I loved The End We Start From so much and was keen to read this new one from Megan Hunter, albeit a little apprehensive that it wouldn't live up TEWSF. I had absolutely no need to worry because this novel is really wonderful. It's got so much of the author's unique style which is somehow simultaneously detached and extremely visceral, and there was even more emotion and conflict infused into the plot.

Another spellbinding read from Megan Hunter! The Harpy is about love and revenge, about crime and punishment, about destruction and self-destruction. It is about a woman who finds out her husband has been unfaithful to her but to simply describe it this way feels too pedestrian. It is a gorgeous kaleidascope of myth, domestic noir, feminism & poetry. It defies categorisation - just read it!

I found this book creepy and disturbing & I didn't really enjoy it because it's not my usual type of read. It is very well written but I was dreading what was going to be happening on the next page that I read right up to the end. A very good read if you like a disturbing and unsetting plot but unfortunately not for me.

The Harpy by Megan Hunter is a rumination on womanhood, broken marriages, and mundanity of domesticity with a dollop of rage, revenge and magical realism. Lucy, a thirty-something woman, who has placed her intellectual pursuits aside and is "happily" married to her college sweetheart, Jake. They have a son and live a supposedly pleasant life. As the story progresses we see her increased obsession with the myth of harpies. Lucy's world, however, comes crashing down when she finds out about her husband's affair with an older colleague, spending her days in a rage filled fug. She craves revenge and makes a disturing pact with Jake- to hurt him three times and they'll be even. As disturbing and unsettling as that sounds, it's during these dark moments that The Harpy soars. T

It's a,dark and gritty read that could have worked much better as a short story.

Thank you Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for the advance copy, which was provided in exchange for an honest review.

A strange book, gripping and gothic, and left me thinking about it for weeks afterwards. I was expecting more from the end though, after a long slow build up.

I very much enjoyed this book. It has a good story and excellent main characters. I would definately recommend this book.

This frankly stunning book, begins like many women’s normal, everyday evenings: getting the children ready for bed on their own, waiting for their husband to get in from their commute.

Lucy enjoys her alone time think, and enjoys the time she spends with her children. She works from home since having had the children. She had a good job, had even started to study for a PhD at one point, and she appears to be happy with her life as it is. Until an unexpected phone call one evening. Jake, her husband, is late home from work, and the stranger on the phone tells Lucy that her husband is having an affair with his wife. Lucy is stunned. Jake is full of remorse when she tells him, and he tells her that she can punish him three times - as long as they stay together.

This book looks at how punishment skirts very closely to revenge, and the effect that it can have on your own sanity. It uses mythology and the myth of the Harpy, to exact that revenge. As time progresses and Lucy becomes more embroiled in her Harpy-like acts of revenge, there are excerpts that seem to come from a Harpy’s point of view. I liked these parts. They seemed to revel in the feelings of vengeance, something that all ‘nice’ girls are taught not to do. Instead of turning the other cheek, Lucy goes for full-on retribution.

I thoroughly enjoyed this. It’s a short, totally absorbing read, and is the second book I’ve read and enjoyed by Megan Hunter. I’m looking forward to whatever comes next!

A poetic and unsettling story of a woman’s response to infidelity. She and her husband agree she will hurt him three times in response for his betrayal, but as she chooses her punishments, the edges of the narrator’s reality seem to shift and blur.

My thanks to Pan Macmillan for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘The Harpy’ by Megan Hunter in exchange for an honest review.

The basic premise of this novel is quite a standard one for domestic dramas: a woman discovers that her husband is having an affair. However, Hunter’s lyrical prose and her integration of mythic and surreal elements elevates it as does the unusual route the couple takes once the affair is revealed.

Lucy works from home devoting her life primarily to her children and the house itself. Then one afternoon a man calls with the shattering message that his wife has been having an affair with Lucy’s husband, Jake. She confronts Jake and he declares that he will break it off with his colleague. They agree to stay together, yet also make an arrangement to allow Lucy to even the score. Lucy can hurt him three times, though Jake won’t know when it is coming or the form that it will take.

This game of crime and punishment is complicated by Lucy’s increasing obsession with the Harpy, the mythic creature that she knows from the classical texts she once studied. She begins to feels that she is slowly transforming.

Not knowing when or what form a punishment will take is torturous for Jake, though I couldn’t help but be reminded of the long-running Slap Bet from the comedy ‘How I Met Your Mother’. Still, this isn’t a comedy.

The layout of the print edition was interesting and furthered the sense of its mixture of standard and poetic prose. I was able to borrow its audiobook edition from our local online library, read by Clare Corbett, and combined reading and listening. Hearing ‘The Harpy’ read aloud further highlighted the beauty of Megan Hunter’s writing.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

I've had some difficulty writing this review, despite having finished reading a few weeks ago. Perhaps this is because my own feelings towards the subject matter are difficult to unravel.

I can't help feeling that Megan Hunter *knows* what it feels like to be the victim of infidelity: the twisting of the insides, a change of self-perception and perception of a partner which is thrust upon you, how nothing is the same once you know. The language is absolutely beautiful, heartbreaking in it's depiction of the breakdown of a marriage which means we simply can't look away from the page. It is a short book, easily read in a long afternoon and interspersed with a sense of dark magic as the narrator hearkens back to her more youthful interests of the Harpy in Greek Mythology and her feelings of transformation into a cruel, mythical being.

Unfortunately, I felt a little let down by the ending. The last 20% or so took a steeply dramatic turn which ended in a dream-like sequence which I found difficult to blend with what had come before. It felt jarring and "unlikely", which may well have been the deliberate intention, though it left me feeling robbed of what could have been a perfect book. I'll round up my rating to 4 stars, though my realistic rating is 3.5. I wish I could have given it more.

This is a deep exploration of marriage and the lengths a couple may go to to ensure its survival. When Jake has an affair, the couple agree that Lucy can hurt him three times to make things fair, even or right. Lucy's first choice of punishment is cruel and unpleasant for Jake, but her subsequent actions cause long-lasting and catastrophic pain for both of them.

This dark novel explores places that many authors do not dare to venture to. Hunter reaches into the most hidden aspects of a relationship to show how far two people might go to hurt each other, whilst trying to save themselves. I was gripped but this novel from the first page.

I really liked this story overall. The plot was interesting and had some interesting discussion points in this. The way that Lucy behaved was interesting, it was grounded yet it seemed to have these believable spikes of drama that did not seem out of place in this world. Overall this was a dramatic and slow-burning contemporary. This is one i would definitely recommend.

I absolutely adored this book!
It's a lyrical novel about adultery, and an original recount of how that would happen and be "solved" during marriage.
It's short but poignant, a fast read that's hard to put down.

Revenge is the name of the game in this complex study of interpersonal relationships. The story of a scorned woman inflicting pain like no other on her spouse is to be expected, but the repercussions are not... Highly recommended!

When Lucy finds out her husband Jake has been having an affair with an older colleague, they agree that she can hurt him three times. He won’t know how these acts of revenge will happen or when they will take place.

What follows is a chilling exploration of the dark side of family life and alienation. As Lucy’s state of mind deteriorates and her obsession with the mythical harpies increases, I wondered just how far she would go in her quest for revenge.

The prose is lyrical and the observations of modern domestic life are perfectly perceived.

This book reads like a thriller but it’s so much more than that. It refuses to be defined as a specific genre and this makes it all the more interesting. It really worked for me and I read it very quickly and found it difficult to put down.

A brilliant second novel and I’m eager to read what Megan Hunter writes next.

The Harpy by Megan Hunter is a pretty short book at just 256 pages but, whoa does it pack a punch! It’s dark, tense and unsettling, and wholly compelling. Some parts I found shocked me, some were disturbing, and the way a mythical element was threaded through the novel was unlike anything I’ve ever read before. It’s an extraordinary piece of writing.

The story centres around husband and wife Lucy and Jake. Mum of 2, Lucy, works from home and shoulders the majority of the domestic burden. One day she receives a phone call from a man claiming that his wife has been having an affair with Jake, shattering Lucy’s world and unleashing a darker side of her character; one which she has managed to keep largely suppressed until this point in her life.

As Lucy tries to hold it together and decide how to move forward, she and Jake come to an agreement whereby she is allowed to hurt him 3 times in any way that she likes and without warning. There are some real “read it through your fingers” moments as she makes him atone for his misdemeanours, in more dramatic ways than I could ever have imagined. Her feelings of resentment, hunger for revenge and a sense that she’s edging towards a huge transformation make for a fascinating and thought-provoking read.

While I think “enjoyed” is possibly the wrong word to describe how I felt about The Harpy, I read it in just 2 sittings and I thought it was a great, well-crafted, beautifully written and evocative novel. I think it would make for an excellent book club selection as there is so much that I wanted to discuss with someone!

With thanks to the publisher for gifting me a digital review copy.

I loved this. This reads like a modern tale - I liked the passages about the harpy - and it was incredibly moving. It made me anxious to think of what she would do next and I read it very quickly - maybe too quickly - because it was so gripping. It is beautifully written. The characters are mostly kept at a distance except for the narrator, you feel her rage and her disbelief through the pages. It was beautiful and poetic.

Well this was a delight - clear, concise prose that gives way to a surreal ending.

I'm going to assume that some Yellow Wallpaper comparisons have been made.

I didn't think I'd really like this because the blurb made it seem a bit more pulpy thriller rather than what it is - a dense diatribe on the world as it sees women, mothers, childhood trauma, a cheating husband and the suburban dream.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

From the moment I first read the blurb for "The Harpy" on NetGalley, I was intrigued. I love contemporary fiction that incorporates an element of magical realism, and I have long been fascinated by Greek mythology, particularly the female figures who were often seen as dark, troubling and vengeful - Medusa, the harpies, the sirens, etc.

The novel centres on Lucy, who has received a phone call informing her that her husband Jake has been cheating on her with his glamorous older colleague, Vanessa. For the sake of their sons, Lucy and Jake come to a strange arrangement - they will stay together, but Lucy can enact a form of revenge on Jake three times, and he won't know how she'll hurt him or when it's coming. But living this way starts to take a dark toll on Lucy, and she finds herself pushed to the limits of her own sanity...

I loved how The Harpy is, on the surface, a simple tale of revenge, but how it actually explores so much more than that - female empowerment and disempowerment, the challenges of motherhood and marriage, the consequences of infidelity, and the dark implications of what we each are capable of in order to feel in control.

There was nothing about this book that I didn't like. I found myself getting more and more drawn in the further in I got, and I absolutely hated having to put it down to make a meal or go to bed! The prose is dazzling, the characters are complex and beautifully drawn, and I loved the harpy element, which lifted this into something intricate and timeless. Love, love, loved it - it's going straight onto my Christmas gift list for all my reader-friends. I am already looking forward to rereading this myself - I think it will be one of those novels that provides so much more with each reread. A fabulous book, and a very gifted writer - I can't wait to read more from Megan Hunter!

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher, who provided me with a free advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A novel which absolutely lives up to all the hype - this has left me stunned.
Lucy has given everything to her husband Jake - she gave up any chance of a career to raise their children and look after the home as she thinks a good wife should. So when she finds out Jake has been having an affair with an older colleague, it opens up a darkness within her that she had tried to keep at bay, her dark obsession with the Harpy, a bird with a woman’s face who enjoys torturing her prey. Lucy agrees to stay in their marriage if she can hurt Jake, a total of three times, however she wishes and without any warning. But who will be the monster at the end?
Let me begin by saying that the writing is as beautiful as that cover - simple but almost lyrical, so rhythmic that I felt like the book had cast a spell on me. This is a fairly short novel, and for that I was grateful as I wanted to swallow it all in one gulp. There is so much to love about this book - the blurred lines between right and wrong, the way the blame and disgust seesaws between Jake and Lucy until you believe they will devour each other if they stay married. The absolutely spot on insights into the mundanity of raising children and running a household. The reminder that even if you can pretend nothing has happened, neighbours and friends will be there to remind and judge you.
This story is an absolute work of art - chilling and dark, and Hunter cleverly leaves the ending open to our own twisted imaginations. Hunter is a revelation to me -brilliant.