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The Hounding
Sep. 10th, 2025 09:51 pmThe Hounding by Xenobe Purvis is set in the 1700s in a small village in Oxfordshire.
It follows five sisters and the consequences when people in the village start bandying about the idea that they can turn into dogs.
It's interesting that we never get the viewpoint of any of the sisters - the POV characters are four different men who are variously connected to the girls, and the wife of the tavern-keeper in the village. So we only see them from the outside, which is obviously a deliberate and clever choice by the author.
The book is a compelling and realistic portrayal of the power of rumour, and how stories change and grow with the telling, especially within small communities.
The exact nature of what does and doesn't happen in the book isn't made entirely clear, but I did like how it set up the reader's expectations at the very beginning and then subverted them by the end.
I'm not sure I can say I fully understood all the different aspects and messages of the book - but it was very well written, engaging throughout and thought-provoking.
It follows five sisters and the consequences when people in the village start bandying about the idea that they can turn into dogs.
It's interesting that we never get the viewpoint of any of the sisters - the POV characters are four different men who are variously connected to the girls, and the wife of the tavern-keeper in the village. So we only see them from the outside, which is obviously a deliberate and clever choice by the author.
The book is a compelling and realistic portrayal of the power of rumour, and how stories change and grow with the telling, especially within small communities.
The exact nature of what does and doesn't happen in the book isn't made entirely clear, but I did like how it set up the reader's expectations at the very beginning and then subverted them by the end.
I'm not sure I can say I fully understood all the different aspects and messages of the book - but it was very well written, engaging throughout and thought-provoking.
