Review: The Furies by Katie Lowe

The Furies by Katie Lowe
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I was provided an advanced copy of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.  This book was published on October 8, 2019.

This book is out now so hopefully some of my issues with this book may be related to the fact that it was an ARC and hopefully were corrected with editing. I didn't love the writing style of this. It felt choppy and disjointed. For example, the two main characters would be talking about looking at something while standing then in the next sentence they would be sitting on a bed in another room. There would be no mention of them moving or sitting down. Another example, two characters would be walking up the street, one was wandering aimlessly and the other was going to her boyfriends, they begin talking there is no mention of a party in their dialogue yet one character asks if the other is going to said party. I had to reread passages to see if I missed something. This really threw the pacing off for me because you had to infer a lot of information that wasn't on the page. Having read an ARC that is several months out from publication it may be the case that those continuity issues have been corrected in the final publication. It could just be the type of prose this writer uses, which is not my preferred style. I've read a few other books this year that have this style and it seems to be a newer type of prose that some will really enjoy. So take that with a grain of salt.

I was actually really looking forward to this book. Unfortunately, it just didn’t deliver for me. The description gave me vibes of the movie The Craft (which I love) where four girls somewhat on the outskirts of society form a kind of a feminist coven to seek revenge on those who have wronged them. While that's kind of what happens, this book fell really short for me. There is a lot glorified of drug and alcohol use as an escape for dealing with problems. As a book being marketed to young women, I have a big problem with the amount of drug and alcohol use in this book, emotional and physical abuse, and lack of adult supervision in this book. These girls are left to their own devices to solve some pretty serious issues. Any challenge to their poor decision making amongst their group or from outside is met with “F you” as a response. Their decisions to take matters into their own hands are guided by the occult and mythology of The Furies, which they learn about in their posh, unconventional private school. I wish the mythology and occult had been flushed out a bit more. The magical element was lacking for me; again it was left for the reader to imagine. I personally would have like a bit more information on the page, but again that's my preference.

I think this was a case of a book that turned out to be not what I was expecting. I wanted more mythology and magic/occult. I wanted the one or all of the girls to learn and grow and be empowered by their difficult situations. While Robin is the dark and troubled ring leader who you expect to stay dark and troubled, I kind of expected Violet to turn out to be the light heroine who comes into her own despite all of the bad things in her life. Instead she is just as unlikeable as Robin, and never develops into an empowered young woman. She is gullible, naïve, and co-dependent. She is so obsessed with being liked by Robin and the group she will do anything Robin says. It just didn’t work for me.

If you like toxic friendships and dark characters arcs, I’d say give this a go. Just beware that there are a lot of potential triggers in this book. The fantastical element in this book didn’t deliver, but the thriller element kept me invested enough to finish. You keep reading because you want to know what crazy thing the girls are going to do next. This also starts with a dead girl, and you keep reading to find out what really happened and how it all comes together.


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