girls just wanna have fun lol^

^
this is basically the thesis of this book, which follows villagers in a quaint English town who are led to believe a group of five sisters are dogs. literally. all because a misogynistic drunkard says so. the commentary was subtle (not) in how the male characters viewed the women (girls = dogs = bitches)

I was frustrated that all of the narrative POVs came from everyone but the five sisters, but I realize that was intentional and is meant to leave it up to interpretation whether the girls actually turn into dogs or not

I love the cover and I like what this book is trying to do, but I struggled with the slow pace, which for a relatively short book is not good.

I do love that authors write weird things and can do it well, so I really do appreciate what this book is, even if it wasn't my favorite!

There is always going to be someone who looks at you annoyed and starts to slender you the moment you do something out of the ordinary. It doesn't matter whether you wore a left shoe on your right foot (or anything as harmless like that) or you decided to behave like a dog. It should be none of their business, but they always feel like they should have a saying in it.

There was one man in this super tiny town to start the gossip about the sisters who were struggling with their grandmother's passing. He said they turned into dogs at night, they killed animals, and they were a menace to society. As gossip started to take over the whole town, the number of people saw sisters transform increased. So does the results of their transformation

I don't know, with the expectations from society maybe it is better to turn into a dog and run away from places that strangles you. I'm sure the whole town would have been okay with girls becoming dogs if girldogs were wearing collars instead of going around freely.

The Hounding is being promoted as The Crucible meets akdfj and I agree and I absolutely loved it. This debut pulled me immediately into a trance that lasted all 240 pages, with me desperate to know how it was all going to end, even though I think I always kind of knew. That is an impressive feat to pull off, and, in my opinion, Xenobe Purvis fully pulls this off.

Set in an eerie village called Nettlebed we meet the Mansfield sisters and quickly realize the thing that matters most about them, the thing that is going to most affect their lives, is how the men in the town view them. When animals begin turning up dead and barks can be heard around town, the natural theory is that it must be the sisters and they must be turning into dogs.

This reads both so old and so new at the same time. Like it could have been written during the Salem Witch Trials or in August of 2025. I loved pondering the question: is it safer to be a dog than an unusual young girl? We think on this through the lens of different villagers as things get more and more unsettling and you want to turn the pages faster and faster. This was a strange little book, bizarre yet beautiful, and is leaving me grateful for the women (dogs?) I surround myself with.

This is a story about gossip and rumors, and the harm that can be caused by small-town people quick to accuse those who are dare to be different.

As someone who is vaguely familiar with Jeffrey Eugenides’ The Virgin Suicides, I can see the similarities between the two novels, especially in terms of the narrative.

The people of Little Nettlebed have always found the Mansfield sisters an odd bunch of girls, but one man’s obsession and hatred causes him to go and tell stories. And everybody knows that stories spread like wildfire in small towns. What started as ill-intended rumor soon brings about claims of the devil and a violent hunt to weed those sisters and their trouble out of Little Nettlebed.

Much like The Virgin Suicides, Xenobe Purvis has crafted a story told from the various perspectives of people in the town and their collective obsession with these young women. By the time you reach its end, a lot is left unanswered because the sisters never get to tell their own version of events. This is a story about them, but it does not necessarily belong to them.

At first, I was let down by the fact that we don’t get any of the sisters’ perspectives because I was wishing for a feminist reimagining of The Virgin Suicides. I felt like the Mansfield sisters should have a voice, but I understand that the whole point is that they are 18th-century English women, so of course they had no voice. The were girls who did not fit in and to everyone else that was a dangerous thing; whether or not they actually turn into dogs is not the point, and it never was.

I appreciated that while we didn’t see the sisters’ perspectives, there were hints throughout that pointed to a possible truer version of events, even though, of course, that’s not the version men like to tell.

I had some minor issues regarding the logistics of the village itself and its layout that caused a bit of confusion on my end, but overall this was an enjoyable reading experience.

Thank you, NetGalley and Henry Holt & Co. for this e-ARC.

I featured The Hounding in my August 2025 new releases video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eq3pme6mIno&t=858s and though I have not read it yet, I am so excited to and expect 5 stars! I will update here when I post a follow up review or vlog.

Mob mentality ruins everything.

The five Mansfield sisters are dogs. At least that's what the townspeople think. Told by their blind grandfather, the ferryman, the town's bar maid, and the two boys that have been hired for harvest, we watch as the mysterious girls are treated as outcasts. Instead of a scarlet letter or being labeled "witch", they are accused of being dogs.

DOGS.

Reviews say this is Virgin Suicides esque, and I get it. It creates an atmosphere in the very deliberate word usage. It's beautiful written and a weird little story. Perfect for all those spooky girls who might actually enjoy becoming a dog..

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Thank you Xenobe Purvis, Henry Holt and Co. Publishing, and Netgalley for the ARC!

Happy Publishing Day to the perfect book for "The Dog Days" of Summer! Living in North Carolina, I know exactly how oppressive hot weather can be. That's why I love stories set in a maddening heat wave, because there truly is a loss of inhabitations and sanity associated with scorching weather. The setting goes from lush and pastoral to a dry, cracked landscape brought on by drought-this parallels of course to the conflict of the story.

I liked that in this story, you don't know exactly what to believe until the end. There's also something to be said about a sense of obsession and charge towards violence- especially when it's directed at young girls whom the villagers know very little about. This is where the story greatly mirrors "The Virgin Suicides". Though this book is about a rumor that starts about five sisters turning to dogs, we never get the sister's point of view. Instead we rely on various men in their lives and have to form our own opinions based on outside perceptions of them. It's an exercise in perception and mystery which is certainly intriguing if it hadn't been done before so many times at this point.

Though I enjoyed the story, there wasn't much that stood out to me in terms of originality. It's a quick and atmospheric read, but one that I wouldn't be likely to pick up again.

REALLY wanted this to be for me, but it just wasn't.
This is one of those novels though, where I'm fully confident it's a "me" thing—it's just too historic for MY taste. For that reason I'm rating 4/5.
I did feel the The Virgin Suicides vibes—my favorite part of the entire novel by far!
& I commend narrator Olivia Vinall, she did a fantastic job and I think her voice fit the novel perfectly. I'd initially tried this one in print before being approved for the ALC—I'm not certain I would have made it all the way thru this had I not had the audiobook.

Again—I know this is 110% a "me" thing. I'd argue it's an objectively great book—that's just...not for me.

{Thank you bunches to Xenobe Purvis, Olivia Vinall, Macmillan Audio, Henry Holt & Co. and NetGalley for the ALC & DRC in exchange for my honest review.}

Thanks to NetGalley for this eARC!

This was my first experience reading Xenobe Purvis's writing, and I was impressed. I slid into the book quickly and I loved the buildup of the story. This was a great and quick read for me.

The Hounding was SUCH a good read! I loved the thought of what society expects of young women and if they are slightly different from the norm, society is suspicious. Propulsive and a quick read.

This was an amazing and entertaining debut that I finished in a few hours.
A well written story that kept me hooked from the very beginning.
The characters draw you in and keeps you flipping the pages.
They are realistic and very well developed.
I really enjoyed the writing style. I found myself hooked, turning the pages.

ARC Review
3.5 stars

This is one of those books that I can say I enjoyed even though I was frustrated throughout most of the book with the way the people in this town were acting with not a single shred of evidence. You can really see the inspiration of both comp titles clearly, and I think the ending of this book was definitely much more satisfying for me personally. I really enjoyed the setting and atmosphere this would be a fantastic fall read.

My only complaint is that I don't feel like the book deviates that much from the comp titles of The Crucible and the Virgin Suicides all that much, so there really wasn't much mystery you knew where the book was going.

Purvis sets her gothic tale in bucolic 18th-century Oxfordshire village, Little Nettlebed, nestled on the banks of the River Thames. A drought has caused the crops to fail and the wells to dry up, and has led to a monster sturgeon washing up on the shore. The story is told through the eyes of the villagers who recount the going-ons of the five orphaned Mansfield sisters who live on a farm across the river with their blind grandfather, John. The villagers discuss the Mansfield girls, recalling how they left one “with a cold feeling,” or fostered something “wicked” or “unnatural.”

Temperance Shiley, the owner of the one ale house in the village, and an authority on the inhabitants of Little Nettlebed, disregards the gossip, and quips that while some say that the Mansfield sister are responsible for a lot of things, “they must be busy, those girls.” Thomas Milday, who was hired by John Mansfield to help with the hay making on the farm, acknowledges sadly, “Every grievance found its way back to the sisters, it seemed.”

Pete Darling, the ferryman who had access to the villagers lives by taking them across the river, laments how his livelihood was being threatened by the drought. Pete, a misogynist who drank too much and believed that he had been visited by an angel, had a grudge against the Mansfield sisters who he thought had been disrespectful to him on his own ferry. The action ratchets up when Pete tells a villager that he had seen the girls turn into dogs before his eyes. The rumor spreads like flames, and shifts and grew — “seeped through the parish like sewage.”

Purvis has crafted a tale that hums with low-grade unease. She beautifully captures the oppressive atmosphere of a small village, and she tells the taut, tense story in beautiful, sensual prose. This is a gothic tale, an historical fiction, and a feminist cautionary tale that channels “The Lottery,” “The Crucible” and “Night Bitch.” Thank you Henry Holt & Co. and Net Galley for an advanced copy of this novel that alludes to modern day scapegoating.

Little Nettlebed is an 18th century English village, where the 5 Mansfield girls are not well-liked. Rumors are swirling, and villagers begin to claim that they have seen the sisters transform in the night

As the Little Nettlebed river dries up and paranoia increases, we watch as the villagers confront their fear of the unknown.

I really enjoyed this. A quick, but mighty read that I'm sure is going to be a big hit.

This book has surpassed all of my expectations. The Crucible meets The Virgin Suicides, and dare I say, a hint of Little Women; all favorites of mine that come together in a concoction that could be considered witchcraft itself because it is so good. Purvis’s writing style is beyond elegant; the reader is taken on a languid journey alongside the villagers as they attempt to discern the sisters. This is entirely written through the eyes of different men in the village and one barmaid, which breaks way for time-accurate commentary on how women were treated and viewed. Full transparency, I was only 19% into the book when I decided it was going to be 5 stars; it is genuinely that good. There are so many things I wish to say, but it all boils down to this: GO BUY THE BOOK. Get the book, read the book, love the book. I will be recommending this to everyone for the foreseeable future, and no one can stop me.

Xenobe Purvis has now been added to my favorite authors of all time, and I will desperately await what brilliance comes from them next. A million thanks to Henry Hold and Co., and Xenobe Purvis for the chance to read this!

As a whole, The Houding was a book with beautiful prose by Purvis that was not quite my cup of tea. While I love the weirder aspects of this story and the themes it speaks to— misogyny, how girls are allowed to stop act societal compared to boys etc. I think this is a five star book for another reader. What kept me from rating it higher was 1) as someone who doesn’t read a ton of historical fiction I sometimes struggle to engage with historical settings and 2) the pacing— lots of this book is waiting for something to happen or hearsay and the action didn’t feel well spaced.

I did like the Mansfield sisters (I’m biased as the oldest in named Anne also even though we spell it differently)- 5 girls being raised by their grandfather after their grandmother’s passing. Some people in the town do not like these girls or this family and have it out for them.

Ultimately if you liked The Crucible and like a book that’s literary, historical, and a little weird this is probably for you. Was so close to checking my boxes and I’ll definitely be reading Purvis in the future!

Thank you Henry Holt & Company, along with Purvis and NetGalley! Views are my own.

If you love weird books you’re going to eat this one up. God forbid a girl likes to play in the dirt

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for an early release copy in exchange for my review

“He’d rather they were dogs than damaged girls.”

It’s already a strange summer in Little Nettlebed, Mystical looking fish are running ashore, the river is drying up, and small animals are turning up dead. And when Pete Darling sees the oldest Mansfield girl change into a dog, he knows those girls are to blame.

I’ve been obsessed with this book since I first saw the cover and thankfully it lived up to all of my expectations. I really loved this author’s writing style and the way the tension seemed to build as time passes and the town continues to dry up due to the drought. There is an ominous tone throughout the book, and there are several instances where the townsfolk mention feeling the threat of violence in the air. The stakes seem to grow as the drought in the town continues and the accusations against the Mansfield girls grow even more wild. I was so invested in this story that I ended up reading this in one sitting.

Thank you to Henry Holt for a review copy. I can’t wait to read from this author again.

What a unique and alarming little read this was. I was quickly pulled into this story of suspicion, misogyny, and nature to the point where I listened to the entire audiobook in a day. I was particularly fascinated by the fact that while the book centers the five Mansfield sisters, the characters in their orbit are the ones we hear from most. Understanding the girls themselves was near impossible, I loved this because it places the reader in the same shoes as the townspeople in many ways. There is a bit of an abrupt ending, but it felt perfect for the story too. All in all, I would absolutely recommend this one!

thank you to netgalley and the publisher for this e-arc! 3/5 stars, a solid, if slow, read that ultimately wasn't to my taste.

literary fiction isn't my favorite, so that coupled with the relatively slower start made the first 40% of this book feel a little like a slog. despite that, purvis does a lot of the footwork to establish the setting and the slowly growing tension of the overall plot, and as the chapters go on, they definitely increase in intrigue. purvis does a really great job of showing how that suspense affects different people in town - from john darling, whose baseless resentment towards the sisters builds and builds, to temperance, who tries to act as the voice of reason but is still able to tell when things are going to start to go downhill. I disagree with other reviewers that said they wanted to see from the girls' POV - I think that lack of clarity is what drives the plot forward, as you never really know what's going on with girls themselves. they don't have the chance to defend themselves because most women don't, and even if there's evidence - thomas staying with them the entirety of the wedding - they're not believed regardless. it would certainly be interesting, but I didn't feel it was necessary and actually added to the haze of the rumors going around. I will say the ambiguity of the ending was fitting, but personally, I was annoyed because at that point, I had no idea what was going on. overall, this wasn't exactly my taste, but was still interesting to read.