I am sad to say this book did not do it for me. I found myself extremely bored and not interested in the story at all. I really didn't like either of the two main characters. They did not grab my attention. I tried really hard to push through this. I'm part of the blog tour for this book but I couldn't do it. Sadly, this book just wasn't for me. I am sure there will be other people out there who enjoy it. It does check a lot of boxes people look for in books.

*Thank you so much to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.*

The Society for Soulless Girls is a novel with plenty of worthwhile ingredients. It has the makings of a dark academia, Gothic feminist work, and features unobscured references to classics in the Gothic literature canon. Yet, in the end, the novel feels somewhat shallow, only lightly brushing its own horror and supernatural elements where it should really have gone full throttle. Far too often Steven pulls back in pacing and plot rather than leaning in and amping up the kitsch and mystery that would fully entice the reader; it is likely that this was an attempt at generating suspense, but it results in the opposite effect. Too many chapters end in the same reiterated statement that essentially amounts to "but you won't believe what happened next!"

Similarly, the female anger angle to the plot that Alice and the mystery storyline brings has a lot of potential to be a really interesting thesis, if only it weren't relegated to only a short paragraph of half-hearted unpacking at the end when the main mystery is finally unraveled. More infuriatingly, the novel ends on a note of "and there were still many things left unexplained," the literary equivalent of a shrug from the author when it comes to the various minor plot elements that served no purpose.

Overall, Steven utilizes a too-light touch, without fully-fledged main characters to prop it up (Lottie's entire personality is "sunshiny," as those in the novel ceaselessly repeat, while Alice's personality is simply "angry girl"). Ultimately, the novel was a watered down version of what it could have been.

**I was provided an electronic ARC from the publisher through NetGalley.**

Actual rating: 3.5

Laura Steven presents The Society for Soulless Girls, a YA dark academia following dual perspectives from students at Carvell Academy of the Arts. Philosophy student Alice is all anger and spiky edges where her assigned roommate, literature student and field hockey player Lottie, is all sunshine and true crime. Lottie is especially fascinated with the history of Carvell. Ten years ago, the school closed after the deaths of four students in rapid succession all in the North Tower. Lottie is determined to find out what really happened to those students and is particularly motivated when there is another North Tower death.

Steven really put together a strong cast of female characters not only in Alice and Lottie, but also in Hafsah, Mordue, and Feathering. In a book where the central theme focused heavily on female rage, Steven managed to keep the characters likeable even when they were doing utterly unlikable things. Steven also managed to balance the supernatural with the more realistically based aspects of this novel. I appreciated the casual queer representation in our main characters as well, particularly in Lottie who originally thought herself to be asexual but might have learned more about herself as she attended Carvell.

Where I had some issues was at the ending where things seemed to come together way too quickly and tidily given the earlier pacing in the book. The resolution was achieved with very little struggle given how much effort had been put forth to overcome obstacles in earlier circumstances.

Ultimately, I would still recommend this book as a fun dark academia for a young adult to adult audience.

I received an advanced copy of this book through netgalley and was SUPER psyched to read it. it took me a little bit to actually get into but once I was in i was IN. it’s marketed as a sapphic enemies-to-lovers dr. jekyll and mr. hyde which is very much true but it was also giving me a lot of yellowjackets at certain points.

i was surprised with how much i liked alice all things considered, like i still don’t get what she’s so mad about but hey. also the character of hafsah was soooo good. not only good autistic representation but just such a treat of a character to read.

i’m taking points off because *SPOILER* i still wanna know what happened with salem the cat like my soul needs resolution/explanation as to what happened with her. and also taking points off because *SPOILER* professor sanderson is still suspicious as fuck and i don’t know how he fits in with anything.

all and all this was a really good read. the message of “let girls be angry” is one i fuck with super heavy and it also had a nice little dash of two of my other favorite tropes (“only one bed” and “sentient inanimate objects”) which i very much appreciated.

This one was unfortunately a DNF for me. The characters and story just did not grip me and it made me loose interest. The character, Alice, I found to be really annoying to read about and neither voice for Alice or Lottie really stood out for me.

Really enjoyed this story! It is my first dark academia read, and WOW am I into this genre. Throughout the story I found myself gasping and running to tell everyone the twists and turns of what I was reading. It was a super enthralling plot and it had a diverse set of characters. This is definitely a book that will go into my personal collection as well as my libraries. Not to mention the book is sapphic!

Content warnings: body horror, animal death, murder, references to suicide and assault

THE SOCIETY FOR SOULLES GIRLS is being promoted as: "a sapphic enemies-to-lovers retelling of Jekyll & Hyde". And while there are definitely a lot of nods to Jekyll & Hyde... the enemies-to-lovers mostly consisted of one protagonist spending 90% of the plot not sure why she felt a type of way whenever she thought about the other protagonist before realizing she was attracted to her. Any romance that does happen is a blink and you'll miss it at the end, if this wasn't being promoted with the enemies-to-lovers trope I would have been fine with this plot point, but this is definitely not a dark academia with a romance in it. With that being said, Steven does a great job of immersing readers in the dark academia trope.

The academic setting is perfect, the mystery and occult aspects are interesting. While I never became invested in Alice and Lottie, I didn't mind them as our protagonists. Even after finishing the novel, I'm still unsure how I feel about the driving force between the supernatural elements stemming from female anger. I think that could have been better developed. Also, the resolution of what was happening at Carvell Academy of the Arts and why fell a little short for me personally, but that's a personal preference in my dark academia.

The pacing is a little inconsistent, and I'm not entirely sure that the payoff is big enough at the end to make getting through the slower parts of the plot worth it. It's an interesting concept though.

Advanced Reader’s Copy provided by NetGalley, Random House Children's, and Delacorte Press in exchange for an honest review.

This story at first for me was slow going and I wasn’t sure what was going to unfold throughout it, but somewhere along the way I had to know what these characters were going to experience next and how things in their lives would shift.

For me personally, I found the romance to be a little too quick; I would’ve liked to see it blossom in a more gradual way but that’s just my preference!

This book was really good. I loved the plot and the character. I just don't think this writing style is for me.

The description of this novel really had me. A dark YA with gothic horror feels, set in a haunted school; I mean what could go wrong? In the beginning, nothing. The first third of the book progressed quickly with detailed development of Lottie and Alice. Even with the povs shifting back and forth the plot was incredibly easy to follow. I found myself devouring the mystery of the school, especially the possibility of the North Tower claiming victims. Ever angry and disturbed Alice and Lottie’s sleepwalking led me to believe I was gearing up for some serious soul/body possession.

But it just didn’t happen! At exactly one-third of the book the plot slows down to a crawl. I found myself skipping through redundancies. Lottie and Alice are incredibly different and yet the reader is led to believe there is a possibility of romantic involvement. I just didn’t feel it…maybe a friendship, but the pull of attraction was definitely missing. Once Alice performs the ritual it picks up again, but the execution of the mystery began to unravel.

Unfortunately, the ending left me feeling unsatisfied and a little angry. I guess I was channeling my inner Alice. There could have been more to pull the elements of the North Tower’s history in with the current Society. I also felt the twist was just so blah.

3.5 stars.

The Society for Soulless Girls was an interesting concept: a dark, gothic, sapphic retelling of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

I enjoyed the paranormal aspect, and the investigation into the mystery. Lottie and Alice were both very distinct and interesting characters, I felt their enemies-to-lovers romance to be very realistic. And man, they felt like enemies. Alice was such a prickly pear.

My issue is with the pacing and the ending. The pacing was a bit slow, but I can overlook and forgive that. But the ending the “reveal” of the mystery was kind of ridiculous. It definitely fed into this “anti-men” rhetoric that I’ve seen in a couple of books recently which is not my jam.

Overall, an enjoyable read with some flaws. Thank you to Delacorte Press for the review copy.

A dark academia retelling of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde? Don’t mind if I do! This was a unique story that was dark and mysterious. Hafsah was by far my favorite character and I love when an author can make a side character pop. This one actually has a lot of romance tropes and it really kept me interested even though I wasn’t looking for romance.

A Society for Soulless Girls is an amazing young adult dark academic book. We are given a dual perspective, Lottie and Alice, throughout the book, along with beautiful descriptions. Usually, I have a hard time visualizing what I am reading, but Laura Steven’s described these dark academic vibes, old buildings and surroundings, right down to the smells and feelings. I felt like I was right there with the main characters, smelling what they were, and feeling what they felt. One of my favourite lines was the description of Lottie’s father sounding like sunshine and honeybees. I did not connect with Lottie as much as I did with Alice. She is introverted and finds love and comfort in libraries.

Laura Steven’s made sure we had really great Sapphic and ace representation. And she did not shy away from some very loved tropes from enemy to lovers with a nice slow burn, grumpy/sunshine, and, of course, the one bed trope.

If you are looking for a beautifully written Jekyll and Hyde retelling containing Sapphic main characters on a dark academic exclusive boarding school back drop, I highly recommend you give A Society for Soulless Girls a go. You will not regret it.

{3.5/5}

CW: animal cruelty, violence, death, suicide, references to assault, some others

Read via NetGalley.

“The real reason they encourage little girls not to fight. So that we won’t know how.”

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde gets a modern, haunted twist in this sapphic murder mystery.
Charlotte, Lottie, obsessed with a 10 year old murder, and haunted by some unknown force that draws her to the site of those deaths.
Alice, full of rage and lashing out at everyone and everything around her.
Someone or something terrorized Carvell’s campus 10 years ago, and it looks like the danger isn’t over yet. Can the girls figure out what’s going on before even more lives are claimed?

A slow start almost rendered this one dead in the water for me, but things rapidly picked up, and it ended up being a pretty good book. Major points lost for graphic (and, really, unnecessary) animal cruelty, though. I almost DNF’d it at that point; I’m not a squeamish sort of person, but it made me sick to my stomach. Putting that significant flaw to the side, the rest of the book was fairly entertaining, and I found it to be an interesting spin on Jekyll and Hyde.

Adding to the Jekyll and Hyde blend, we have a moderate dose of slow burn, grumpy/sunshine romance in a dark academia setting. I was concerned at first that this was going to turn into one of those ‘the real monsters were us all along,’ ‘humanity is the real evil’ type stories, but no! This was a definitively ghost-y, haunted, magic-y type of story, and my unceasing desire for a removal from reality was appeased.

The story is told in a first person dual POV, alternating between Alice and Lottie. The two couldn’t be more different—Alice is full of uncontrolled rage, while Lottie is sunshine incarnate. The two viewpoints provided a nice insight into the workings of the girls’ minds, while also letting the reader see more of the moving parts of the plot. I personally really enjoy dual POV stories, so this was a nice change for a genre where, at least in my experience, it’s usually a limited (and debatably unreliable) singular narrator.

Overall, a decent read. The humor was on point, the mystery and angst were engaging, and the MCs didn’t feel like they’d been reduced to caricatures of their basic personalities. I think a lot of readers will relate to one or both of the girls, and the heaping dose of feminine rage that gradually builds through the latter half of the book is likely to leave said readers spoiling for a fight. The romance wasn’t quite A-list for me, but it didn’t detract overmuch from the story and I like both characters individually. This turned out to be a satisfactorily unnerving read, and I’d definitely check out more of the author’s work in the future.

I really enjoyed the setting of this really old school, it definitely gave the Dark Acedemia vibes. Alice was my favorite, I think she was the most interesting and compelling of our main characters. Lottie was good, I guess I just didn't really understand why she felt the need to go to this school to investigate the murder of a girl from her hometown she didn't even know. I did like the slow burn between Alice and Lottie they went from disdain to a kind of uneasy truce, to friendship, and a little more although I didn't think the story really needed a romance element.
I thought the supernatural elements were great, and once Lottie and Alice started working together to solve their problems the pace of the story really took off and I didn't want to put it down.

A thrilling paranormal mystery about feminine rage.

Lottie is obsessed with the 4 murders that happened at the university 10 years ago. When the school re-opens, she applies, determined to solve the case. Alice is angry at everything, including her sunshine roommate Lottie. When strange things start happening to them both, they have to team up to get to the bottom of it, before someone else dies.

The thing I loved most about this was the pure rage Alice feels, especially about the oppression of women, relegating their anger to madness over the years. Through its supernatural lens, it shows the injustice of it all. Also loved the asexual (demi?) rep in Lottie.

Immerse yourself in a captivating sapphic reimagining of Jekyll & Hyde, set in the 90s and enriched with elements of dark academia, chilling rituals, and mysterious murders. Carvell Academy of Arts, an elite institution, was marred by an unsolved case that claimed four students' lives a decade ago, prompting its closure. A decade later, the school reopens its doors.

Lottie Fitzwilliam embodies pure sunshine, yet her true motive for attending Carvell is to unravel the enigma surrounding the past murders and uncover the truth. Alice Wolfe aspires to focus on her career, but her mounting anger and violent tendencies hold her back. When Alice and Lottie become roommates, their relationship starts on the wrong foot, exacerbated by Alice's near assault at Lottie's birthday party. Despite Lottie's efforts, Alice wants nothing to do with her, and Alice succumbs to her volatile emotions.

The narrative takes a dark turn when Alice stumbles upon a sinister book in the library, offering a ritual to control her anger. She reluctantly attempts the ritual, leading to a new wave of murders. Meanwhile, Lottie experiences unexplained sleepwalking episodes, and mysterious rubies appear embedded in her neck. Both girls grapple with their rapidly deteriorating sanity and must work together to solve the case, all while a relentless killer hunts them down.

While the concept of a sapphic enemies-to-lovers twist on Jekyll and Hyde, set within a backdrop of dark academia, held great promise, the execution left much to be desired. Alice and Lottie's chemistry felt forced, making it challenging to believe in their burgeoning romance. The overall mystery and its resolution fell disappointingly flat, given the story's potential with elements like murder, possession, and secret societies. The plot felt disjointed and cluttered, hindering its overall flow. It's disheartening to see a story with such potential fall short.

If you are a fan of dark academia narratives intertwined with mystery and possession, you might still want to give this book a try. Your mileage may vary, as they say. I really feel this is a case of “Really, it’s not you, it’s me.” Solid 3 of 5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Children's/Delacorte Press for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.
The Society for Soulless Girls will be published on September 19, 2023

I did not realize that The Society for Soulless Girls was a retelling of The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson and now this book makes a bit more sense to me.

Other than that, I'd describe this as a paranormal, opposites attract f/f academic romance.

Alice and Lottie are roommates at Carvell College for the Arts. Lottie is a sunny athlete on scholarship, while philosophy student Alice is a prickly loner.

Everyone at Carvell is aware of the terrible North Tower Murders and happy that hte school is finally opening again.

Lottie and Alice aren't really geting along ... or are they just secretly attracted to one another as they investigate what's going on at Carvell?

I felt that this book was a bit long, but really enjoyed watching the Alice/Lottie relationship play out. The book also deals with female anger (thus and Jekyll and Hyde thing...)

A solid sapphic paranormal romance that I think a lot of teen readers will love!

I LOVED this book. The writing sucked me in from the very first page and didn't let me go. Laura Steven perfectly captured the dark academia vibes in this book. I was completely enthralled in the mystery and the sapphic longing was just the cherry on top. Laura Steven is a new auto-buy author for me!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to review this book.

Carvell is a university that was shut down after the untimely and mysterious deaths of several students. Ten years later, it reopens, and students are back on campus. Roommates Alice and Lottie couldn't be more different, but together they begin to discover dark secrets about the university...secrets that could potentially spell their doom.

This book was okay. It was slow and predictable. The supernatural elements felt shoehorned in and didn't really fit with the rest of the narrative. I wanted more than I got and was left feeling unfulfilled.