Katie Lowe

The Furies is a compelling addition to the private school clique thriller in the vein of Donna Tartt's "The Secret History." The private school is Elm Hollow which kindly offered a scholarship to Violet, a young girl whose father and sister died in a car accident from which she emerged unscathed. She and her mother are traumatized and wracked by grief. Her mother sinks into depressive lethargy and alcohol.

The story opens with the mysterious death of a student, found sitting on a swing, her show more heart stopped but without any certainty as to what killed her. She is not named, so we can wonder through the book who among the clique of four girls, including our narrator Vivian, she might be. Except of course she can't be the narrator, can she? However, with the way the group forms, under the unofficial and secret tutelage of Allison, the charismatic Aesthetics instructor, there is no real mystery about who she will be, not as you begin to understand the group dynamics.

Elm Hollow has a mysterious history. The original founder was burned as a witch. The year before Emily Frost disappeared, and oddly enough, Vivian has a striking resemblance to the lost Emily. She had been one of the clique with Alex, Grace, and Robin, Vivi's new friends. Could it be the teacher? Or maybe the overly friendly dean? Or Niki, the fellow student who remains friendly with the clique despite their frequent rudeness to her? Or is it one of the clique, could it be Vivi's best friend, Robin? Or maybe all three of them, Robin, Alex, and Grace?

The students do some extracurricular work as well - investigating how to call up The Furies, to see revenge. When they succeed, it is presented in a way that we can accept that supernatural forces were called forth or we can ssume it was a coincidence.

The Furies was interesting and I enjoyed it, but it was not an unalloyed success. I thought too much and too many of Allison's lessons were included. They were intrusive and belied the idea of Allison as a great, inspiring teacher. They were didactic lectures with Alllson perorating for paragraphs and reading the lectures, I felt myself drifting off like a student in the class of a teacher that lectures without interaction. She was supposed to be a great teacher?

These lectures made the story about female anger, but in an obvious, hitting=you-over-the-head-like-you-are-too-dumb-to-figure-that-out-for-yourself, kind of way. It bored me and made me feel as though the author thought I was too ignorant to figure it out without her drawing a picture, painting in the colors, and framing it right in front of my face. This information could have been presented in a less didactic way. Allison seemed a good teacher on Vivi's first day, but after that, she became a bore.

It does show, effectively, how people will do things together they would never do on their own, how they can egg each other wrong, into increasingly malignant acts. The interactions among the girls are what make the book interesting and I wish the story had stayed with them.

I received an e-galley of The Furies from the publisher through Shelf Awareness.

The Furies at St. Martin's Press | Macmillan
Katie Lowe author site

https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2019/11/05/9781250297891/ show less

As soon as I read comparisons of The Furies by Katie Lowe to the movie, The Craft, I knew I would be reading it. I watched The Craft when it first came out, and many times since, and thoroughly enjoy it. The nods that Lowe did in The Furies filled that wonderful piece of nostalgia that I was looking for. But if you’ve never seen The Craft, (what is wrong with you!) you’ll still be able to enjoy the book.
Lowe did a wonderful job in slowly revealing the plot, but not so slow that you show more become bored. On some of the slower parts Lowe was sharing various information on art, culture, and witchy things, which I really enjoyed. It started getting (good) crazy towards the end when the various storylines were getting tied up. Lowe gives a great conclusion to The Furies, but still leaves enough of an uncertainty that I found myself thinking about the book and questioning some of the conclusions. I’m looking forward to discussing The Furies with my podcast partner, Jessica, at Books Don’t Review Themselves. I’m sure talking about it with her will bring about more insights that I didn’t even think about.
There was a hazy quality to this book that lent it a bit of mysticism and the feeling that you were looking into someone else’s memories but not having all the facts. At first this annoyed me a bit when a part of the story just segued into another without a concise break. A few times I had to go back to make sure I wasn’t missing something, but then realized that this is how Lowe was writing the book in order to play on the memories that were from many years ago. And it also gave the reader a feeling of wonder if they could truly believe the narrator as to what really happened.
The title works perfectly not only with the entities that help with the spells that the young women cast, but with the emotions that girls turning into women often feel. Girls and women are always told to be good and not cause any waves. They are supposed to think of others first and control their emotions. If they cry and yell then they are being hysterical. In The Furies, these young women are taking control of their lives and doing things that society considers not proper. Now I’m not saying you should go around killing people, but don’t give in. Stand up for what you believe in, do not let people gaslight you, and do things for yourself without always thinking of others first. If it harms none, do what you will. show less

This novel is equal parts disturbing and wickedly entertaining. The novel follows Violet, a 16 year old girl, who suffers a lot more loss early in life than is typical after a truck runs over the vehicle her, her dad and her little sister are riding in, and kills her dad and sister, leaving her as the only survivor. Her mom is her only living relative and she retreats into a gloomy cloud of grief, leaving Violet to grow up on her own. With the settlement from the accident, Violet is enrolled show more in the prestigious all girls academy of Elm’s Hollow. She becomes closely involved with a trio of girls led by the fierce and manipulative Robin.
Under the tutelage of mysterious professor Annabelle, who weaves obscure tales of women and witchcraft, the girls allow themselves to be consumed by the stories of these dark rituals. In particular, the tale of the Furies, demonic entities that posses a body and execute various forms of revenge, only able to leave our world when they have completed their tasks. Each girl struggles with their own personal life issues that makes them more vulnerable perhaps to the pressures of being a teen. Innocents beware the Furies have come to Elm’s Hollow! This is a dark story in a way with echoes in the real world in cases like the Slender man assault. We can take a sigh of relief that this is fiction. A genuinely good time. Thank you Netgalley for the galley. show less

I was so excited to receive a copy of The Furies! The story summary, about four private-school girls and the occult reminded me of The Craft, and when I got the novel, even the cover art reminded me of The Craft. In a great way, because I love YA witchcraft, whether it’s a straight-up magic school or witchcraft-as-metaphor-for-female power, or hiding magic from the boring adults, or seeking occult revenge. I also love school stories, and haunted locations, so I loved discovering Elm Hollow show more Academy.

I’m, uh, slightly older than when I first watched The Craft, so I was more interested in the girls’ charismatic, powerful art teacher. I analyzed Annabel carefully, trying to decide if she was an inspiring movie teacher or if she was someone who taught high school because they secretly crave teenage approval (it’s a weird archetype, but go to any teaching convention and you’ll meet these guys). I enjoyed carefully considering her comments and trying to figure out just how much she knew. One of the best scenes was when the girls bumped into her in the occult shop, and I just had to know what she was really doing there.

There was a lot to enjoy in this story, but there was one major dealbreaker. Our protagonist, Violet, is pulled in by Robin, who just wasn’t an aspirational friend to me. Robin said hi to Violet on her first day at a new school, but that’s about the only appealing thing. I didn’t see what attracted Violet to her, and I didn’t much want to meet Robin for coffee a second time, much less take unmarked pills, accept her meanness, or follow her down dark paths. She was more of a pretty bully than a friend with a dark side.

This was less about teen girls discovering their powers than Robin just telling Violet what to do, and Violet following her. Again, not an appealing friendship for me. Even when the girls took much-needed occult revenge, I felt that Violet was passively present in Robin’s actions, while the two other girls, Alex and Grace, had almost interchangeable personalities.

It’s possible that I’ve aged out of understanding dysfunctional teen friendships (like the out-of-touch dean at Elm Hollow, I just wanted Violet to make some nice friends), but the relationship at the heart of this story didn’t work for me, which made it hard for me to enjoy the novel as a whole. show less