Publishers Weekly
08/12/2019
Lowe’s powerful and atmospheric debut features a troubled young woman who becomes entangled in witchcraft and murder at a private British all-girls school. Soon after starting at Elm Hollow Academy, teen Violet Taylor falls in with Alex, Grace, and their chain-smoking, impossibly cool ringleader, Robin, and begins drinking, shoplifting, and taking drugs. She especially bonds with Robin and joins an exclusive study group where the girls explore the “great women of art and literature,” including the rumors that Elm Hollow’s founder was a powerful witch. After Violet is sexually assaulted , she and her friends perform a dark revenge ritual involving animal sacrifice. When the brutalized body of student Emily Frost, who was missing for months, is found in the elm in Elm Hollow’s courtyard, the girls pin her murder on the dean, leading to further shocking violence. Lowe’s sinuous prose weaves a disturbing tale of friendship, obsession, and revenge, and readers must decide whether Violet is a trustworthy narrator. Those who thrill to dark coming-of-age tales with a dash of the uncanny will find much to enjoy. Agent: Juliet Mushens, Caskie Mushens. (Oct.)
From the Publisher
[With] a subtle, persistent, and unmistakable creepiness.... Murder and witchcraft mix with a heady cocktail of drugs, booze, and revenge in this elegant, pitch-perfect coming-of-age story.” —Kirkus
“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
“Dark and alluring, Katie Lowe’s debut novel, The Furies, is a sensory buffet of beautifully gritty prose and a plot that combines witchcraft, murder and the power of angry young women searching for vengeance.” —Shelf Awareness
“Donna Tartt’s The Secret History meets Emma Cline’s The Girls in this taut, intense, and unputdownable debut. Lowe’s depiction of adolescent female friendships is at once unthinkably dark and uncomfortably real. The Furies will leave you breathless.” —Corrine Sullivan, author of Indecent
“Powerful and atmospheric…those who thrill to dark coming-of-age tales with a dash of the uncanny will find much to enjoy.” —Publishers Weekly
"Drugs, sex, magic, and murder infuse this quick-paced read that will entertain teen and adult readers alike." —Library Journal
“Lowe’s dark, suspenseful debut combines the teenage sisterhood of The Craft and Emma Cline’s The Girls with the violent schoolyard vengeance of Heathers [and] poetic, lurid prose.” —Booklist
“Simultaneously a coming-of-age tale, a murder mystery, and a story of female friendship, power, and rage, The Furies is the perfect wild and spooky read for the season. Toil and trouble await.” —BookBub
“Katie Lowe is a magical wonder! The Furies, a modern tale of witchcraft, betrayal, and murder, combines the linguistic pyrotechnics of Poe, the Gothic sensibilities of Daphne du Maurier, and the psychological suspense of Shirley Jackson in a disturbing, edge-of-your-seat thriller that will terrify as well as enchant!” —V. S. Alexander, author of The Magdalen Girls
“The Furies is a deliciously disturbing tale of obsession, rapture and the excesses of youth. Both fast-paced and beautifully written—rarely has a story this driven and diverting been so ecstatically told. The Furies is destined to become a book passed from paw to grateful paw. Unapologetically dark, and all the better for it, this smart, sinister novel exults in its dazzling prose and dangerous themes.” —Christopher J. Yates, author of Grist Mill Road and Black Chalk
“The Furies can be described as Prep meets The Craft, while managing to be a dark, weird creature all of its own. Witches, murder, and teenage girls - this is the book of my dreams. I am obsessed.” —Louise O'Neill, author of Asking For It
“An atmospheric, disturbing, even scary tale that touches on otherworldliness.” —The Times (UK)
“Unsettling and suspenseful.” —Sunday Mirror (UK)
“Too-cool-for-school teenage girls, an outsider welcomed into their fold, and murder…a guaranteed good read.” —Stylist (UK)
“Witchcraft, murder, and adolescent passion.” —Heat (UK)
“A perfect tale of teenage emotion and darkness.” —Emerald Street (UK)
Kirkus Reviews
2019-07-15
Four troubled teenagers study witchcraft, female rage, and revenge at a private girls high school on the outskirts of a seaside town in Britain.
When 16-year-old Emily Frost is found dead at Elm Hollow Academy, new girl Violet Taylor is thrilled to get a look at the body, which is clad in white and seated upright on a swing with its eyes open. At school, Violet and her three friends, Robin, Alex, and Grace, become the favorites of arts instructor Annabel, who adds classic stories of revengeful women throughout the ages to their secret lessons. Robin introduces Violet to shoplifting, marijuana, drugs, wine, and Tom, a university student. Tom rapes Violet, propelling the four girls into a ritualistic act intended to harm him. Dark woods, dead flowers, candles, a church graveyard, knives, a stolen vial of deadly nightshade, and other well-chosen details weave a subtle, persistent, and unmistakable creepiness into Violet's story. When the dean of students, Matthew Holmsworth, makes Violet his private research assistant, she discovers what he believes really happened to Emily. Violence, betrayal, and abandonment result. Violet is then forced to choose what kind of girl she is going to be and figure out how far she'll go to make sure "the cruel and rotten bliss" of her obsessive friendship with Robin never ends.
Murder and witchcraft mix with a heady cocktail of drugs, booze, and revenge in this elegant, pitch-perfect coming-of-age story.
