Lottie Fitzwilliam Is packing to go to Carvell Academy of the Arts.. Her parents have been trying to talk her out of going to Carvell but she insists on going there. When she arrives at Carvell, she and her father find her room, her roommate is already there. When Lottie says a bright and cheery hello, her roommate answers her with a “smart” unfriendly reply. Lottie’s dad tries to smooth the little conversation so it will be friendly. It doesn’t work. Her name is Alice Wolfe and unknown to Lottie she is an “angry” person. Alice doesn’t have the ability to control her anger until one day in the library, she picks up a book about how to stop being so angry all the time. There is a ritual in it. Alice doesn’t take it seriously. Will she change her mind? Lottie doesn’t understand Alice’s anger. When Alice got so angry, she gets scared and goes back to the library to find the book to do what it says to do to stop the angry war inside herself. To her amazement it works, she seems to be more than she was before. Her anger is gone. Lottie has been getting up at night and going to North Tower where there were four unsolved mysterious deaths ten years ago which closed down Carvell. The deaths were never solved. One of them was a girl from the town where Lottie lived. Lottie never forgot the horror the parents went through when they found out that their daughter was dead. Lottie was going to Carvell to solve the deaths of the four that dies. One night she has torn her fingernails plus off plus more trying to get inside the North Tower. She doesn’t know why she did that. Lottie is having strange dreams that don’t help her understand what caused the deaths. Lottie and Alice do be come friends. Will their friendship last? Will Lottie discover why the four deaths occurred? Will Alice continue to being nice?

There is so much more to this novel than what I have told you. Carvell Academy of the Arts is a very unusual institution. It has its secrets plus more. It repeats. itself, as there’s another death at the North Tower. The unsolved murders appear connected to a much larger, more sinister plot. The roommates’ complex relationship is as compelling as the mystery; they are opposites who are drawn together. The novel touches on deeper societal issues such as patriarchy, paternalism, and the unacceptability of women’s expressions of anger. I enjoyed the twists and turns that occurred in the novel.

Now that I have finished this book, I am torn on how I feel about it. I wonder perhaps a younger reader would have gotten more out of it than I did.

Laura Steven did a great job of setting the scene for this modern retelling of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I loved the mysterious backstory of the school and the introduction to the main characters and their flaws right from the start. However, after a few chapters the pacing felt off and each new chapter was alluding to a future event that the buildup was greater than the reward.

Overall, this ended up just being okay for me. If you are looking for a quick, dark academia read with teen drama and some spooky references, try this one out.

Carvell College of Arts was forced to close its doors ten years ago when four students died at the North Tower on campus. A decade later, Carvell is reopening, and Lottie, whose friend died on campus, is determined to get to the bottom of the story. However, her roommate, Alice, ends up performing a soul-splitting ritual and the North Tower ends up claiming another victim.

Will Lottie be able to figure out the truth before another victim turns up? What will happen to Alice now that she has performed this ancient ritual?

Once I started this book, I literally did not want to put it down. I really enjoyed the banter and flirting between Alice and Lottie and found myself giggling or smiling while reading. There were a lot of twists and turns and I was loving the ride the entire time. I highly recommend this book!

Thank you, Laura Steven and NetGalley for the free eARC!

4.5 stars.

I waited a bit too long to finish this book, so it lost a little of its sparkle, but I still loved it. Lottie 🫶🫶
It reminds me of a book I also loved aka My Dearest Darkest. I will never turn down reading a sapphic spooky school fic. Give them all to me.

I’ve been wanting to read this book since before it was published (not the us publishing date lol- like a yearish). I searched for it in bookstores and everything just to find it wasn’t in the US yet. Sad.

I’m glad I got the opportunity to get this arc from netgalley. I can’t wait for Laura’s next book as well.

Who wouldn’t like immortal cats and fatal secrets. The dual pov was a perfect choice, and Lottie is bbg😪😪

Also note: the moths as markers for time changes *chefs kiss*

For anyone who comes running when they hear the words "dark academia", make sure to add The Society for Soulless Girls to your TBR. This book is pitched as a sapphic retelling of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, which was something I didn't even know I needed until I read this book. Lottie & Alice are unlikely roommates at the prestigious Carvell College of the Arts, which has just reopened after being closed for ten years due to a serious of mysterious deaths on campus. Lottie in particular is determined to unravel the secrets of these cold cases, but unsurprisingly, the faculty at the school are reluctant to even discuss the tragedies of the past. Alice wants nothing to do with this at first, but finds herself immersed in the mystery whether she likes it or not.

Alice and Lottie are fascinating characters with a lot of depth and growth throughout the story. I think they are the shining part of the book, as you can't help but want to find out what will happen to them next. It is also an incredibly atmospheric read, and that really adds to the sinister and foreboding vibes of the school setting. I think the pacing of the book could have used some work, as at times it felt dragging and other times felt it too quickly skipped over important themes or questions.

Overall, I enjoyed this book and look forward to seeing what the author will do next!

Thank you to the author, Random House Children's, and NetGalley for providing a copy of this title in exchange for my review.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for letting me read this!

I enjoyed this book, it’s a romance mixed with thriller set in the 90s! It was published under the guise of dark academia and I was sold. I really enjoy the grumpy/sunshine trope and this fit very well. This was a quick easy read and I think it fits as we go into fall/halloween time frame :)

Outstanding! A fresh concept paired with a classic genre (dark academia) done spectacularly well. Lottie and Alice are as different as it is possible to be yet they are set to be roommates at the beautiful yet haunting Carvell College for the Arts. A decade before, 4 students mysteriously died and as Lottie and Alice settle into life on campus, it seems that history might be repeating itself. As the girls are drawn more and more to the dark history of the college, and to each other, they must discover the secrets hiding in the North Tower before it is too late.

Atmospheric and stunning, this is a must read YA novel!

Atmospherically perfect for a fall read

Told in the dual points of view of Lottie, a cheerfully enthusiastic hockey-playing sleepwalker, who can't resist the lure of the North Tower, and Alice, a grumpy, rage filled philosophy quoting goth, whose anger might possibly have led to the murder of another student, The Society for Soulless Girls explores female emotions and how they are perceived by society,

Ten years ago four students died at the exclusive Carvell Academy for the Arts. The event was one that permeated Lottie's life and left her with more questions than answers. When Carvell reopens, Lottie is determined to attend and solve the mystery of the North Tower. When she is roomed with the perpetually grumpy and negative Alice, Lottie meets, perhaps for the first time in her life, someone who doesn't like her and that she can't win over. After a disastrous first day together, the girls tacitly agree to ignore one another and go their separate ways. It becomes difficult to do when Lottie comes home in the middle of the night with bleeding hands and covered in dirt; harder still when the spell casting Alice flies into murderous rages and brandishes a penknife. This is obviously the perfect setting for a budding romance between the two. When the death of a fellow student the points to Alice, the two join forces with a classmate to discover the mystery of the North Tower and uncover secrets long buried.

With themes of dark academia, secret societies, sapphic relationships, enemies to friends to lovers, grumpy vs. sunshine, and redemption, the story is sure to appeal to its young adult target audience. I enjoyed that the main characters are university students, rather than high school, which is what the initial description left me expecting. The age of the characters, 18/19, perfectly lends itself to the explorations of human emotions and behaviors that one goes through at that age. The retold Jekyll and Hyde isn't a book of magic wands and wizards. The darkness of the story is generated by the human actions of suicide, murder, misogyny and rage. It is balanced by the human actions that come from drunken nights at uni, the explorations of first/unrequited love, feelings that one doesn't know how to handle, and the act of slogging through typical university assignments, . The use of class titles, topics, and teachers to underscore the themes is brilliantly used, as is the age old lesson that intellectual curiosity can very well kill the cat.

Although there are moments in the story, while switching from points of view, that feel underdeveloped or altogether missing, the author does an excellent job of balancing Lottie's supernatural mystery with that of Alice (and new friend Hafsah), and intertwining them so that we understand that what appear initially to be two seperate mysteries are really part and parcel of the same story. The romance between Lottie and Alice is a slow burn. Very slow. So slow, in fact, that one might wonder why it is there at all except to further the theme of feminism and all things female related. (Although, I suppose as these things go, they've already brought their u-hauls and have the next four years to get to know one another. :) )

While the story might be read and understood by some highly intellectual/worldly 12-15 year olds, I think the target market really works better for age 16 and up.

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.