I am not really sure about this book. I liked it... kind of... I have feelings. The concept was really interesting. Lucy and Jake are a married couple with two young children. One day a man calls Lucy and tells her Jake is having an affair with his wife. Lucy proceeds to spiral into a dark place of revenge that she struggles to navigate.
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Don’t get me wrong. The story was really well written. The writing was beautiful and had a blend of past and present timelines as well as a magical Harpy story wound throughout. Lucy’s reaction to her husbands infidelity and her inner dialogue felt realistic. However, none of the characters were likeable. I felt like there was not much world building. We visit a few scenes and besides saying “here we are” I could barely picture any of them.
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The parallels drawn between Lucy and a Harpy were beautiful and captured the feeling of betrayal and a loss of trust really well.

There was much to enjoy here, but I found I couldn't connect with it. A shame as I really, really like the cover.

When I read the description of the book I was immediately intrigued to read this book. I think it had a lot of protentional but it fell flat for me. The book is very short and so you would think you would really ramp up the action/mystery/suspense/etc. to get to the point quickly. Instead, we are given a bunch of passages jumping around between the narrator's past, the present and information on the Harpy.

I'm really not sure what happened in the end of this book either. I read the whole thing and just thought it was OK and confusing and disappointing.

Lucy is a loving wife and mother of two small boys. Even though she at times regrets not having finished her doctorate, her life is quite close to perfect, at least from the outside. Until she gets a voice message informing her of her husband Jake’s affair with his colleague. Jake immediately admits everything, yet, it wasn’t a single misstep, but actually three. They agree not to give up everything they have built up and Lucy is allowed to hurt him three times, too. What he does not know is that forever, she has been fascinated by harpies, the mythological creatures symbolising the underworld and evil. Thus, Lucy’s revenge is not small but a thoroughly made-up, destructive plan of vengeance.

A couple of years ago, I read Megan Hunter’s post-apocalyptic debut “The End We Start From” and liked it a lot, thus I was eager to read her latest novel “The Harpy” which did more than fulfil my expectations. The atmosphere is burning, the idea of the dreadful mythological creatures always looming over the action. Quite often, the harpy is used to depreciate a nasty woman. Lucy can be considered nasty in what she does, however, the betrayal she has to endure is no less harmful.

Of course, Lucy’s revenge is the central aspect of the plot. Yet, it is not just their marriage that is under scrutiny, the whole circle Lucy and Jake move in comes to a closer inspection. Superficial friendships which end immediately end when someone does not comply with the unwritten rules, feigned sympathy and kindness – isn’t this world an awful one to live in? Plus the reduction of an intelligent woman to caring mother who becomes invisible as a woman and is considered little more than a domestic worker for the family, a life surely man find themselves in involuntarily.

From a psychological point of view, the novel is also quite interesting, depicting Lucy’s transformation from loving housewife to independent and reckless avenging angel. She frees herself from the clichés she has lived to so long and goes beyond all boundaries. A beautifully written brilliant novel that I enjoyed thoroughly.

THE HARPY is very well-written and may be a winner for some fans of literary fiction. For the most part, I liked the story and the writing style. The plot is compelling and the characters are well-crafted, even if the story is quite small/intimate in scope.

However, I had a couple quibbles that kept me from rating this one higher. First, some of the metaphors feel forced. When it seems like the writer is trying too hard, that pulls me out of the narrative. Second, the ending is quite abrupt and unsatisfying. I was hoping for more by the conclusion.

These issues aside, all in all, THE HARPY is compelling and well-done.

Where to start. First context: I read this book along with a chick lit novel in a few days when I needed distraction from the realities of life. I quite enjoyed the contrast between 'The Harpy' and the romance novel I was reading. 'The Harpy' is a story about marriage, trauma, disloyalty, and self-realization. It starts with the narrator finding out about her husband cheating on her and then her journey to self-realization begins. The journey is dark and reflective as the narrator goes back and forth in time, delving deep into her childhood and adulthood. I like the symbolism throughout the novel and that this is kind of a different story about disloyalty. However, I could not like the narrator, as in I just wasn't interested in her journey. She seemed to wallow in self-pity, and to me, that doesn't make an interesting character. Still, you should give this novel a try if you're interested in experimental fiction.

From the first page, I knew this is something special. This book has something to say. Megan Hunter’s writing style is incredibly immersive, instantly making her my new favorite author. “The guilt lay on my back like an animal, a physical sensation of heaviness.”

From the synopsis: “A man calls one afternoon with a shattering message: his wife has been having an affair with Lucy’s husband.” While I have never done a lot of what the main character does (😳😬), I have been cheated on before. And to cope, I have carefully constructed walls so that people can only peak in, never far enough to do damage like that again. But this writing just pulled out emotions in me that I thought were long gone. I had to take breaks from reading it because it brought up a lot of trauma that I thought I’d worked through. It was painful to hear the author literally put the words of my past back inside my mind after I’d ignored them for so many years.

And the way the main character feels the thread of anger stemming from her grandmother to her mother to herself, “a parasite that lived in her stomach, that passed through the wall of her womb to my mother, who passed it to me.” This is a tragically relatable plot point that I felt on such a deep level. Which is what makes this book amazing. She reached inside my head and offered what’s inside of it back to me in words on the page. So fair warning, this one is very deep and disturbing, but that’s what we’re all here for.. right? 🤪😅

PS my favorite line in the book: “I was a good mother! I had chopped fucking carrots!”🤣

In Megan Hunter's Harpy, a couple Jake and Lucy, are seemingly happily married until Lucy finds out about Jake cheating on her with an older colleague Vanessa, at work. Lucy cannot forgive Jake's unfaithfulness but they settle on a peculiar reconciliation - Lucy can hurt Jake thrice and they'll call it a day and forget nothing ever happened. Even as she's attempting to come to terms with her current situation, Lucy's world is crumbling all around her because she simply couldn't forgive Jake. Finally, in hurting Jake, will she go too far to a place from where she cannot return? Written with brilliantly poetic prose and striking psychological depth to its characters, The Harpy is a fast-paced novel that Hunter's prose elevate to the pace of a taut thriller.

I could not get through this one. It was too disturbing. I thought I would be intrigued by the relationship between the husband and wife, but it really made my skin crawl.

It's another routine day in Lucy's life when she gets the call. Lucy lives in a small town in England with her husband, Jake and her two sons, Paddy and Ted. After the boys came, Lucy scaled back her work and now works from home, writing copy for various enterprises, from manuals to articles to editing someone else's content. Jake is a professor at the local university in biology. All in all, a routine life that a myriad of women are living.
Then the call comes. It is the husband of a woman who Jake works with. He informs Lucy that Jake is having an affair with his wife, Vanessa. Lucy doesn't really remember how she hung up. She slowly takes in the news, reeling emotionally. Now she remembers late nights at work or casual mentions of lunches and dinners with Vanessa. Vanessa isn't even some young exciting woman; she is probably ten years older than Jake and Lucy.

When Jake comes home, he doesn't deny it. He is appalled that Lucy knows and contrite, willing to do anything to make things right. He insists he will end it immediately. Lucy is furious but wonders if leaving him is the right thing to do for the boys. She moves him to the sofa while she decides what comes next. When Lucy was working on her doctorate she studied the classics and was drawn to the story of the harpies. Vengeful, powerful figures, they stole and ravaged and did whatever they wanted. She sees something of them in herself and vows to solve this crisis as a harpy would.

The solution occurs. She will do three hurtful things to Jake. He will not know in advance what they are or when they are coming. They will appear out of the blue and he is not allowed to complain or do anything in retaliation. Perhaps then they can find a way out of the morass of pain and hurt. Jake agrees. The first occurrence comes quickly and takes Jake by surprise. He cannot say anything but must soldier on through the pain while Lucy finds that she feels more powerful and in control, that the inflicting of pain on another eases her own. Will she be able to stop herself before she does something irretrievable?

Megan Hunter has written a searing novel that explores the pain that infidelity can create in a relationship and the diminution that marriage and family can cause to a woman. It explores the dynamics of marriage and how children change lives as their needs must inevitably come first and how those needs are still met primarily by women. I listened to the audio of this novel and the clear, crisp diction of the narrator added to the experience and provided depth to my mental picture of Lucy. This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.

Books like this, I'm afraid, are the reason why I go for general fiction so rarely: Every other time I take a chance on it, I find myself presented with yet another tale of utterly tedious mundanity in a cringily overwrought style, trying to present a bland and depressing premise as some artful fresh take on the human condition, when actually it's just the same old boring misconception that misery must in and of itself have high literary worth.

The titular harpy, shoe-horned in in italicised musings on mythology, is merely a transparent attempt to somehow give this colourless story about two boring people cheating on and hurting each other an innovative, mystic frame, but much like the rest of the book, she never manages to get off the ground. I'm sure there's an audience for this, but it's decidedly not me.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

First, many thanks to Grove Atlantic, Megan Hunter, and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This story was beautifully written. I don't read a lot of domestic thrillers, as a matter of fact, this one might be my first, and I enjoyed it, I have to admit that this story irritated me, it got a guttural reaction from me from the beginning, like all stories about infidelity and suffering accepting partners.
Did I want different reactions and a different outcome? Of course I did. I wanted bad things to befallen that mofo, but it's not my story to dictate, it's Megan Hunter's and I really liked it.
The story : 3 ⭐
The writing style: 5⭐

Beautiful and vicious, heartbreaking and fantastic. This was a tough but brilliant read filled with delicious language.

Written in beautiful, almost poetic prose, this story is striking. You are gripped by the story line and engrossed in the writing from the start. This is a short read with a lot to absorb. This book comes highly recommended and will not disappoint.

Thank you, NetGalley and Grove Press, for a copy of this book for review,

I love the premise of this book. In the Harpy, Lucy receives a call that her husband has been unfaithful to her with a work colleague, which leaves Lucy devastated. Her husband suggests that Lucy could hurt him 3 times and they will be even.
Lucy begins to look for things that would really hurt her husband as she tries to deal with what little is left in her marriage, her two children, her home, and herself
I found very interesting the symbolism that the harpy represents throughout the book. it is like a shadow that has consumed Lucy since she was a child, with her turbulent childhood and now with her husband's infidelity, she is transformed into something different.
I give it 3.5 stars because I would have liked the book to be a little longer.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

I devoured this book in one sitting. It is such an incredible piece of art that deeply affected me. The premise and cover intrigued me to begin with, and upon reading the book I was not disappointed. The story, the writing, the themes and the symbolism of the Harpy all made the book a hauntingly powerful read.

I loved the symbolism of The Harpy throughout the story, forming a dark shadow over Lucy’s life. A representation of power that she desires. In the end, she finally encompasses it and is free again. Has she killed herself? Has she allowed the Harpy to take over? I love that it allowed the reader to decide her fate.

Although the book is quite short, I still was able to connect with Lucy and watch her transformation throughout the story. The premise itself was intriguing, and I felt like her reactions to the affair were real, and considering her dark past, an unhealthy relationship with her husband seems very likely. It was heartbreaking to read at times and her pain was incredibly moving.

The underlying themes of domestic violence, abuse and adultery were so powerfully expressed throughout the book. Her childhood exposure to domestic violence and the fact she was raped, has a deep impact on her life as an adult. Motherhood has also taken its toll in many ways. The way it has changed her body (which she compares to Vanessa who hasn’t had any children), having to give up her studies and settle with freelance work from home, and that housework and children’s routines make up the majority of her day. As a mother, I really related to the idea of losing yourself to motherhood and this only added to the lack of power over her life.

The writing was perfectly haunting, the lack of speech punctuation was fitting to the story and the inclusion of the Harpy was a riveting addition. All of this made the book incredibly different and unforgettable.

I loved reading this book, her dark past having such a deep impact on her life as an adult and her emotions toward motherhood and all that she has sacrificed were incredibly real. This fairytale isn’t just a quick read. It’s an emotional, brilliantly written journey that will carry you into its dark world and the end will leave you questioning everything.

Thank you very much for the ARC.

Well, quite fascinating.
Loved Lucy's turbulent stressful life. The feeling of the inadequate mother, the not enough wife, the domestic struggle and the overpowering love.
Lucy's fascination with Harpys has been with her since childhood she identifies with the evil in them. When her husband is unfaithful she seeks revenge in a harpy type of way and the consequences are unbelievable.

I will start by saying that this book is beautifully written! The story is extremely engaging, it makes you curious to a point that it’s hard to put the book down. It’s an easy and fast read.
Lucy is very relatable, a very human character with an obsession for The Harpy, that is a very distinct mark to the book. The way the story is built gives you the impression that you are literally inside her head at times.
I truly loved the book, but would have hoped for a different ending.
Thank you Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book.

My recent read was THE HARPY by Megan Hunter and it was definitely not in my typical preferred genre or traditional type of read. It was a much darker piece and although I don’t know if I would recommend the book to friends or my Lit Ladies book club, there might be a niche audience for this type of book that could include fans of the psychological thriller book or film genre. Actually if it wasn’t for the book’s ending that doesn’t translate well for a film, I could see this book by Hunter being adapted for a movie with possibly greater success than as a novel. The target audience would be fans and readers of books turned to movies like Gone Girl and The Girl On The Train.
In THE HARPY, Lucy finds out her husband is being unfaithful with a work colleague by his mistress’s husband. The story centers around her reaction to his affair and the actions that she takes to be able to cope with the devastating news and still remain in her marriage despite her husband’s ultimate betrayal. Although there isn’t an excuse for her revenge behaviors that include inflicting cuts on her spouse, minor stomach poisoning, notifying everyone at his work of his exploits, etc.; the author attempts to explain and nudge the reader to an empathetic understanding of the protagonist’s trajectory to these shocking end results. Hunter reveals a childhood marred by a pious disapproving mother and a father who not only was a domestic abuser but also was an adulterer who left Lucy and her mom. She grew up poor and then lost her sense of self and confidence with increasing age and inside her marriage roles as wife and mother. The author also alludes to a history of assault and rape to the protagonist furthering her PTSD complications. As a result, Lucy was drawn to the mythological creature of the Harpy throughout her life, possibly due to the power, domination, and control the harpy was able to exert over men.
When her husband betrays her trust a second time, Lucy has a mental split that leads to a breakdown and return to childhood haunts, traumatizing memories, and her traditional coping strategies. Yet with her defense mechanisms and resultant final transformation, the book’s ending ultimately detracts from any attempted saving graces for the book and explanations offered for Lucy’s vengeful retaliation—as well as possibly making a successful film adaption fall flat and not tenable as previously mentioned.

Wow. What an experience reading this book was. I'm unsure how to rate it, because if I only were to rate the first 50% of the book it would be 5 stars; the last half, however? Maybe 2 stars. I started out breathlessly taken with our main character, but ended up completely alienated and confused. Overall, the writing was heady and scintillating. The underlying themes were exceptional. The delivery simply fell flat for me in the final half.