Welcome to Litsy!

A folkloric rumination on surveillance and girlhood that evokes the monstrous feminine and lives within the lineage of Shirley Jackson. This slim novel about a family of young, motherless girls who may or may not be transforming into a vicious pack of dogs was easily one of my favorite reads of the year.

I decided to abandon this book at 23%. It is well written and engrossing, I just I‘m not in the right headspace for the sense of impending doom. If you‘re in the mood for a creepy historical, you would probably love this.

I‘m starting to understand why this book is marketed as “The Crucible” meets “The Virgin Suicides”. Both of those storied have isolated girls, whom have their whole lives placed on display for the town–much like the Mansfield sisters in The Hounding.
We never hear directly from the Mansfield sisters themselves, only from those who love them, observe them and hate them.

Wow this book was fantastic one of my favourites of the year & incredibly a debut ! This author will be an auto buy for me now ; I‘d say it‘s more of a tale of misogyny, spite , gossip , rumours and petty mindedness which sadly seems to be prevalent in modern times as well as the 17th century! A delicious twist at the end - loved 🥰 it

This Virgin Suicides retelling of 18th century sisters who the town suspects of turning into dogs is exceeding my expectations. I‘m tearing through it!

Seriously good 😌 reading with my little hound 🐶😆 need to google it to see if this madness ; 17th century misogynistic acquisitions are true …..

These blurbs from Libby perfectly sum up the mood of this book.

"The Hounding considers whether in any age it might be safer to be a dog than an unusual young girl."

This engages with ideas about gossip, group think, belief systems. The writing is absolutely beautiful. The author was inspired by a briefly documented actual event where sisters were accused of becoming dogs. One can only imagine what happened to them. Purvis does that with remarkable skill and creativity. By the end, the reader wonders whether it is better to be a hound rather than a woman who stands on her two feet. A must read.

I annotated the shizz out of this book, and it brought me back to my days of teaching The Crucible, focusing on the harmful power of fear and how quickly people‘s common sense can be swept away and replaced with rumor-fueled hysteria. There‘s a lot to be said about the way the world treats our girls, especially those with grit and courage. The cover is perfection; this reading experience has been perfection. Loved every minute.

This cover and “The Crucible” as the first words on the dust jacket?! Yes, please 🤓🙌