walked away. Her mother is seeking forgetfulness from the horrific accident by drinking all the time.

The new school is a private one, called Elm Hollow Academy. Violet has the usual problems changing school, of not knowing anyone, and feeling like she doesn't fit in. Then she becomes part of a group of 3 other girls, who have special lessons from the art teacher, Annabel, but these aren't art lessons.

This is a story of teenagers trying to take control of their lives, drinking, taking drugs, and taking out their anger and confusion on rituals that might actually have power. And at the same time, we know where it's going to lead to, as it's at the very beginning of the book: a young woman found dead on a swing.

This is Katie Lowe's debut novel, and it's powerful! You are swept along with them on their adventure, and as the book is from Violet's perspective, and we have an older Violet telling the story. I haven't watched the Craft, but it felt like a mixture of the Heathers (actions have consequences), and Gossip Girl (for the bitchy, private school). The fact that my two reference points for this are TV and film shows I haven't read many books like this.

The Furies was published on 2nd May 2019, and is available to buy on Amazon and on Waterstones. I've found a link to where you can search for local bookshops, including independent!

I was given this book for free in return for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to Harper Collins (the publishers) for this book.

violet li

This book went in a different direction than I thought it would, given that I thought it was going to be a traditional dark academics book, but ended up being a lot more modern, leading me to believe that it was set much nearer to, if not during, present day. I really enjoyed the face paced writing style, and I think that it fit the topics that were discussed. There were certain parts of the writing that I thought could've been improved, but I liked how the author made sure to remind us at certain points in time that it was Violet in the future talking about this as the narrator by providing points from her wiser future self. The small points in the writing is the only thing holding me back from giving it a full 5 stars, but it is honestly a great book, and the ending has left me thinking about it since I finished it.

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.

Jessica Nottingham

DNF @ 67%

The story was building too slow, and the characters were just really unlikable. 

Billie Yankulova

It was an invigorating read while you are in the process. The twists and turns were intriguing and it felt like at any moment, Violet (the main character) would step back and look at the bigger picture but she is always pulled back in. The magic aspect is often glossed over, making it equally real and imaginary and, had the "The Furies" kept that up, it would have been a wonderful read. Unfortunately, by the end 'magic' just became an excuse for the main character to do whatever seems the creepiest at the moment. The ending is fitting, but it is the 20-30 pages before, that kind of lost the force and allure of the beginning of the story. There was limited-to-no character development, and the excuse for that is 'magic made me do it'. 
It is an overall entertaining read, and the narration gives a hint of detachment and intrigue, making the story sound like it is being made up, or perhaps a distorted reality of someone suffering from some form of a psychotic disorder. I just wish the latter part of the story was as enchanting as the beginning.

Pam Sartain &
The Furies by Katie Lowe

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