Such a cool book with a lot of interesting characters and a really good plot. The pacing of everything was a bit slow, and I was kinda disappointed that the central society ( referred to in the title) didn't really make its big appearance until much later. There were a lot of things to enjoy in this, but it did have a few hiccups for me that kept me from loving it.. The mystery going on in this is intriguing and definitely kept me invested. That as well as the vibes of this book were really the stars for me.. I also have to comment Laura Steven for writing such an atmospheric book. I love dark academia settings/aesthetics so it was a real treat to have this book. This was a decent sized book but I felt like not a ton happened to say how long it is? Idk it was missing something for me, but I did enjoy a lot so, overall, not bad. I hope to read more from this author in the future!

This was tough. I tried so hard to like this! The Society for Soulless Girls started out great!
Girls headed off to school, murder mystery, haunted school setting...all a recipe for greatness!!!

Unfortunately the book just fizzled out. It basically was two angry girls that end up loving each other and it just doesnt work for me. It seemed like there was less of a focus on the murders and shifted more towards the "love" story. It just turned into a dud for me. I wanted to like it so much!

Thank you to NetGalley and Random Children's House for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This book had high highs and uncomfortable lows. Some of the relationships and dynamics did not ring as authentic for me, it was awkward and forced and took me out of the story. The wrap-up, in the end, was fast and almost too tied in a bow. Awkward is the main word I have for it. There were some fantastic choices too. The idea and basic story are fascinating. Some of the character choices were so good. The characters when alone were interesting and mostly seemed like real people and many of the interactions seemed believable. But some of them just seemed forced and uncomfortable. Alice's inner thoughts were weird at times and unrealistic. And the interactions with Lottie were weird at times. The ending declaration felt forced and weird. I overall loved it, but the awkwardness just stands out.

Initially, I was very intrigued by this concept. I saw a sapphic dark academia story and thought that sounded amazing. When I went on Goodreads to read more about the blurb and the vibes, I also saw the author's post with a cute little pitch about the book, and I got even more excited.

The beginning of this book was so intriguing to me. I absolutely adored the vibes and the mood. I think the dark academia aesthetic really shines through the prose. However, as the story went on, I found myself thinking that the plot was unraveling and losing its vigor. So many threads got loose and never got fixed.

From the author's little pitch on Goodreads, I had assumed this story was set in the 90s. So imagine my surprise when the characters all had phones and another was playing with their Nintendo Switch. I have no issue with the story set in our modern time, it's just that it creates a plot hole—why couldn't they just Google so many of their issues if they had access to the internet? Moreover, why did they even insist on using fountain pens and inks for writing when they could just have a pencil, a ball-point pen, or even their own laptop or tablets? (I get it... the aesthetic. But it just doesn't make sense given the time period).

The main thing about this story is the soul-splitting ritual that Alice took. This is where the Jekyll and Hyde retelling comes into place. Full disclosure, I am not knowledgeable enough about this topic, so I will be as careful as I can when talking about this, but I was concerned over whether the fact that they needed blood for this ritual might have certain undertones... Again, I don't know enough about this topic, but I was wary from the moment I read about it.

I was also confused by the sudden shift for the soul-splitting ritual because the book began focused more on Janie's death. Lottie had been so insistent on figuring out what caused her death because she didn't believe it a suicide. And then suddenly it all shifted toward Alice and Hafsah after the whole ritual came into the plot. I get that they intertwined, but there wasn't enough development (in my opinion) to show more of Lottie's initial motivations (and if they were strong enough in the first place) about why she was at Carvell to begin with.

Despite all my little confusions, I was still very intrigued where the story was going. This mystery felt so tangled, and I was wondering how it go down in the end. But then...it all fell so flat. I was expecting so much tension given the gravity of the plot—these girls struggling with their violence, Lottie and those rubies, discovering the Society—and then, it all came down to like one scene and then it was over? I think the fact that most of the resolution was told rather than shown was what made it feel so flat. (And I'm a person who believes show AND tell is the way).

On the bright side, I did love Lottie and Alice together. That was the highlight of the entire book for me. I loved their bickering and how they slowly, so so slowly came to terms with their feelings. (Also I was literally Hafsah just smirking whenever they did something cute).

If you want to read a book based solely on the vibes and maybe be intrigued over a murder mystery case with a side of a soul-splitting ritual, then by all means this may be the book for you. The vibes are certainly THERE

This is quite the book to unpack. Dark academia novels feel like they should be a home run. When you have girls leaping to their death, girls with uncontrollable anger, casting rituals to control that anger, it all sounds so perfect. But alas, the execution made the book crawl.

The Lottie and Alice as enemies angle felt forced. There was no reason for them not to like each other. Lottie is unnecessarily keeping secrets. Alice is naturally standoffish, but it doesn’t explain her being downright mean for the sake of being mean. The element of enemies to lovers just didn’t fit because if you blink, you’ll miss the “romance.”

I would have liked an update on Renner because this story would not have happened without him. The plot is ambitious, but it feels like the author was spread too thin to dig deeper into key elements of the story. If a college closed for a decade because many people were leaping from or dying near a tower, why would you reopen with it still standing? Why weren’t parents demanding they tear the tower down?

However, if you look at the book on the surface, it’s a good read. Some of the ritual elements and what happened because of the ongoing anger were fun. The unfolding mystery was the draw for me. If you go into this not expecting any romantic or thriller aspects, then you’ll enjoy this more.

Thank you, Random House Children’s/Delacorte, for the advanced copy.

A sapphic Jekyll & Hyde with a dark academia setting? SIGN. ME. UP.

Ten years ago, four students lost their lives in the North Tower murders at Carvell Academy which forced them to close their doors. Now, Carvell is reopening and Lottie is determined to find out what really happened. After her beautiful but no-so-nice roommate Alice finds a sinister ritual in the library, North Tower claims another student. Is there a killer walking among them or worse is it inside them?

I thought this book was very intriguing! I’ve seen a bunch of mixed reviews so I was a little nervous diving into this book. But I overall enjoyed it. It definitely had some darker elements to it which I loved and the setting was perfect! There is a graphic scene with involves an animal so beware of that.

If you love f/f enemies to lovers, sinister school setting and murder mystery then i highly recommend putting this one on your spooky season tbr!

This been had already been released BUT the US edition will be coming out on September 19th so make sure to grab a copy!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Delacorte Press for the review copy!

The writing in this is just remarkable. The characters were interesting and emotion provoking, and the storyline you can't go wrong. They had me at dark academia and delivered fully and I am going to add a physical copy to my collection as soon as possible

The Society for Soulless Girls by Laura Steven
Reading this book certainly was an experience, I am still unsure if I could count it as an enjoyable one. From the start of the book, it was hard to read Alice and Lottie, so much of their relationship and interactions felt awkward and thrown together. Both were insufferable and projecting so much onto each other without actually doing much communication. Beyond the characters the plot was confusing and also felt rushed, going from 0% to 25%, it seems like so much as occurred but the author didn’t articulate it well. With the authors writing and presentation of the story, it feels like they are trying to fit a theme of metaphors to the characters and mixing up their traits while adding on a bunch of details.

All of this negative stuff doesn’t erase the fact that there is a good story here, the author just didn’t flesh it out well.

This book has an audience of teenage angsty girls, who don’t want to face the words that actually go through their head when they say nasty things, and want to explore the “duality of man” but still have a shallow understanding in what that means.

The description is a little harsh, but what I mean is this book is a stepping stone in someone starting to understand themselves.

Alice is the type of anxious person who lashes out at people. But instead of really exploring the anxieties of a person who thinks like that. There’s descriptions of her just word vomiting without control, and like the thoughts aren’t even hers. Look, I get saying something rude, and then losing control of the conversation because either you don’t emote what you’re saying correctly, or saying something and then doubling down on it even as you know you should apologize or at least make a joke but you’re anxiety let you because in that moment you just really need to say this thing you really shouldn’t. But I don’t under Alice’s inability to stop saying what she’s saying and saying cruel things not even on her mind. This is a little better in places, like when she’s cruel in order to get someone to back off, and she feels bad but also she needed space and the person wouldn’t leave her alone, so she made it clear she didn’t want their company, but making it so they never want her company ever again. But overall, I think this book lost a lot of ability to really represent and talk about that sort of anxiety in order to make Alice seem like a nice person after all.

Lottie was just weird. At a point, like with the rosery, that she’s going to wonder about the supernatural. But the moment she sees the tower, she thinks “this is an evil building” and her concentration on who the murderer is stuck on a place instead of a person.

That is weird.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this advanced copy.
This was not the book for me. I kept getting confused between Lottie and Alice as their voices did not seem distinct enough for me. I liked the premise of this book and the idea of this book, it just fell a little flat for me.

I loved the premise, and the blurb and that was it. This is written in such a Gen Z way, that this old bird couldn't get into it. I stopped at 25% and just decided there was way better things out there for me.
Tha k you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

A Dark Academia retelling of the Jekyll and Hyde story that also name-checks The Picture of Dorian Grey, my favorite book ever? Yes, please. I was not disappointed. From the beginning, the oppressive atmosphere of Carvell Academy permeates everything and only grows. The school is so well described that, by the end, the grounds felt familiar. Did I mention that it used to be a convent where the nuns may have been possessed by the devil? The plot is consistently suspenseful, even if the ending felt a little rushed. But it was the characters that made me care. Lottie is a sweet, optimistic athlete and, even if I tend to dislike those types in real life, I found her adorable. Alice is an unlikable goth, who is rude and borderline psychopathic, but I was still rooting for her. The supporting characters were mostly OK, except for the villain, who seemed a little cartoonish. The story is very suspenseful, twisty and full of powerful images (I will never see rubies the same way again). Enjoyable and entertaining.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, #NetGalley/#Random House Children's, Delacorte Press!

I liked the setting, the conversations, the characters, the symbolism, the representation and it was darker than I expected. However, it took 60% of the book to get to the point. I wish that the society was introduced earlier & was discussed more. I was mostly confused the entire first half because the pacing was off. I also think the "in love" between Lottie & Alice was a stretch.

Wow I was not expecting this to be different then what it is. What I mean by that is I thought okay so its like Pretty Little liars with some Big Little lies mixed in. I got that and more with this book. It's more of a how they treat women, young females in general as a whole in society. And that dates back to forever ago really. The girls stumble upon not just Murders and trying to solve them, but how they have anger issues. And are basically taught its not right for females to have this anger. There must be something wrong with us and we must be controlled by a man. Cause they know what's best for us.
This book is told from two points of views. From Alice who is always angry about something and generally isn't very nice to anyone especially to her roommate Lottie. But then since everyone seems to be consumed with trying to find out about the north tower Murders at this school, it becomes just that and more. Alice thinks Lottie looks down at her because she is a jock and beautiful. Where as Lottie thinks Alice is just determined to be angry and hate her because she is a jock and thinks maybe she isn't smart enough to be at this college.
When Alicd stumbles upon a book that can help get rid of her anger problem by doing a ritual she does it.
But it only last for so long before she finds another student does it and they need to always do this to subdue the violent anger they get.
It goes a lot deeper of what all three go to, to figure everything out.
Pick this book up. It was very enjoyable.

3.5 stars rounded up for Goodreads.

This book is for anyone who watched Wednesday and was crushed when Wednesday didn’t hook up with her roommate. The vibe between Alice and Lottie is very similar but gets a little more sapphic.

The Society for Soulless Girls isn’t a perfect book by any means. The narration feels forced and / or awkward at points and there were times when I found the characters’ ability to believe things that seemed outlandish so readily a bit off. But this books delivers a very fun slice of dark academia that tackles misogyny and the myth that female anger is a danger to the world.

sapphic & gothic dark academia that landed pretty much where i expected it to in terms of writing style and plot (quite juvenile and predictable respectively). the characters’ actions were sometimes completely unfounded or obviously plot-influenced (that is to say - they did what the plot needed them to do, not what they might’ve done as fully-fledged-out characters). lastly, the empowering message this potentially intended to contain seemed less an inspiration to take action against sexism in academia & the treatment of women’s rage under patriarchy, and more ‘girlbosses!! our rage is normal & matters!! let’s fight!!’

This book was a mess. The characters all felt and sounded the same, no one had their own personality. The story itself was hard to follow and boring. And I just ended up DNFing it around 30%.

I had been wanting to read this book forever after seeing it on pre order , it sounded almost too good to be true , it wasn’t! This book lives up with to any hype and buzz it’s gotten. I am already about to reread it whixh should tell you how much I liked it!

I really liked the plot of this book. The story was interesting and a fun twist on a classic. My complaint is that the characters felt very one dimensional which was a bummer because I really wanted to like Alice. Also the metaphors/similes were over used, if you cut them down by half the book would be a lot more enjoyable.

The Society for Soulless Girls by Laura Steven.

Summary: Ten years ago, four students lost their lives in the North Tower murders at Carvell College of Arts, forcing Carvell to close its doors. Now Carvell is reopening, and Lottie is determined to find out what really happened. But when her roommate, Alice, stumbles upon a sinister ritual hidden in Carvell's haunted library, the North Tower claims another victim. Can they uncover the truth before the Tower claims another victim?

Rating: 4/5⭐️

Feels: Immaculate dark academia vibes! This book takes you on a journey thru a dark and sinister college and what happens when your will to change is stronger than anything. Their relationship, a forest in Autumn, dark rituals at the library, spooky vibes... can't ask for more!

#TheSocietyforSoullessGirls #NetGalley