The Mansfield sisters have always been viewed as a strange in their community, and now the village is convinced they are turning into dogs...

I absolutely loved this!!

This storyline is such a unique read.

I cannot wait to buy my finished copy!

This interesting upcoming novel is one I read a few weeks ago and it continues to take up space in my brain. I just cannot quit thinking about it. A blend of The Crucible and The Virgin Suicides, yet completely original, this novel set in 18th century England, looks at how destructive jealousy can be and how easily the spark of a rumor can spread into a raging and destructive inferno.

I really enjoyed this strange little book. Singular and distinctive, filled with haunting atmosphere and well drawn characters, I was captured by this story. It is a feminist cry to be valued for who we are and not for what society and the patriarchy demands of us. Powerful and universal ideas wrapped up in beautiful prose mingled with elements of folklore, I believe this one will linger with me for years to come. Thank you to @netgalley and @henryholtbooks for this arc.

The Hounding is an interesting read, sold as a combination of the crucible and the virgin suicides, which I guess, but that’s a little blunt. This is a thoroughly feminist narrative set in a small Oxfordshire town in the 18th century during a drought. Misogyny runs wild in this book and in such interesting ways. Told from the POV of those surrounding the five orphaned sisters that anchor the narrative, there is a sense of voyeurism that is both unsettling and fascinating. Purvis is able to set a story centuries in the past, mostly to make comments about modern society. We are one phrase away from these men calling themselves “high value men,” as they drink and gossip and fail at basic tasks.

I really enjoyed this book. It was all the good kinds of weird with a dose of what we as women endure. I think this would be a really interesting read paired with Rachel Yoder’s Nightbitch. One that is completely told from the outside, one from the inside and yet we are all just bitches...

This story has that shimmery, hot feeling that happens at the peak of summer.

Billed as The Crucible meets The Virgin Suicides, this story is seen through the eyes of inhabitants of a small Eighteenth century village and the five girls that are the center of town gossip.

I fell on this story and devoured it. I enjoyed the quirky Mansfield sister and immediately started rooting for them. This book has a large cast of characters. The author fleshed each character out and made them interesting. The changing perspective lets us see in the hearts of the girls and the villagers that judge or defend them. It’s unique and clever and beautifully written.

4.5 rounded up to 5. Perfect reading for the dog days of summer!

Thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt Publishing for the eARC!

Five sisters become the targets of a small town when rumors spread that the girls are turning into dogs and terrorizing the village. This is like if the Virgin Suicides took place in 18th century England. Atmosphere is amazingly eerie, writing is great, and who doesn’t love to see young girls waging psychological warfare on drunk old men just by existing?

The Hounding is my favorite kind of book. It’s set in a small, atmospheric and claustrophobic English town. It’s about the wildness of untamed girls and how men feel out of control and angered by women who won’t be submissive and tamed.

This format of the book is super interesting because it’s told entirely from the perspective of the other townspeople observing them, almost entirely men. The reader witnesses the town slowly unravel as a rumor that a group of sisters can turn into dogs takes hold of them.

My one complaint is I think it could have benefited from being longer, but I still enjoyed it!

Thank you to Holt and NetGalley for sending me a copy of this eArc to review. While this has everything I love like it being literary fiction, female protagonists, and a message about society, I think this was a me problem and not necessarily the book. I think it was too weird for me. I had a hard time connecting to the story. While it was interesting to get the perspective from different villagers, I wish maybe one chapter could be from the sisters. I’m disappointed because I really wanted to love this but it wasn’t for me. Check it out if you think this would be something for you.

The Hounding by Xenobe Purvis is as powerful and atmospheric as the heat that summer. Things are not right in the small town of Little Nettlebed beside the river Thames and it is weighing on the people of the town. Everything is sultry and unmoving. Tension builds when the local ferryman focuses the blame on five sisters who recently lost their mother and who he deems “unnatural”. This is a story of crowd hysteria, of how beliefs become reality, and the impact this can have on human lives. The setting is in another time and place, but the messages are timeless. The writing has overtones of Shirley Jackson and Daphne du Maurier, while also carrying reminders of Diane Settergield’s “Once Upon a River”. This novel is Historical Fiction, based on a true story. It is impactful and a must read. This is a book you will not soon forget and an author you will want to follow.

Thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt for access to this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The Hounding follows five sisters during a sweltering summer as they become targets of a suspicious village convinced they can turn into dogs. The author crafts an eerie, unsettling atmosphere where every rumor feels dangerously real.

The story evokes the same kind of mob mentality seen in The Salem Witch Trials and Slewfoot—where a spark of misinformation and a dose of prejudice can turn deadly. That tension holds steady throughout the book’s relatively short length, but I found the characters lacked the depth and nuance to fully ground the story.

By the end, The Hounding offers few answers, leaving you wondering, what is the truth here? That ambiguity might work for some, but it didn’t quite land for me.

The Hounding is a new novel by Xenobe Purvis full of mysticism, skepticism, and general uproar over rumor and gossip that will have consequences for an entire village.

There's something strange about the five Mansfield sisters. The village has been plagued by a strange pack of dogs that never seem to be around at the same time as the sisters. When someone claims one afternoon to have seen them transform from girls into dogs, it sets off a chain of events that shrouds the whole village in low key hysteria.

The message this novel shares with The Crucible is an important one, even in our 'modern' times. Spreading lies and half truths or things you don't know for sure has consequences and will have outcomes you won't see coming.

I loved the telling of this tale. The writing itself was beautiful to read. It was an atmospheric almost fairy tale style read that I found immersive and interesting. It is technically historical fiction being based sometime in the 18th century, but it reads so smoothly I'm convinced readers of all genres will enjoy it.

It's a lingering sort of tale - the type of story that will live in your mind far longer than the time it takes to read. The kind that makes me think I'll get something new out of it no matter how many times I read it. Brilliant.

Note:: I received an early copy of this book from the publisher through netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

A small village, Little Nettlebed is where 5 sisters live with their aging grandfather.
One man, Pete the Ferryman, has an unnatural obsession with these girls, and starts a rumor that will infect most of the villagers. Soon the Mansfield siblings are loathed and feared, and as more and more things go wrong in the village, these strange girls must be responsible.
The Hounding packed an awful lot of food for thought intro just 240 pages. If you have ever been judged for just being different, this book, strange atmosphere, and the rising fear of the villagers over nothing more than gossip, should resonate with you as it did with me. I am quite sure I read that this was a debut, and it was amazing.

“Wherever we go, however we behave, there'll always be something to drive us inside. That's where people want us to be.”

Comparisons of this book to The Crucible and The Virgin Suicides are spot on. The Mansfield girls find themselves the talk of the village after local drunk Pete claims to have seen them turn into dogs late in the night. Soon these rumors gain teeth.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. Each chapter is told from a different character’s point of view, keeping it fresh and adding intrigue. I loved the main and supporting characters. Wish I could read this over again with fresh eyes!

I will definitely be picking up a copy of this once it publishes. Broadly recommended!

Sometimes I read the blurb of a book and just get a sixth sense that it is going to be something truly extraordinary. That sense hasn't steered me wrong yet, and it certainly did not with The Hounding by Xenobe Purvis. The author has taken a more-or-less throwaway comment in an 18th-century chronicle of goings-on in rural England about some girls who had started howling like dogs, and fleshed it out into an unforgettable, deceptively simple story that really is a fable about the way a community can turn on young women who do not conform to their expectations. This book manages to be deeply unsettling without actually portraying much violence - a lot is implied, understated, and ambiguous. This book really stuck with me and I highly recommend it.

While this was an interesting read at times, and the premise had some promise regarding the future, there was very little in this story that pulled me into the story, although I did finish the book.

I'm happy for those who loved this one, but it just didn't appeal to me.


Pub Date: 05 Aug 2025

Many thanks for the opportunity to read 'The Hounding' by Xenobe Purvis

One of my favorite books of the year. "The Hounding" follows the small 18th century village of Little Nettlebed in which the townsfolk are preparing for the ferryman's wedding. As the weather gets hotter, the townspeople get more and more suspicious of the five Mansfield sisters after the ferryman declares that he saw them turn into dogs.

I think a lot of people discount this book because they suspected the Mansfield sisters to be front and center, but they're not focused on them at all. The novel is more interested in how information is disseminated, gossip, faith, reason, facts and fiction amongst a small community. The focus is on the secondary characters and why/how they believe that the sisters are dogs. This exploration is unfortunately so pertinent to our present day situation, especially in the US, it was sadly so relatable. Because of this, I think this would be an excellent book for book clubs.

The writing was terse and beautiful at times-- I just wished it was longer!

"The Crucible meets The Virgin Suicides in this haunting debut about five sisters in a small village in eighteenth-century England whose neighbors are convinced they're turning into dogs.

Even before the rumors about the Mansfield girls begin, Little Nettlebed is a village steeped in the uncanny, from strange creatures that wash up on the riverbank to portentous ravens gathering on the roofs of people about to die. But when the villagers start to hear barking, and one claims to see the Mansfield sisters transform before his very eyes, the allegations spark fascination and fear like nothing has before.

The truth is that though the inhabitants of Little Nettlebed have never much liked the Mansfield girls - a little odd, think some; a little high on themselves, perhaps - they've always had plenty to say about them. As the rotating perspectives of five villagers quickly make clear, now is no exception. Even if local belief in witchcraft is waning, an aversion to difference is as widespread as ever, and these conflicting narratives all point to the same ultimate conclusion: Something isn't right in Little Nettlebed, and the sisters will be the ones to pay for it.

A richly atmospheric parable of the pleasures and perils of female defiance, The Hounding considers whether in any age it might be safer to be a dog than an unusual young girl."

Trust me, it is safer to be a dog.

What a wonderful debut of literary fiction. Great character development, intriguing and mysterious plot, and excellent description of time and place. The plot felt much like a story of Salem and witches, with the community piling more and more kindling on top of one irregular sighting to create a bonfire of circumstantial evidence. But the reader is left with some haunting uncertainty at the end.

If you ignore the plights and dangers put upon women, then you also ignore that rage and anger a woman is capable of.

It was interesting to see and feel the tension brewing in this small village due to rumors and fear.

I would also describe this as “women minding their own business and men being sensitive and offended for no reason”. I so so enjoyed what the author had to say and the atmosphere she created.

Thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt & Company for the eARC!

This may be one of my favorite books of the year.

The Hounding, is a beautifully atmospheric and quietly haunting novel set in the eerie village of Little Nettlebed, where the Mansfield sisters become the subject of strange rumors—they’re turning into dogs.

I love how the story is told through shifting, gossip-fueled perspectives—it really highlights the fear of difference and the cost of not conforming.

Though it’s a slower read, it’s an extremely atmospheric read, rich, immersive, and deeply evocative without ever relying on outright horror. The novel feels unsettling rather than frightening, with a creeping sense of dread rooted in human cruelty more than the supernatural.

Themes of societal judgment, misogyny, and the cost of standing apart are woven into every page. The sisters don’t fit the village’s mold—and in a place where conformity is everything, their refusal to change makes them easy targets for suspicion and blame.

Purvis’s beautiful writing, combined with a striking cover, makes The Hounding a haunting, thought-provoking read that lingers long after the final page. If you like gothic folklore, feminist fiction, and deeply human storytelling you’ll love this book.

Thank you l Netgalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review