This book's description as a cross between The Virgin Suicides and The Crucible was a strong selling point for me. This fantastical novel takes place in eighteenth century England.

The Hounding has a riveting plot that keeps the reader guessing. Told from different points of view, it illustrates how the local villagers view the five Mansfield sisters and what they believe to be true about these girls. This story also shines a light on how young women were viewed at that time and the way information and rumors spread within a small area.

Some of these villagers are well drawn, as characters, while the Mansfield girls never are. They remain mysterious, which forces the reader to get involved in the speculation about what is actually true, and what might be going on.

I found this novel to be well written, paced perfectly, and intriguing. Its haunting atmosphere is especially memorable, and I'd gladly read this author's work again. I'd recommend it to anyone, and would gladly read something else by this author. Thank you, Netgalley and Henry Holt and Co. for the opportunity to read and review this novel.

** spoiler alert ** 5⭐️- This book was so captivating and well-written. I was immediately drawn in by the varying perspectives of each character. This one had me guessing until the very end as each narrator was somehow biased or unreliable in one way or another.

I found the themes of misogyny and the expectations of women to behave a certain way in society to be thoughtfully portrayed. The irony of the way the men were allowed to behave and exude violent/unhealthy tendencies, whereas the girls were merely thought ill off for not smiling or responding differently than expected by the male characters. Additionally, it was shown in Pete’s pov in relation to female characters and the scenes involving the male character’s grotesque treatment of animals for amusement. It was a smart poke at the pressure society puts on women to be polite and act “like a woman should”. Whereas for men, the behavior is overlooked or justified. *cue Taylor Swifts ‘The Man’*.

The author did an amazing job at making these characters feel so real. I absolutely HATED Pete’s character as an arrogant and “holier-than-thou” man. I was sympathetic to Robin and also felt so attached to Thomas. Temperance’s pov was refreshing as the only female POV and seeing her own struggles and frustrations with expectations from the men in Little Nettlebed.

This book begged the question: is it better to be a damaged girl than a free dog? I think that question speaks for itself.

Truly a thought-provoking and gripping piece of work that I will be thinking about for a long time!

A unique and eerie tale set in the 18th century English countryside, the story keeps you guessing until the very end. Are the girls truly turning into hounds? Or is the entire town plagued by drought fever and itching for a target for their energies? Really enjoyed this one.

Thank you Xenobe Purvis and Henry & Holt for the ARC! I have received a free advanced copy of the book and am leaving a review voluntarily.

This was fabulous! It was a thoroughly enjoyable read and I liked everything about it. This is weird girl historical fiction in a spectacular way.

The pacing is perfect; it doesn't feel rushed or too quick for historical fiction, but it also isn't a slow crawl, like many historical fiction pieces. A million tiny things and minute interactions and small choices spiral the village into chaos, in a way that makes an unbelievable sounding thing completely believable. The book shifts focus each chapter, offering little slices of the lives and perspectives of many different villagers who are all compelling and complex.

Each character is distinct and multifaceted, and Purvis manages to use approximately five (debatably six) main characters (not counting the girls, of course) to create a remarkably comprehensive understanding of the village dynamics as a whole. The interactions are compelling and feel completely natural and real, and it rather eloquently displays how small choices can come together to spiral out of control very quickly.

Purvis' prose is lovely. It's delightfully atmospheric while still being digestible and clear. Her reflections on social orders and norms are poignant and at times deeply moving. It is genuinely just enjoyable to read.

I think Xenobe Purvis has a long and bright career ahead of her, and I can't wait to see what she writes next.

Thank you to Henry Holt and Co. and NetGalley for providing me with this ARC to review! The Hounding by Xenobe Purvis follows the point of view of five different villagers within Little Nettlebed as the town grapples with rumors that the Mansfield girls are turning into dogs. As the rumors snowball, the different villagers follow various paths toward discovering the truth.

I enjoyed a lot of this. The different POVs all felt very different providing new insight into the story. The novel as a whole had themes of rumors, religion, female identity, and perspective. The story was constantly evolving and the many different layers allowed for a very full story to take place in less than 300 pages. While I would not describe this as a page turner, this was a book that allowed you to just keep reading.

I would have liked a little more about the Mansfield girls as people. I assume that this was the point, creating this group of girls who are not well known or accepted by their community, which makes them easy targets for these kinds of rumors, but I think that allowing for a little more detail about them would have enhanced by reading experience.

I think it is clear that Purvis is a great writer with really beautiful and distinct prose and I cannot wait to read more by them in the furture! Thanks again NetGalley for this ARC!

The Hounding is the story of five sisters living in a post plague British village who find themselves at the centre of rumours that they can turn in to dogs.
In the manner of witch hunts and witch trials from prior decades we see the drunken accusations of one man catch like wildfire and lead to mass Hysteria and eventually murder.

The book is split perspective between several villagers and the girls grandfather. By about the second chapter from Peter Darling I already hated him. It says something about an author when you have strong feelings about their characters.
Purvis manages to seamlessly weave together themes of sexism, toxic masculinity, and patriarchal expectations of women that are as poignant and relatable today as they are applicable to the 18th century setting of her characters.

Although we never actually hear from the Mansfield sisters, I do not think the story is lacking for it. In fact adding the sisters perspectives would take away from the atmosphere of tension and the narrative built between the other villagers- some sympathetic but most not. Purvis engenders a sense of sympathy for the girls without ever having them defend themselves. A post script from one of them, set years after initial events, could have been fun but the story is complete without that.
The ending I think is really the only satisfying way to have brought things to a close and I find myself thinking about this book days after finishing it. This is a masterful debut and I look forward to reading more from Xenobe Purvis.

Really was not a fan of this, sadly... I think this style of writing, a kind of misty abstraction that makes everything feel at best half colored-in, just doesn't work for me. And I don't really think the central idea is all that strong -- it's a fairly simple metaphor that the novel labors to turn into a book-length story. A shame, because historical fiction is my favorite! But I wouldn't really recommend this to general readers, let alone historical fiction fans.

The Hounding by Xenobe Purvis is a masterfully atmospheric, haunting debut—imagine The Crucible meets The Virgin Suicides, but with a modern, feminist edge that lingers long after the final page.

Set in the blistering heat of an 18th-century English summer, the novel centers on the five Mansfield sisters, eccentric young women who quickly become the target of small-town hysteria when rumors swirl that they are transforming into dogs. Told through the perspectives of townspeople—an unreliable drunk, the blind grandfather, barmaids, young boys hired for harvest, and others—Purvis creates a chilling tale that explores toxic masculinity, mob mentality, and society’s enduring fear of women who refuse to conform.

What makes The Hounding exceptional is Purvis’s deliberate, lyrical prose. Every word feels purposeful, immersing the reader in the oppressive village of Little Nettlebed, where suspicion festers alongside the drought. Though set centuries ago, the novel resonates with timely themes: male entitlement, the silencing of women, and the consequences of unchecked gossip and prejudice. Characters like Pete—a bitter, entitled man who spirals into delusion after feeling “disrespected” by the sisters—serve as disturbing reminders of how fragile egos and societal norms can turn dangerous.

Purvis masterfully layers the story through multiple viewpoints, never giving us the sisters’ direct voices, which deepens their mystery and amplifies the sense of dread. The ending lands with a devastating, thought-provoking question: Is it safer to be a woman or a dog?

Perfect for fans of Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery, Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder, and stories that expose humanity’s darkest impulses, The Hounding is a must-read: immersive, unsettling, and utterly unforgettable.


Thank you, NetGalley, Xenobe Purvis, and Henry Holt & Company, for the ARC.

WOW.
I love a novel with a consistent unreliability. Wondering what the truth actually is from one page to the next. I was sucked into this almost instantly. The writing style is so eloquent, and I became so immersed in the Mansfield sisters odd lives. I love multiple POV’s so that was also a plus. I feel as if I need to talk to someone about this novel. I am beyond intrigued.

What a glorious first outing for this author. This is a weird little book that did indeed give me Virgin Suicides vibes, with fabulous characters and a dreamy story that doesn't try too hard to separate fact from fiction.

If you're looking for a tidy fairy tale, this probably isn't the book for you. It's never really clear if these five sisters are changing into dogs or not. (The fact that one of our narrators is nearly blind further complicates matters.)

At times I though this was an allegory for witchcraft. And in some ways it reads this way. It's the IDEA that they're dogs, and how that rumor spreads, that puts them in danger. There's also a nice underlying message about faith and feeling like one has been divinely chosen to see the "truth." Perhaps the sisters' biggest sin within the village is that they're free.

My only quibble is that the book ends quickly and with little resolution. After being deeply drawn into the story, that felt unsatisfying for me personally. But again, perhaps that was intentional.

Thank you to the author and NetGalley for granting me the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review.

This is one of the best atmospheric reads that I can recall in recent times. We're set in a small village called, Little Nettlebed during the 18th century. There is a strenuous drought and the villagers are on edge. Suspicions are soon turned to a family that has 5 daughters that are eventually accused of turning into raging dogs. Throughout the story we hear from multiple view points and I had hopes that by the end we'd get the view points of one of the sisters, but unfortunately that never happens. It doesn't take away from the story and the author clearly wants to leave the ending open to interpretation, though a little closure would have been nice.

Thank you NetGalley for early access!

Well written debut novel. The premise is captivating but the results are lacking. Purvis' take on The Virgin Suicides fits well in the building canon of femcel literature, but there is something inescapably hollow about The Hounding that keeps it from being quite as compelling as other "weird women" titles out there.

Told through the perspectives of multiple characters from varying degrees of inside/outside the Mansfield house, the accused were-dog girls are only viewed (and therefore judged) by those around them. Some prove loyal, loving to the girls while others are filled with vitriol for the Mansfield ladies. Certain character P.O.V.s seem to exist only to drive the plot and yet we still steer far from the main story into unfinished territory--Temperance, the village Woman, feels completely under utilized as the only non-male perspective in the book. In an effort to conceal all that she can about the girls, Purvis presents the readers a short-lived It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World hysteria that does not deliver anything totally meaningful outside of "the girls are hated/loved because they are girls."

The Hounding is a mixed bag, but one can see the writing prowess Purvis possesses. This debut, while not totally delivering on its own, does welcome its author for future work.

Thank you to Henry Holt & Company for providing this ARC for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

The Hounding by Xenobe Purvis is a short but masterfully crafted story of five sisters in a sleepy English village who are rumored to be transforming into dogs. The book, in its description has been likened to both The Crucible and The Virgin Suicides. I would say that the comparison to The Virgin Suicides is particularly apt; the story is very much centered around five enchanting but strange sisters, but is told from the point of view of the others, particularly the men in the community.

I think what sets this story apart, in the witch hunt cannon, is that the motivations of the people in town, especially that of Pete Darling are not for the reader to surmise on their own. The messaging is a little more heavy handed. There is hatred, revulsion, and a sense of fear of these girls. While they are often admittedly scared of these girls, many of them find themselves attracted to them nonetheless.

I thought that the author did a very good job of using language, that while not antiquated or time-specific, didn’t feel anachronistic. The daughters, even the ‘wild’ ones, weren’t so outside of the realm of possibilities. I thought that despite the undercurrent of magic and the spiritual that the world has a feeling of firm grounding in reality.

Not exactly the same as multiple narrators, the story does shift its attention between several characters with different attitudes and degrees of separation from the girls. I think that this was a very masterful way of achieving the feeling of the disconnected messaging around the girls and how the perceptions of them differed.

In all, I think that this is a great piece of literary fiction with elements referencing other very strong works. It is brief, but well worth reading. 4/5 stars!

Xenobe Purvis' The Hounding is an interesting allegorical exploration of male violence and the plight of women in a patriarchal society. That said, it feels very familiar. It feels very like other books centered on witch hunts of all kinds and, like the other reviewers, I do agree that it takes much from the Virgin Suicides. The plot, broadly, concerns five sisters in mourning--just slightly wild in behavior--who are accused of transforming into dogs and, over the course of the narratives, of doing increasingly violent things in that guise. The accusation spreads like wildfire, growing and changing with each retelling. I liked the misty, atmospheric narrative (which switches voices throughout), but I feel that the single point of resolution might not have been enough to end the story. This was odd and I recognize the quality of the writing, but I didn't love it. I would still recommend it, though.

This was such a fantastic book!!! I love how feminist this book is. It is so good, it mixes serious topics with humor, satire, etc. I love the authors writing style and the way the characters are written. I think this may have been one of the best books I have read this year! I love the similarity to the Salem witch trials

Thank you to NetGalley, to the author, and to the publisher for this complementary ARC in exchange for my honest review!!!

“the crucible meets the virgin suicides” was the absolute most perfect descriptor. i found it interesting that the story entirely revolves around these 5 sisters yet we get none of their points of view, which was honestly a really good tactic if the author’s intention was to make the reader skeptical of the narrators. there were definitely times where i felt like i was being gas lit by the characters, especially the antagonist. i kept going back and forth with myself on the belief that they were actually turning into dogs, and even now that i’ve finished the book i still do not know. my favorite pov was their grandfathers, as through his eyes we got the more demystified and playful parts of the sisters we don’t get as much from the other povs. “he’d rather they were dogs than damaged girls” was a quote from their grandfather that the author circled back to in the end, i half believe he got his wish but i can’t be sure with such a vague ending to the book. I did really like the open ending, it definitely gave the story room to linger. overall, i loved the writing and i thought the story was good, anyone that is a lover of weird girl literature will def enjoy this book! thank you so much to netgalley and the publishers for the arc!

Very competently written, but something was lacking here. I think my biggest complaints would be that it felt too derivative of Virgin Suicides and that the ending was too abrupt. I enjoyed the dreamy, magical realism of this book, but at many points, things felt like they were left too sketchy and vague. Ultimately, this book could've done with at least 50 more pages to explore some of the characters a little more.

A quaint, short, delightful read exploring the interesting concept of women as dogs. This read was exactly what I needed as a purveyor of strange literary fiction. I will be recommending this as a title for my library to purchase.

I don't know how I would describe The Hounding by Xenobe Purvis but I do know that I enjoyed my time reading this. It's so unique and different from anything else I've read. Someone said that it remind them of a Sofia Coppola film and I couldn't agree more. It's so well done and definitely makes you think about things. After I finished reading this, I couldn't stop thinking about it. I still find myself thinking about it. It's a book that will definitely leave an impression on you. The characters were written so well, I truly felt for them all. The writing is lyrical and captures the unsettling atmosphere of the time. I truly think this is one of the best books I've read lately and I cannot wait for others to read it so I can discuss it with them.

Purvis has a writing style that I instantly loved and clicked with. I loved the way the world and characters were described and the imagery in the scenes. It was a great read and I could read anything from them now because of how much I loved the writing style. The pacing is slow at times and the book can feel like it is not moving at times, but the writing style was so beautiful that I didn't care and still enjoyed the book greatly.