The Hounding

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.

These book club questions are from the publisher, Henry Holt & Co.

Book club questions for The Hounding by Xenobe Purvis

Use these discussion questions to guide your next book club meeting.

"The fierce one, the pretty one, the tomboy, the nervous one, the youngest.” Consistently, the Mansfield sisters are differentiated from one another along these lines. What do these descriptions say about the people who are describing the girls? After reading the novel, how would you describe Anne, Elizabeth, Hester, Grace, and Mary?

Summer in Little Nettlebed is referred to as “the season of strangeness.” Apart from the rumors about the Mansfield sisters, what strange events occur in the village over the course of the novel? Why do you think the summer is so strange?

We hear about the Mansfield sisters from the perspectives of many different men—Pete Darling, Thomas Mildmay, Robin Wildgoose, and Joseph Mansfield—over the course of the novel. How do these men’s perspective on the sisters differ? How about their perspectives on girls and women, more generally? How do these perceptions shift, if they do, over the course of the novel?

What role does religion play throughout the novel? How would you characterize the different characters’ relationship to their own faith?

“Temperance had heard things about her; she heard things about everyone. Gossip spread like mould in the alehouse’s dank corners.” Much of the story’s trajectory is shaped by the spreading of rumors. What motivated the townspeople to gossip about one another?

How would you describe the different characters’ relationships to alcohol? What role do alcohol and the alehouse play throughout the novel?

Throughout the novel, we hear extensively about the Mansfield sisters, without ever hearing from their perspective. Why do you think the author made this choice? What would hearing from the girls have added to the story? What would it have taken away?

“Every time he returned to the memory of that evening—a memory so entrenched that he sometimes forgot how freshly minted it was, no more than a week old—he discovered something new, horrible details previously unseen.” Pete is aware that his memory of witnessing the Mansfield sisters turning into dogs is morphing over time. Why does he keep “remembering” new details about the event? Why is he so confident in his recollection?

Richard is constantly being pulled between two guiding forces, Robin and Pete. What makes him so susceptible to Pete’s influence? How would you describe the fundamental difference between Robin and Pete’s ideologies?

The Hounding is set in 18th-century England, in the wake of the witch trials that resulted in the deaths of many women. In what ways does this historical context shape the events of the novel? How might the events of the novel be different if it were set in contemporary times? How might they be the same?

The Hounding Book Club Questions PDF

Click here for a printable PDF of the The Hounding discussion questions

One of the Los Angeles Times Must-Read Books of Summer 2025
One of Harper’s Bazaar’s “Best Beach Reads to Keep You Occupied All Summer Long”
Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2025 by NPR, Time, LitHub, Paste, and PopVerse

“What takes this novel past conceit to commentary lies in its exploration of interiority among all of the characters, not simply the suspected women, but those who observe, accuse and fear. When a community cannot explain misfortune, who suffers? Purvis makes a clever but careful case for combining the Gothic with the paranormal.” —Los Angeles Times

“Just as with the white-hot internet theories of today, some people are more resistant than others to fantasies. A taut, tense tale, impeccably told.” —Financial Times

“This is an extraordinary debut, clever, strange and beautifully written.” —The Times (London)

“You had me at ‘The Crucible meets The Virgin Suicides.’ Add, perhaps, ‘meets Nightbitch,’ considering the main complaint that the residents of Little Nettlebed have about the Mansfield sisters is that they are maybe, probably, definitely turning into dogs. I’m game.” —LitHub

“With hints of superstition akin to Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” and the puritanical overtones of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Purvis’s The Hounding taps into universal themes of fear, violence, lust, and also empathy.” —Shelf Awareness

“The Hounding is a debut novel bound to be a cult classic. It’s a tale set centuries ago that throbs with a bloody, living heart. It’s a jewel dug from the depths of Xenobe Purvis’s imagination. It’s exquisite.” —Julia Phillips, author of Bear

“Five unusual sisters set a village on edge in this haunting tale of a bewitching madness set in 1700 England. Are the girls a true danger to their neighbors? Will rumor alone put them on the path to destruction? This chilling story can be read as a parable of female empowerment or as a tale of feverish bedevilment overtaking an entire town. Xenobe Purvis has written a book so masterful, you will not be able to look away.” —Laurie Lico Albanese, author of Hester

“The Hounding is a lush and atmospheric warning of the dangers of individuality for girls indifferent to the gaze of others. Every word in this spare, sharp novel cuts and implicates the small-minded townsfolk who chase rumors like wild dogs chase prey. A virtuosic debut from a brilliantly keen mind and eye. Certainly, Xenobe Purvis shares a bloodline with Shirley Jackson.” —Diane Cook, author of The New Wilderness

“A gorgeous, lush landscape of a book—and a haunting tale of the strangeness of girlhood. Our view of the Mansfield sisters flickers like sunlight through trees, always partially obscured, always brilliant. This novel is tender, witty, and terrifying, and I loved it.” —Clare Beams, author of The Garden