Books from the Backlog is a fun way to feature some of those neglected books sitting on your bookshelf unread. If you are anything like me, you might be surprised by some of the unread books hiding in your stacks.
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This week’s neglected book
The Furies by Katie Lowe Published by St. Martin's Press on October 8, 2019
Genres: Fiction / Thrillers / Suspense
Pages: 368
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
Goodreads
Amazon | Audible | B&N | Kobo | Libro.fm
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.
"Fans of Greer Macallister, Paula Hawkins, and Janelle Brown will devour Violet’s journey.” —Booklist
~~~
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?
Why did I add The Furies to my bookshelf?
The publisher sent me a physical ARC of this book and I have a digital review copy from NetGalley. I was really eager to read the book until some of the reviews started coming in. The Goodreads rating for this book is 3.02 and a lot of my friends just didn’t care for it. You never know, I might be one of the readers who do like the book. I noticed that the library has a copy of the audiobook so I think that I will give that a try. If I don’t like it, I will mark it as a dnf and scratch it from my list. It does sound like it has some promise so I am going in with a positive attitude!
What are your thoughts? Have you read this book? Would you recommend it?
I’ve been really focussed on reading my ARC’s, but I finally have a stretch of time coming up where I don’t have any books that I absolutely have to read. I plan on giving more attention to my shelf of long neglected books instead!
ARCs are great but getting a bit of a break from them is also very nice.
It sounds really interesting although with the school setting it is YA type so I might not prefer it.
It’s worth a try!
The blurb does capture my interest. Hopefully, you’ll be one of the ones it resonates with.
I do hope that I am one fo the people that enjoy it.
I hope you like it, Carole. Sometimes going in with lower expectations helps too!
I have my fingers crossed!
Oof, that’s too bad it’s standing at 3 stars on GR. I hope you read it and enjoy!
We shall see!
This does look tempting though I have definitely hesitated on books when I saw mixed reviews. Hopefully this one will still be at least an okay read for you.
It is hard to be as excited about a book after seeing a few not so good reviews.
I am the same way. If I am late to an ARC and start seeing poor reviews, I push aside. Every once in a while, I will read the book, and I have enjoyed several with poor ratings.
Exactly! There have been a few books that I set aside but really ended up enjoying.