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.
If you would like to join in, please feel free to enter your link, link back to this post, and then spend some time visiting some of the other posts.
This week’s neglected book
The Hounding by Xenobe Purvis
Narrator: Olivia Vinall
Published by Macmillan Audio on August 5, 2025
Genres: Fiction / Historical / General
Length: 6 hours 36 minutes
Pages: 240
Source: Publisher
Goodreads
Amazon | Audible | B&N | Kobo | Libro.fm
National Bestseller • A New York Times Book Review Book Club Pick • A New York Times Notable Book • Named a Best Book of the Year by NPR, TIME and Kirkus Reviews • The Crucible meets The Virgin Suicides in this haunting debut about five sisters in a small village in eighteenth-century England whose neighbors are convinced they’re turning into dogs.
ONE OF PEOPLE’S, APPLE BOOKS’, AND AMAZON’S BEST BOOKS OF AUGUST 2025
“A wildly inventive riff on the Gothic form, with enough suspense and mounting dread to rival Shirley Jackson’s ‘The Lottery.’”
—The New York TimesEven before the rumors about the Mansfield girls begin, Little Nettlebed is a village steeped in the uncanny, from strange creatures that wash up on the riverbank to portentous ravens gathering on the roofs of people about to die. But when the villagers start to hear barking, and one claims to see the Mansfield sisters transform before his very eyes, the allegations spark fascination and fear like nothing has before.
The truth is that though the inhabitants of Little Nettlebed have never much liked the Mansfield girls—a little odd, think some; a little high on themselves, perhaps—they’ve always had plenty to say about them. As the rotating perspectives of five villagers quickly make clear, now is no exception. Even if local belief in witchcraft is waning, an aversion to difference is as widespread as ever, and these conflicting narratives all point to the same ultimate conclusion: Something isn’t right in Little Nettlebed, and the sisters will be the ones to pay for it.
A richly atmospheric parable of the pleasures and perils of female defiance, The Hounding considers whether in any age it might be safer to be a dog than an unusual young girl.
Why did I add The Hounding to my bookshelf?
This is a newer book, but one that I keep saying that I am going to read soon. I somehow keep skipping over it, though. One of my co-workers at the library recommended it to me, and we share very similar reading tastes, so I have a feeling that I am going to love it. It is a shorter book, so I should be able to work it in sometime soon.
What are your thoughts? Have you read this book? Would you recommend it?
That’s a new to me one! Shorter reads can be fun to help up your yearly goal! I like to try to knock a few of them towards the end of the year for that reason! Lol. Hope you get to read it soon!
This does look interesting.
Odd premise. Hope you enjoy it.
I haven’t read it but I hope it’s good when you get to it.
Wow, definitely newer