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.

10 years after four suspicious deaths closed its doors, Carvell is open once more, ready to shape the lives of the next generation. Lottie is thrilled to be part of this new class, hopeful to uncover the truth about these deaths, specifically the one that took the life of a family friend. But the shadow of death lingers in the halls and it’s not long before history repeats itself. Add in a soul-splitting ritual and snarky, but beautiful, roommate Alice, Lottie has her work cut out for her if she’s going to discover the truth.

I wanted to love this book so bad. The dark academia, the murder mystery, the thriller element. But I found I just couldn’t get myself into the characters or the plot. Some of the dialogue felt repetitive, parts felt entirely unrealistic (even for magical realism) and I just couldn’t get myself into the story.

I’m always down for a retelling, but this one felt too forced. Especially when Lottie references how their story parallels Jekyll and Hyde after a class reading. The illusion was gone for me. It felt like it was trying to hard to tell the audience what it was. It’s unfortunate because you can see the elements of Jekyll and Hyde coming through without being told what they are. The plot is really interesting. Soul-splitting, possession, murder, mania. I could have enjoyed it better if it was a little faster paced at the beginning and slower and the end. The beginning seemed to drag on and on and then it hit 70% and it was like an info dump of everything all at once. Twists and turns are good, but too many at once made me feel like I was spinning in circles. While I loved the eventually revealed core concept of the book, I feel like it took too long to get there.

I did really liked the setting of the book, this old covenant converted into a university. The book felt pretty character driven, but the characters were immature and kind of unlikable. Who drinks someone’s blood without considering all the reasons that isn’t a good idea, even if it’s only a drop? Both Lottie and Alice felt stereotypical to the roles they were assigned as goth/jock. I wanted to love them together but I just didn’t see the build up and I think Lottie considering her sexuality could have been handled better.

This wasn't a bad book by any means. It just didn't feel like it was the book for me.

This Dark academia YA book was so good. I loved the Gothic dark and mysterious vibes it was giving. It made me want to read this book at night and curl up with just a book light on! It was so perfect! This was a 5 star read for me and I loved the characters and the setting and the actual writing style.
I just reviewed The Society for Soulless Girls by Laura Steven. #TheSocietyforSoullessGirls #NetGalley
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I loveddd this book. It is the perfect Halloween read and allowed me to pretend it was spooky season even though it is mid-july. I loved the character development as I found both alice and lottie unlikable in different ways but by the end of the novel, I adored them both.

DNF @30%

I was excited for this because of the old murder aspect, but I definitely didn't make it that far. Alice as a character was an instant turn off as a caricature of a goth/emo kid who's opening scene was being an @$$hole to campus staff and then her new roommate she'd never met. Maybe we eventually get rationale as to why she's so defensive, but I just wasn't feeling it. Lottie also didn't do anything for me to want to finish this book.

I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley for the paperback release.

"The Society for Soulless Girls" was a sufficiently creepy gothic thriller. It takes a while before it is clear whether the author is going to hit the right note in terms of the paranormal aspect, but she does so successfully. [I find that "horror" novels are often either trite or absurd to the point of being ridiculous.] In Carvell Academy of the Arts, the author has created a fitting setting for a gothic plotline. The major characters are great, especially the dynamic between roommates Lottie and Alice, who start out as enemies of sort but develop a friendship (and possibly something more) based on mutual terror and need. However, my favorite character is probably Hafsah. The villains and their motives are both surprising and not surprising, and the main villain has been masterful at manipulating people and situations to further their agenda. A central theme is female anger, and how to "control" or repress it, and the ramifications of such actions.

Dark academia ya book with Gothic and Dr. jekyll themes. LGBT friendly book. Duel pov to get insight from different characters.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC! I thoroughly enjoyed this book! Lottie & Alice are as different as night & day. Thrown together as roommates, the two end up playing crucial roles in the other’s life. The school they’re at, which has just reopened after being closed due to multiple deaths, holds more secrets than they realize. If you’re looking for dark academia/enemies to lovers - this is for you!

Oh. My. This book was amazing and perfect and it seriously just blew my mind! It’s the perfect allegory for why feminism needs to exist. Women have been oppressed, harassed, and beaten down since the beginning of time. We need to realize our strength and power, this book definitely helped me realize how important that is! It was also a very thrilling book and i can’t wait to read more from this author! All in all, incredible and transformative!

This book was the perfect mix of mystery, dark academia, romance & femininity. Fast paced, very good story telling making want to know more. Relatable characters, even balance on likeable & unlikable characters. I will definitely read some more from this author!

Thank you so much to NetGalley for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Big for the sapphic spooky girls. Thought this was such a fun book to read. Alice and Lottie's chemistry was off the charts and loved their growth throughout the book. Also thought the commentary of "angry girls" being a problem for men to solve was done well.

“Wrath is a sin. I am a sin.”

Anger is a natural feeling. We all experience it more than we’d like to admit, everyone does. So why is it that female rage is the most ridiculed and misunderstood? The Society for Soulless Girls by Laura Steven takes this as its thesis statement of sorts and tackles it head on. Steven presents a sapphic Jekyll and Hyde retelling that begs the question: Why is female rage demonized? Why is male anger so normalized and expected? Fans of The Secret History, The Nun, and Fear Street will find this book to be exactly what they’ve been missing. The romance, along with the pacing, is a tad rushed at points but that seems to be at least slightly intentional. The star of this book is anger in its rawest form. Steven frequently uses the word primal to describe her female character’s feelings of anger. I think that alone paints a good image of what you’re in store for. Can things truly be as black and white as good and evil? Are we all capable of one or both? If dark academia has you in its clutches the way it does most, check out The Society for Soulless Girls in September. Thank you to Netgalley for this ARC!