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A review by nina_reads_books
The Furies by Mandy Beaumont
3.0
“What is the collective noun for a group of men like this - a terror, a calamity, a butchery? A butchery.”
The Furies is the debut novel of Mandy Beaumont. The story focuses on sixteen year old Cynthia who lives on her family’s isolated property and one day watches as her mother is taken away by police after an unthinkable act. Her father walks out three months later and never returns. A few years later an increasingly isolated Cynthia is working at the same abattoir as her father used to, looking for signs of her sister Mallory and being subjected to some pretty horrific experiences.
The writing is rich with the desperation of Cynthia. The stilted stop start way of expression gives life to Cynthia's thoughts. The author has given her a depressingly awful life, and yet the writing and descriptions are also sort of beautiful?
The book stunned me. The blurb kind of hints this is a thriller, but it's much more a literary piece that aims to highlight women and their traumatic experiences at the hands of men. The experience is unrelenting. A story of collective grieving. Brutal. Exhausting. So I have to flag some massive trigger warnings here – just about every one you can imagine.
Given what I have just said I’m not sure how I feel about this book overall. I did absolutely appreciate the writing. The author uses a technique throughout much of the book, ending a sentence with an “and” or “of” followed by a full stop instead of running on the sentence. This had an interesting effect on the flow, but I’m not sure I understood why it was used? In addition the brutality Cynthia experiences leaves you feeling without hope and I'm not sure the payoff was worth it.
Thanks so much to @hachetteaus for my #gifted copy.
The Furies is the debut novel of Mandy Beaumont. The story focuses on sixteen year old Cynthia who lives on her family’s isolated property and one day watches as her mother is taken away by police after an unthinkable act. Her father walks out three months later and never returns. A few years later an increasingly isolated Cynthia is working at the same abattoir as her father used to, looking for signs of her sister Mallory and being subjected to some pretty horrific experiences.
The writing is rich with the desperation of Cynthia. The stilted stop start way of expression gives life to Cynthia's thoughts. The author has given her a depressingly awful life, and yet the writing and descriptions are also sort of beautiful?
The book stunned me. The blurb kind of hints this is a thriller, but it's much more a literary piece that aims to highlight women and their traumatic experiences at the hands of men. The experience is unrelenting. A story of collective grieving. Brutal. Exhausting. So I have to flag some massive trigger warnings here – just about every one you can imagine.
Given what I have just said I’m not sure how I feel about this book overall. I did absolutely appreciate the writing. The author uses a technique throughout much of the book, ending a sentence with an “and” or “of” followed by a full stop instead of running on the sentence. This had an interesting effect on the flow, but I’m not sure I understood why it was used? In addition the brutality Cynthia experiences leaves you feeling without hope and I'm not sure the payoff was worth it.
Thanks so much to @hachetteaus for my #gifted copy.