Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

This was such a weird little book, but I love weird and this was my kind of weird.
It’s a story about underwrite and coming to terms with broken trust through lyrical prose and a shocking ending. Loved it.

The Harpy was deliciously dark - I loved it!
I actually went and pre-ordered myself a physical copy to keep on my shelf!

I'm not sure what I was expecting, but this book was not it. It sucked me in and kept me turning the page until the very end.

Lucy is mother to two boys and somewhat frustrated with her situation. Then life becomes more complicated when she discovers her husband is having an affair with a colleague.

Her reaction unsurprisingly is anger coupled with self doubt. But her early fascination with the mythical Harpies determines her response to her husband’s infidelity.

An interesting take on a well worn tale. And beautifully written. Some readers may find the ending too ambiguous or disappointing.

The Harpy is a beautifully written, dark book. The slow burn is slightly at odds with expectations from the blurb, so I can imagine some might be disappointed with the pacing. For me, the writing made up for all trepidations - it's both easy to read, and difficult as I was consistently nervous as to what was coming next.

As a huge fan of The End We Start From, I was excited to read the next book from Megan Hunter. The prose style of her debut novel was quite unique; slices of a dream-like reality made sharper by the impossible situation of the novel. Here, that dream-like slice style was turned towards character which worked slightly less well for me than in the apocalyptic vision of her first novel. The world of this story was quite small; domestic minutiae writ large.

I will definitely read Hunter's next books.

With thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I was quite impressed by this novel which is a dark fairy-tale about adultery. Narrator Lucy is bored, stifled by the responsibilities of motherhood and spending day after day at home tending to the needs of her two boys and her husband, but her dull, steady life is thrown into disarray when she discovers that her husband has been unfaithful. In an attempt to keep their family together, the couple come up with an arrangement: Lucy can have her revenge on adulterous Jake by hurting him three times, in the manner of her choosing.

Italicised interludes told from the perspective of the eponymous harpy that Lucy appears to transform adds to a creeping sense of dread and paranoia and the feeling that, by the time the three acts of revenge have been carried out, something terrible may happen. As each punishment grows harsher, Lucy becomes less contrite. The harpy seems to be taking over her mind as the narration grows more unhinged and fragmented. Indeed, what is most striking about the narrative is how it charts Lucy’s psychological and physical journey towards the realisation of the magnitude of her husband’s betrayal.

The Harpy appears to question the correlation between emotional and physical violence and whether or not one can justify the other. While I like ambiguity in a novel, I did feel that the ending was a little too vague and inconsequential, but that didn’t impede by overall enjoyment. This is a striking portrait of a disintegrating marriage, and possibly a disintegrating mind, which is elevated by being both rooted in the mundanity of the everyday while transcending it with the references to classic mythology.

What a book! It’s been a long time since I’ve related and not related in equal measures to a lead character like this. If that makes any sense? Probably not. Let me explain.

Our narrator, Lucy discovers that her husband, Jake has been having an affair with his colleague and the story is all around her processing this. It also explores motherhood, guilt, anger, obsession and weaves in the imagery and stories of the mythical harpy to wonderfully do this.

Lucy and Jake decide to try and salvage their relationship and reach an unusual pact. Lucy is allowed to hurt Jake three times and then they’re even for his affair – which he swears is now over. She is creative in how she does this; her hurt runs deep and using this method as an outlet is cathartic for her, until it becomes dangerous.

In my intro when I said I related, it was Lucy’s take on motherhood (rather than the affair part) that I found myself whole-heartedly feel: 'A children’s party, like a death, is never real until it is happening. It cannot truly be planned, or imagined. It is always unexpected.'

Lucy has two young sons and this book captures the frustrating yet love-filled paradox of parenting perfectly. Her character is so beautifully constructed that she feels so real and I was so engaged in her story – complete with all its seamless harpy references.

Lucy has a fascination with harpies, so there are lots of versions of the fantastical harpy stories throughout and the imagery is used so effectively to convey Lucy’s thoughts and feelings, all building to the unexpected but perfect climax that had me totally gripped!

The Harpy is exquisitely written, I love Megan Hunter’s tone and her unique story – I fell for it completely. Once I’d finished I just wanted to read it again. It’s been a while since a book has evoked that reaction in me – that’s how good I thought it was.

This books wasn’t quite what I thought it was going to be, but I loved it all the same! This is a engrossing read, that full captures your attention but unnerves you at the same time!

I thought the concept of this was great, using mythology to take a new spin on infidelity. Many, many books talk about husbands having affairs and the wife being this pathetic, sorry for herself character whereas this portrays the cheated wife very strongly and for that i applaud Megan Hunter.

The writing in this is brilliant, and despite only being a short book it evokes all the emotions. A writer I will be keeping an eye out for in the future!

Having thoroughly enjoyed Megan Hunter's debut novel The End We Start From, I requested The Harpy as soon as it appeared on NetGalley. I devoured it ahead of the hardback publication (September 2020), pre-ordered a signed copy and then completely failed to post a review. This novel is so unusual, so extraordinary, so unbelievably brilliant I had no idea where to start. Seven months later and a week after the release of the paperback (May 2021), I've once again sat down in an attempt to capture just how much I loved this book. I can only apologise for 1. the delay in posting my review and 2. my absolute inability to write a review that will do this book justice.

The premise is simple. When Lucy discovers that her husband Jake has been having an affair they decide to stay together on one condition: she is allowed to hurt him three times. There are countless novels that explore infidelity with characters riddled with clichés (the devastated wife and the reprehensible, cheating husband). The Harpy subverts and distorts this narrative, portraying Lucy as both victim and villain. The result is a deliciously dark, incredibly intense and beautifully poetic introspection on female rage, malice, motherhood and revenge. The story examines what it means to love and what it means to forgive, and whether either are possible after an act of betrayal. The narrative is actively wild and chaotic, and yet Megan Hunter is in complete control. Not a word is wasted, each deliberate and concise. She captures both the mundane and the madness of life, not an easy feat but she makes it look effortless.

Unsettling and disturbing, surreal and sinister, atmospheric and absorbing, raw and visceral - I could go on!

A huge thank you to the Picador team and NetGalley for the ARC.

From the blurb, we know that Lucy’s life is turned upside down when a man calls and tells her that his wife has been having an affair with Lucy’s husband, Jake. 

Lucy and Jake decide to stay together, but come to an arrangement that will allow Lucy to hurt him three times. Jake won’t know when the hurt is coming or what exactly it will be. Lucy is determined to make the punishments fit the crime. 

Told from Lucy’s point of view, we see her drawn more and more to the myth of the harpy. In her hunt for revenge, she is forced to confront things about herself that she would rather continue to ignore. Ignoring things is easier. Yet here she is, planning to deliberately hurt her husband. 

The Harpy is a strange and wondrous fairy tale that seamlessly blends the domestic with the otherworldly. It is dark. It is unsettling. It is full of rage. It is surreal. It is unputdownable. 

At just over 200 pages, Megan Hunter has packed a lot into The Harpy. Yet none of it feels rushed. Hunter has written a compelling and immersive story about love, marriage, betrayal, revenge, womanhood, and motherhood.

I quite enjoyed this but it was certainly an unusual read. It's fairly short, but as the book is very much the main character Lucy's thoughts you still feel like you really get to know her. I did really enjoy the writing style, it felt very intimate. My main problem with it though was it felt like not much really happened up until the end and I really didn't know how to interpret the ending! I also felt like we didn't get Jake's point of view on anything really, we don't get much of a conversation between the two of them at all which felt strange to me. For a short, intense and slightly weird read I would recommend!

An interesting read that I'm glad to have discovered. I'll definitely be seeking out more by this author.

I found this book tough. I picked it up as I fancied something short but don’t be fooled. It may not be long, yet it packs an emotional punch! I liked the string female lead and the sharp prose. As a mood reader, I’m not sure I was in the right frame of mind for this one. It’s dark and unsettling, and with an open ending, that left me with a lot to think about.

I received a copy of the book from Netgalley to review. Thank you for the opportunity.
An interesting premise behind this story with plenty of dark and twisted drama. The writing is unusual and it took a while for me to get used to to ebb and flow of it.
An OK book.

Really enjoyed this. I wasn’t sure off the blurb, but actually it was a really dark tale of love and revenge. Plenty of revenge. A great read.

Beautifully written, very enjoyable book. Had been wanting to read this for a while and it didn't disappoint! Would definitely recommend if you're looking for something totally out of the ordinary. All of the stars from me!

Megan Hunter’s first novel, The End We Start From, was one of the most distinct debuts of recent years. A unique mix of the dystopian and the domestic, it was a story of motherhood recounted in short, staccato, haiku-tinged paragraphs.
The Harpy is impressively different again, telling the arresting tale of a marriage in the aftermath of an affair. Lucy’s reaction to her husband’s infidelity is distinct and definite. At her suggestion, he agrees that she will hurt him three times to balance out what he has done. But as each instance of revenge gets darker, rather than restoring the marriage, it sets Lucy off on her own journey of transformation.
The Harpy is a compelling mix of half relationship novel, half gothic fairy-tale. The domestic world is acutely drawn, with razor-sharp observations of bringing up children and the challenges of marriage. But it is with the interweaving of the lyrical and unsettling that, like the mythological creature of the title, is where this book really takes flight.

(Living Magazines, September 2020)

An interesting concept, but one that is too unoriginal and underdeveloped to be truly interesting. It's more of a short story, but expanded to fill a (still short) novel.

I really enjoyed this novel. Told in a style of hindsight, we experience the story entirely from Lucy’s perspective, in such an intimate way, it's almost as though we are inside Lucy, experiencing her pain, her anger, her insight, her self-doubt, and her self-loathing. I liked Lucy a lot, I understood her, the way in which she had given up her individual existence for motherhood and home-making, putting her own work last, her own needs to the bottom of the list. She did this without resentment, without self-pity; this I could understand as well.

When she finds out her husband is having an affair, lying to her about breaking it off, and then subsequently inferring that she has brought it onto herself, a dormant part of her character uncoils. The Harpy begins to rise within. A mythological creature that has long fascinated her since childhood, the Harpy taunts Lucy as she begins to unravel the mess her life has rapidly become. A repressed anger moves within her and she is motivated to hurt her husband as a form of reparation. He agrees, somewhat patronisingly, in my opinion.

I enjoyed this tale of revenge, and yes, I will admit it, I feel he got what he deserved in every instance. I have no time or sympathy for cheaters, so this story appealed to me instinctively. Lucy’s introspection of how her past may have shaped her present is broken up with passages about the Harpy: memories, facts, musings, until eventually, within herself, Lucy becomes the Harpy. The ending was surrealistic; open to interpretation. I would have preferred something more concrete and assured, although I certainly understood where the author was coming from: the illusion of an untethering, a ceremonial letting go, a reckoning between Lucy's past, present, and her future.

I love the way in which Megan Hunter writes; her narrative is warmly intimate, engaging and immersive. I read this novel rather quickly without even realising I was doing so; the best kind of fiction. I'll definitely be reading more of her work.



Thanks is extended to Pan Macmillan Australia for providing me with a copy of The Harpy for review.