Book Club Discussion Questions and Guide for The Hounding by Xenobe Purvis

1. "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?
2. 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?
3. 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?
4. What role does religion play throughout the novel? How would you characterize the different characters' relationship to their own faith?
5. "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?
6. How would you describe the different characters' relationships to alcohol? What role do alcohol and the alehouse play throughout the novel?
7. 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?
8. "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?
9. 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?
10. 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?

Unless otherwise stated, this discussion guide is reprinted with the permission of Henry Holt and Company. Any page references refer to a USA edition of the book, usually the trade paperback version, and may vary in other editions.