Intense story full of tasty tidbits of academia and gothic goodness. Lottie and Alice are first year students at the newly reopened Carvell College of Arts. Closed for mysterious student deaths at the now closed North Tower, current students enter at their own peril. Soon after another student dies. Lottie immediately suspects her prickly roommate Alice but then she too falls prey to the sinister school. This was an interesting read that I wish had more moments fleshed out. Alice and Lottie's love story happened too fast for me. I would have loved to see more build up between the two of them. But overall an intriguing read.

With a Jekyl and Hyde vibe, this is deliciously suspenseful. Good one for your TBR around Halloween Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for a review.

Carvell School of the Arts just recently reopened and Lottie and Alice are both excited to attend, but for different reasons. Ten years ago, there were a series of deaths on the campus causing it to close and one of the victims was a neighbor of Lottie's and now she wants to use the reopening to try to solve the mystery of what happened. Lottie and Alice are roommates and at first they do not get along. Alice is filled with anger and has a hard time trying to not lash out at every person who makes her angry. While Lottie spends her spare time trying to investigate the murders, Alice spends her spare time in the library where she finds a strange book containing a soul-splitting spell. Alice thinks this could help her cope with her anger and so she tries it. Once Alice performs the ritual, it seems to open up a way to help figure out who committed the murders ten years ago and who has started killing again. It has all the delightful elements of dark academia and dark humor that I enjoy immensely.

A plot fueled by mystery. Alice and Lottie are characters worth knowing. The storyline has a great pace and story depth. Personally I can’t say I liked it but I didn’t dislike it either.

Ten years ago, four students lost their lives to an unsolved murder at the elite Carvell Academy. Now the college is reopening and Lottie, a fearless freshman, is determined to figure out what happened. When Lottie’s roommate, Alice, stumbles into a soul-splitting ritual hidden in a book in the library, another murder occurs. Is the killer among them? Or worse…within them?

This book wasn’t quite what I was expecting, but it wasn’t a bad book – just a case of miss matched expectations. This is a modern-day retelling of Jekyll and Hyde that is mildly sapphic. I say mild because nothing really happened sapphic until the last 10% or so of the book. I was slightly disappointed by this, so don’t go into this one expecting much of a romance, it wasn’t. This book has plenty of twists and turns and is full of surprises. I absolutely loved the setting; dark academia is always so fun to read – and this was the book that did not disappoint in that regard. I also really enjoyed the gothic elements of this one, they were pretty dark, and the writing was utterly moody. For a YA book this one was great, I do think that a couple of points could have been better developed, but overall, it was a good read. Also, I knew I would enjoy this one from the dedication alone.

If you are looking for a gothic YA retelling of Jekyll and Hyde, then I recommend you check this one out.

Thank you so much to the publisher, Random House Childrens – Delacorte Press, and Netgalley, @netgalley for this e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Additional Links will be added once posted.

I loved the story, the world building and meeting the different characters. I felt completely immersed in the story and couldn't stop reading it.

You know, I really liked this book. I’m 100% sure that most people who review will talk about the plot holes (of which there were a couple, all acknowledged) or something, but I didn’t care about any of that. Any bad is far outweighed by good.

The pros:
1) pacing: the book moves quickly. It doesn’t take long to pull the reader in and get them invested and frankly, once you are invested, the tension just builds and builds until it boils over. Not a slow burner at all, imho.
2) the girls: I do think Alice had more potential than was used-she’s a dark girl who we know little about other than she’s goth, has a sick mom, is jealous of her brothers, and had complicated relationships with two exes (I don’t think any of that is an actual spoiler), but her chemistry with Lottie is great and Lottie, our sunshine girl, is my fave. Do I think more development could’ve been achieved? Yes. Do I think the lack hurt the book? Not so much.
3) the cultural significance: there’s never a point where I thought the book was heavy handed, but it had, to me, a very relevant feminist message.
4) setting: dark academia, a bit gothic, super spooky. Made the whole atmosphere simply tasty. Much beloved.

The Society for Soulless Girls was a maddeningly inconsistent book. On the one hand, I give it props for having a diverse cast and shedding a light on autistics and asexuals.

At the same time, I hated the asexual erasure that happened later in the book. It also didn’t sit well with me that the autistic woman was referred to as a “slut.” In a book that’s supposed to be all about women’s righteous anger at the patriarchy, it felt odd that the author used such a male label for women (not girls, dammit—they were 19).

I love all things horror, but it was a bit hard for me to suspend my belief to the point that I could buy that all of it really happened. Also, why in the ever loving hell would the school have opened again? Talk about ridiculous.

There was a scene with animal torture/murder in it, too. And it was rather brutal.

I did love the author’s sense of humor, especially when she compared friends to Pokémon, lol. The enemies to lovers trope was nice, although it did lead to the asexual erasure.

All in all, I’d say that this book failed when it counted the most. Very unfortunate.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC. This review contains my honest, unbiased opinion.

Hmmmm, what to say, what to say…. I love a sapphic reimagining with ace representation of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde but I especially support young angry femmes. I think the general sentiment of this book is "why do men--" HAHA

It was giving dark academic, grumpy x sunshine, Wednesday x Enid & I didn’t hate that!

I have a lot of mixed thoughts about this story.

I loved the characters. They all have unique personalities with fears, and hopes that the POV switching really drives home. Throughout the book they grow, and discover themselves. All of this is fantastically done. The relationships, and friendships feel real, even in the side characters.

The build up of the mystery is enthralling, the mix of Catholic history with LGBTIA+ storylines weaving through the story is a nice theme. If the reader is a lover of true crime they will likely be drawn in more by the premise of the school. I didn't catch many of the well laid foreshadowing bit in the personalities of the first few chapters. So the reveal was surprising for me.

It's really the post climax that gets me. So much is rushed, clipped short, like the story isn't quiet finished. It jumps from POV to POV with weird half scenes or time jumps like it wasn't shown the care the beginning of the book is. Again, this doesn't take away from the characters, or plot, it just left me wanting more.

Personally I was rather unimpressed with the conclusion, the whole what the girls did with their "god given anger". I found myself rolling my eyes and laughing at the absurdness of it. The story is built on a feminist base, laced with philosophy research threads and the best the ending could be was a literal [spoiler] female version of fight club [spoiler] it just cheapened the message that the book was shooting for. This whole ending could just be a me thing, so I still stand by this being a good book worth reading.

The Jekyll and Hyde theme is well done. I feel like the best retellings take the original and twist it around so only the base theme is left, and that is exactly what is done here. The author explores different paths while staying true to the nature of the original.

You'll love this book if you enjoy gothic academic themes, young adult characters and unique takes on old classics.

Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of this book.

I really tried to enjoy this book but it wasn't my cup of tea. I'm not sure if it was because of my unfamiliarity with the UK since I'm located in the US or if I just didn't enjoy this book. The excerpt seemed very interesting to me but I think it just didn't work for me and I made it perhaps only a quarter of the way through the book.

The Society of Soulless Girls by Laura Steven is a dark academia retelling of Jekyll and Hyde with some heavy gothic tones that follows Lottie and Alice as they become reluctant roommates at an art college that has recently reopened after a string of murders closed it down a decade ago. This has a lot of elements I look for in a spooky YA books: a great atmosphere, a slow burn romance, and short chapters that make the book hard to put down!

I think this book manages to balance all of its moving parts very well. Lottie and Alice are distinct characters going through different things while still be connected to each other because they are roommates. Alice is a hard character to like at the beginning but she really grew on me by the time I got to the end. There is also a lot of sub-context regarding feminine rage that went much deeper than I would have imagined.

This book flies by once you get into it. There is enough of a mystery to keep you hooked throughout and the chapters are usually less than ten pages long so it’s very easy to say “just one more chapter.” I do think the last chunk had some weaker parts. It seemed like a lot wrapped up just for the sake of wrapping it up. I wouldn’t have minded having some stuff left open to think about.

This would be such a great fall read especially for people who don’t really like actual horror books but still want to read something with spooky vibes.

I was really excited to read this book and even more so when I got approved on NetGalley (thank you!). The premise sounds promising - a secluded school with a great deal of history, reopening after 4 unsolved murders. As I started reading I struggled with the dynamic between the two main characters, Lottie and Alice. Lottie is sporty, pretty and outgoing. Alice is introverted and extremely angry. It’s hard to understand how the two could be roommates and how they could coexist without speaking for weeks at a time.

Moving on from that the atmosphere of the story felt like more of a supernatural/horror type book to me as opposed to what I’m used to with YA books. There’s a lot of supernatural elements so that might be why and the reader is expected to accept those - which would be more fitting with the aforementioned genres. The pacing was a little slow for my liking and the story line was interesting. The spookiness and overall concept was a little much for me so I rated it 3/5 stars.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advanced copy!

The Society for Soulless Girls is a YA gothic dark academia, secret society, murder mystery, paranormal, feminine rage, sapphic retelling of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Or it tries to be.

While a prestigious college of academia, Carvell Academy of the Arts is known for its string of 4 suspicious "unsolved" murders on campus 10 years prior. This story opens with Lottie, a sunshiney first-year, excited to be on the campus of her dreams in the hopes of solving these murders and bringing justice to the victims' families (of which she knew one personally). Alice, Lottie's grumpy dormmate, is filled with pent-up anger, and we get to see her take out her aggression multiple times in the first 10% of the book. We follow the girls as they learn to live with their opposite personalities, but strange things happen. Lottie believes she's being possessed by the 100-year-old ghost of Sister Maria, the first victim of the North Bell Tower, and Alice's anger is uncontrollable. When Alice discovers a book in the library with a spell trying to help her tamper down her rage, she's able to live a peaceful/normal college life. A month later, she discovers it was a major mistake. Can Alice and Lottie trust each other enough with their paranormal secrets, can they help each other stop the weird things happening on campus, and can they find out who is responsible for the murders at the North Tower?

Laura Steven had the recipe for a fantastic book, but unfortunately, it was bland. I don't think the title gives it justice because *possible spoiler* the society doesn't appear until you're at least 80% in the book. The only gothic/dark academia thing about the book was Alice's attire and the descriptions of the campus. There was a lot of telling, not showing. And while I completely get the Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde comparison, I lost it when Lottie was explaining how her course readings were similar to her life. Chloe Gong's These Violent Delights was a YA retelling of Romeo and Juliet, but I wasn't told it was a retelling; I fell into the world she created and followed the plot. In The Society for Soulless Girls, I kept waiting to understand the world being built and how everything fits into place. And when I finally got there, at the very, very end of the book, I felt I was built up for nothing. It's all over in a matter of a few seconds. I understand that a murder mystery is supposed to keep you guessing until the end, but at one point I just wanted the answer to be revealed so I could stop reading.

Overall, the plot should have given more. There is so much promise in the plot of this book. I believe that every theme worked very well on its own, but together it did not mesh well. There was too much and not enough at the same time. I did enjoy the character development, and I personally felt the feminine rage Alice had, but I unfortunately think this book (and the title!!) missed the mark.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and Laura Steven for letting me read this novel in exchange for an honest review!

2/5 stars. To be released September 2023.

The Society for Soulless Girls left me with more questions than answers. I enjoyed the setting: a newly reopened college with a healthy history. The book is told between two narrators who are an unlikely pair selected to be roommates. Both seek to unravel the history of the school as the become personally enthralled with the school's secret. The storyline was pretty good and creating a spooky environment with a dabble of dark magic. The ending disappointed me a bit and I felt like there was a lot left that could have been expanded on.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
Trigger Warning: Violence, Self Harm, Death, Animal Death, Physical Abuse

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Carvell College of the Arts is being reopened after being closed for a decade due to four students’ murders. Lottie and Alice, begin to investigate after another student is murdered.
I went into this book blindly. It was off to a great start and then it started to drag a bit. It wasn't really for me.

I liked this book overall, but definitely felt there were some pacing issues. Didn’t feel like Alice and Lottie had distinct enough voices, but still enjoyed watching their story unfold.

Society for Soulless Girls has moments of some dark, disturbingly creepy scenes, but that's it. Trigger warning for animal harm. You must suspend lots of disbelief with these characters, especially with why they hate and like each other. It was a struggle to get through this one. It was a slow, repetitive read. The end has a quick, random resolution and romance that doesn't fit with the story.

The premise of this had be hooked: Dark academia, gender-bend Jekyll and Hyde? Sign me up! But for almost all of the book...nothing really happened. The interesting bits happened at the very, very, very end. The relationship felt forced. This just wasn't for me.

I was really interested in The Society for Soulless Girls, but unfortunately it fell a little flat for me. This book has all of the dark academia vibes that one could ask for, and I loved the writing style of Laura Steven. That being said, around halfway through the book I really lost interest in the story. I felt like as if everything was being drawn out, and then Lottie pointing out the connections between the story and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, really kind of killed it for me.