The Furies

I wanted to love this book but it never felt like it fully delivered on it's promise. I was hoping for a novel full of witchy teen friendships but mostly it was just young girls being kinda awful to each other.

Recensie van audioboek (via Storytel)

Op basis van de synopsis dacht ik dat ik dit boek geweldig ging vinden. Atmosferisch, een beetje griezelig en mysterieus, gelinkt aan duistere mythologie, geheime genootschappen, heksen, etc.
Helaas nam dit boek mij nooit echt helemaal mee en vond ik het geheel saai en kleurloos, wat toch verbazingwekkend is gezien de verschillende intrigerende elementen.
Ik was weinig geëngageerd, voelde mij te weinig betrokken met de personages en ik had moeite in hun echtheid te geloven.
Ook het ganse concept van de geheime genootschap had fascinerend en spannend moeten zijn, maar het kon me niet boeien. Ik had geen idee waarom die lessen geheim moesten worden gehouden, gezien ze gewoon over kunst en literatuur gingen.

Alle elementen waren er om een fantastisch en fascinerend verhaal te weven - en de proloog had me ook meteen beet - maar daarna verloor ik snel mijn aandacht. Het uiteindelijke verhaal was zowel saai, te ongeloofwaardig en onvoldoende opgebouwd en uitgewerkt.

2.5 stars. Very dark academia - witchcraft, petty jealousies, murder. Unlikable characters - all of them! I don't think there was one I liked. Yet I was darkly fascinated by it all.

This was another book I have been picking up and putting down for the past week. I finally finished it today, and it was just OK. The story was slow moving and on the wordy side, and none of the characters were at all likable. So ya, I really don't have much to say about it other than that... BLOG FACEBOOK TWITTER PINTEREST BOOKBUB

At this rate I am going to have to start describing myself as a YA reader! I thought this book was fabulous, very well written and gripping.

The story is told by Violet, who is looking back on the events that happened to her and her friends. After a tragic accident which leaves her and her mother alone, she is sent to a girls' school which was the site of witch trials. Violet attracts the attention of Annabel, one of the teachers, who has set up an exclusive club for girls she considers exceptional. Along with her three friends they attend to discuss women through history and through their lessons they become interested in witchcraft themselves. Robin in particular is drawn to performing rituals and they start to believe they have real power.

I thought the witchcraft elements were really well handled and I loved the way the author incorporated elements of mythology into the story. The perils of being a teenager in the 1990s are brilliantly and very accurately described, as is the friendship between the girls. I loved the way that the mystery of the missing girl unfolded and I thought that the plot was quite unexpected. Violet is a great narrator, looking back at her teenage years with some regret. Some of the book gets a bit far fetched at times, but overall, I really enjoyed it.