Carvell closed ten years ago after the death of four students. Newly reopened, Carvell welcomes a new class of students including Alice and Lottie. Lottie is determined to uncover the mystery behind the deaths while Alice just wants to get her anger under control as she pursues her philosophy degree. Both girls get wrapped up in increasingly strange circumstances, including the development of their feelings for each other, only to find that everything is more sinister than they appear.

Laura Steven’s writing is exquisite, the kind of lyric writing that fits the gothic nature of the series. But mysteries and thrillers really reveal how difficult it is to write a compelling second act. At times it felt that Alice’s anger was cartoonishly monstrous. Overall, just fine.

3.5 stars
The Society For Soulless Girls is one of those books that creates such a lush dark atmosphere that you can’t help but vividly imagine the world Laura Steven creates. I liked all the discussions about how society views angry women and what it’s like for rage to sink it’s teeth into you especially with the addition of a life-altering ritual. The haunted gothic school setting was perfection and I can so easily picture it from the author’s detailed descriptions. I felt like I was really there while reading this book!

I love the grumpy gothic girl x sunshine sporty girl enemies to lovers trope this book has and how chill both main characters are with paranormal phenomenons. because of their shared interest in the occult, they are quite comfortable and in the element at a gothic deadly college. I honestly love how they react so rationally when the most unhinged things would occur.
the characters are so unique compared to any that I’ve read before. the romance is definitely a slow burn and I would have loved to see more tension between them throughout the book leading up to when they kiss. they did things individually for a large portion of the book so I would have loved more interactions between them throughout.

I did have a difficult time staying engaged with this book midway through and on. I love how atmospheric it is but found it hard to follow the storyline/mystery sometimes. the pacing is a bit too slow for me which contributed to my enjoyment of the book.

overall, I did enjoy this book especially the characters and atmosphere but struggled staying engaged and which is why I have given this book a 3.5 star rating.

thank you to Netgalley and Random House Children’s, Delacorte Press for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Ten years ago the elite Carvell Academy of the Arts closed its doors after four of its students mysteriously died in what is known as the North Tower murders. Now the school has reopened and freshman Lottie Fitzwilliam can’t wait to be a new student. Of course, despite her parents protests, she has other reasons for wanting to attend the academy. Lottie is determined to find out what happened that fateful night. When Lottie’s roommate, Alice Wolfe, finds a mysterious book hidden in the library, the North Tower claims a new victim. Lottie is convinced Alice has something to do with the murder but when several students begin acting weird, including herself, she must figure out if the killer among them or within them.

The Society for Soulless Girls grabbed my attention when it stated it was a sapphic Jekyll & Hyde. I will start off saying the romance in this novel is very slow paced (enemies to lovers) and doesn’t contain much more than kissing. Once the characters begin to reveal more about their preferences, this makes sense, as one is recovering from two traumatic romances (FM/FF) and the other character belies she may be asexual. The Jekyll & Hyde aspect of the novel was a fun twist involving a soul-splitting potion that is meant to be helpful but instead creates even more problems for those who imbibe. This was a unique murder mystery that would be perfect to curl up with this fall.

This book was tricky to me. I wouldn't necessarily say it was...good, exactly, but it had the feel of a guilty pleasure movie or tv show. Like, I know this isn't the most highbrow or well-made literature I could be consuming, but it was fun and kind of spooky campy and a little bit sapphic and I'm for all of those things.

Could have definitely done without on particular scene though, and if you've read it, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

Thanks to NetGalley, Laura Steven, and the publisher for this ARC! The Society for Soulless Girls comes out on September 19th 2023!

3.5 stars

Big thanks to Laura Steven, Delacorte Press, and NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinions!

*PLEASE CHECK TRIGGER WARNINGS BEFORE THIS BOOK* - there is one scene that might not be for all readers and there are NO WARNINGS about it in the beginning of the book. I cannot say anything without spoiling it, but if you have triggers, look up this book before you read.

To start out, the cover, title, and description alone drew me to this book. I absolutely loved the idea of this dark academia-style supernatural mystery with a little bit of romance. Then I read it was a Jekyll and Hyde retelling and that influenced me further.

Well, this book was a bit rough starting out to be honest. The only thing that intrigued me was the idea of these unsolved murders and the aesthetic of this old college. The characters, while supposed to be opposites, had me so confused as to who was who because they were both so philosophical in their POVs. There was A LOT of philosophy talk and I was over it quite quickly.

But once it started to get into the supernatural, ritual, mystery side - it had me hooked. These weird blood rituals and the mystical rubies were so different from your average college, supernatural mystery. It was a bit darker than I expected too for a YA book, but I enjoyed it. That side is entertaining, kept me wanting to know more and captivated by this tale.

When it comes to the enemies-to-lovers, sapphic romance side - I was disappointed. This is definitely a SLOW BURN and there is barely any romance. I guess personally, I was hoping for more of the romance side. Plus, they were BARELY enemies-to-lovers.

Overall, 3.5-stars rounded up to 4-stars. Entertaining and easy to read on the mystery side. But the romance side was lacking. There was also entirely way too much philosophy, English books, and women's anger speak. By the time I was around 80% I was completely over it and ready to done with the book.

The Society for Soulless Girls is a dark academia thriller set on the campus of Carvell Academy of the Arts. The esteemed college and former convent houses a dark and mysterious past and has reopened ten years after four students died from falling out of the North Tower. One of the novel’s narrators, a freshman English major named Lottie, comes from the same hometown of one of the previously murdered students, and she is drawn to the college in the hopes of investigating the unsolved murders. The novel’s other narrator is her roommate Alice, a philosophy major who harbors anger issues and a violent streak. When a new student is killed in the North Tower, Lottie and Alice become involved in a dangerous plot to learn the truth which may even incriminate them.

Steven’s book is a delightful read for fans of dark academia and offers plenty of atmosphere to set the stage for the story. The philosophical and literary studies of Lottie and Alice pair nicely with the frightening mystery, and when Alice uses a spell from a library book to perform an ancient soul splitting ritual that will soften her anger, the novel reworks key themes from Robert Louis Stevenson’s Gothic masterpiece the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The Society for Soulless Girls expertly uses the supernatural to explore the way society teaches young women to suppress their anger, guilt, and shame, ultimately showing how these emotions must be integrated with hope and love to form wholeness.

In addition to navigating a haunting atmosphere, Lottie, an outgoing athlete, and Alice, an introverted Goth, must find a way to survive the transition to college, live with one another in a small dorm room, and face their own social insecurities. The novel also hints at a Sapphic romance. This is the perfect Young Adult/New Adult read for those interested in classic literature, dark academia, and coming of age stories. I would definitely consider using this text in my Young Adult Literature classroom!

Thank you to NetGalley for a free copy of the book in exchange for a fair review.

This book was beautiful, spooky, and sweet.
Our story has two different POVs. One is the outgoing and optimistic Lottie and the other is the more reclusive , angry and book loving Alice. I loved the parallels between the two characters and the difference in talents, hobbies, and behaviors. It made for a great opposites attract kind of story.

The themes in the book are:
LGBTQIA representation
Mild gore
feminism
possession by an angry nun
romance

The story starts off a little slow but there is a lot of separate character development and two different activities of our characters that eventually come together. I felt to some extent it took a little long to get more relationship development between our two main characters. I also would have loved to see more Hasfah within the group earlier on. Overall though I enjoyed the build up and imagery the story provides which makes it super spooky and eerie.

The character banter is also fantastic and I love the sarcasm our characters exhibit in these very odd situations. It felt very realistic and added some lightness to some very intense scenes.

Overall the story was hard to put down and ends on a really good note. If you want a new spooky story with an eerie mystery and great banter, this should be your next fall read for the season!

I was fortunate enough to get an early e-arc copy of this book for reviewing purposes.

I was very intrigued by the premise of the book. It claims to be perfect for fans of Ace of Spades and The Inheritance Games…sign me up! We are following Lottie, she is going to school at Carvell College of Arts. Ten years ago, they were forced to close their doors due to four students being murdered. Lottie and her roommate stumble onto something very disturbing and it makes them go on a mission to find out the truth of what happened, before it happens again.

This book has the makings of so many things that I love. Female/Female enemies to lovers, spooky/creepy setting, slow burn romance, etc. I just for some reason did not love it as much as I was expecting. I think that some of the “twists” just did not hit for me, but overall I think it is an enjoyable and fun read. I would recommend it if you like thriller/horror or f/f relationships.

It was okay. It didn’t blow me away but held my attention well enough. For me, something was missing in the story to make it a little more engaging . While I know the point is for the main FMCs to be polar opposites. I wish I felt a tad bit of chemistry from them on the pages to make their scenes together a little more palatable. The friction when they were at odds worked great but when they were supposed to be working more cohesively, it just felt flat.

4.5 stars rounded up! I didn't have much of an idea what this was about going in other than hearing it is a sapphic YA retelling of Jekyll and Hyde, and it was that and so much more. This was such a great glimpse into feminine rage and had so many elements I love: a boarding school setting, a possible possession, and sapphic love story with plenty of creepy scenes woven in.

I loved this one and look forward to recommending it for readers who like similiar authors such as Kayla Cottingham! Thank you so much NetGalley and Random House Children's for my review copy.

This wasn't quite the Sapphic Jekyll and Hyde retelling I was expecting, however it worked! and it provided me with the dose of Dark Academia I needed at this time of year.. great!

Alice & Lottie met as assigned roommates in their dorm, at the recently re-opened Carvell College. Lottie's family are hesitant for her to go, considering the deaths of several students previously leading to the schools closure, whilst she is adamant to go. Alice has a deep rooted anger problem which she is willing to do anything to bring her own walls down.. even if it's a little bit, occult-ish.

This YA mystery has plenty of twists and turns, and is narrated by two English women, which takes a little getting used to, if like me you're used to American narrators, however their accents help to immerse in the Carvell College setting.

This book touched on asexuality, which I was pleasantly surprised by. We do have a not-quite-enemies-but-we're-also-not-friends to lovers situation blossoming throughout the book, which is pleasant but did feel more rushed in the final chapters.

Get ready to add this one to your spooky season TBR because it's p-e-r-f-e-c-t for it! This sapphic YA novel is dark, sinister, and gives major Jekyll and Hyde vibes. I actually wondered at one point if we were going to get a happy ending or not, and was totally okay with us not, because the social commentary on women's anger is real and important. And regardless of the fictional ending, which I won't spoil, the commentary IS important. It's exhausting towing the line between speaking up and being complacent and any hint of being a strong woman who speaks up for herself and others means you're often labelled as difficult, combative or angry, and all of our characters, for one reason or another, have to deal with this reality.⁠
Overall this story is giving you dark academia, a slow burn romance, ghosts, a murder mystery, and dark rituals that will keep you up and turning the pages into the night!

Years ago, tragedy hit Carvell Academy when four students were murdered. That mystery remains unsolved, but the school is finally reopening. Lottie and Alice are roommates who do not like each other. However, after Alice unwittingly stumbles upon a ritual, they find themselves working together and drawn more and more together.

This one had a lot of potential but didn't live up to it. I think there was too much set-up before we got to any spookiness. I also think there was no early chemistry between Lottie and Alice. Even in enemies-to-lovers tropes, there is some spark behind the dislike for each other. I didn't find that at all here.

"The Society for Soulless Girls" by Laura Steven is a captivating dark academia novel that delves into the realm of paranormal possibilities within the confines of a haunted university. The author skillfully weaves a tale that centers around the intriguing mysteries of Carvell College, but I found the ending to be hastily resolved. While the anticipation for a surprising plot twist is palpable, the story's ultimate direction might not deviate as much as hoped, as I was able to predict the outcome early on. I'd rate this book 3.5 stars for its atmospheric exploration of a haunted past and its engaging premise. The narrative keeps you engaged as Lottie's determination to uncover the truth and the chilling secrets of the North Tower unfold. Despite its predictable ending, "The Society for Soulless Girls" offers an immersive experience in the world of paranormal academia.

I've been trying to get my head around this book and why it was such a let down for me. A sapphic dark academia romp that was just so weak by the end. Each POV didn't have a defining style to help make each character stand out which is why it was so disappointing by the end.

This book was okay. I was expecting a cursed tower or at least an explanation behind something that was cursed, but the real killer was just a misogynistic man. This romance was timed very weirdly and felt unrealistic to the point where I was actively confused about how they could have caught feelings seemingly within days when they hated each other so much. The book really didn't leave me satisfied, but it was somewhat interesting nonetheless.

Ghost? An old convent turned into a school? Possession? Madness? Romance? And witchcraft? ALL IN ONE BOOK? Count me in a thousand times. This book had me mad, sad, and laughing all within a few chapters of each other and it couldn’t have been a better journey. I will recommend this book to anyone and everyone because it was the perfect book and perfect atmosphere. The vibes were vibing and I loved this with my entire soul!

I love a good mystical dark novel. Add in some slow burn lady love and a possibly immortal cat, and you've got a winner of a book. This one sucked me in. A uni reopens 10 years after it closed, because a string of deaths happened, with people falling from the tower of the old convent. Lottie and Alice join the first returning class and end up as roommates, with a view of the tower from their dorm room window. When Alice finds a book with rituals that she decides to try out and Lottie finds herself sleepwalking to the tower, they realize they're up against something big. The climax of this book seemed slightly subdued and there were a few threads that didn't feel tied up, so take that into consideration if thats something that might bother you. If you enjoyed If We Were Villains and They Never Learn, then this book is for you.

The new cover is definitely an improvement, but this book kind of just annoyed me. It had such promise - dark academia, Jekyll and Hyde retelling, sapphic romance.. and then just kind of squandered it? I dunno. The narrators were great though.

*Thank you to Penguin Teen and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review and PRH Audio for the gifted ALC*

To start off, the premise of this book sounded so interesting, and the blurb made me so excited to dive into a dark academia with sapphic longing/romance. However, I found myself having issues with several things in this story to include: pacing/timeline, lack of characterization, lack of trigger warnings for on scene pet violence, and poor depictions of an autistic character. (Further details below.)

The pacing in this story in addition to the timeline had me confused throughout the entire book. The first half of the story felt incredible slow with small ripples of plot coming through that were immediately stilted by switching POV’s. Normally, a dual POV is my favorite kind of story to read; however, when the POV switched, I never knew where the story was going to start up again. At times, we picked up where the character left off in their last POV to see the same incidents through their eyes, and at other times, we would pick up in the same timeline where the other character left off. Also, even though this book took place in a single semester, there were several mentions of “weeks going by” at the start of a chapter and then several paragraphs later, we would find out it had been 1-2 weeks. The depictions felt lazy in trying to move the storyline along and quite confusing for the reader.

The story itself is told through the eyes of two girls – Alice and Lottie – who have arrived to a reopened college and are sharing a room together. The girls were intensely hostile and suspicious of each other IMMEDIATELY and awkwardly, and stayed this way throughout more than half of the book. To make matters worse, I couldn’t distinguish the two characters’ voices from each other in the first half of the book. Ideally, I believe one character was meant to be sunshiney and the one was meant to be grumpy, but the characters both went through various up’s and down’s that resulted in this being a poor way to differentiate their personalities and the only other true difference we received was that one was an athlete and their style of dressing was different.

The romance was even harder to feel coming – both characters made comments regarding the hotness of the other, but for the majority of the book, they were mad or suspicious of each other and having them end up together felt strangely odd. A third character even comments at one point “would you two stop flirting with each other” and I actually laughed because there had been hardly any flirtation at this point.

The fact that there was a very well-descripted on-scene graphic unaliving of a cat at the hands of and in the POV of one of our MC’s without a trigger warning at the beginning of the book is just upsetting. I’m hoping the TW has officially been added to the books and was unintentionally left off of the e-ARC.

However, one of the most upsetting items in this book for me was the poor depiction of an autistic character. This character acts as a new friend for our duo MC’s and refers to herself as either being “autistic or an alien”. While I didn’t particularly care for this description coming from the character themself, what I found even more upsetting is the fact that the word “alien” is then used as a descriptor and “endearing term” for the character repeatedly for the rest of the book. Why the author would choose in 2023 to estrange this character from the rest of the individuals in the book by using a term “alien” repeatedly is beyond my comprehension and should have been caught by sensitivity readers.

As a final unfortunate point, the plot of the book itself fell so completely flat in its summary that it only adds to the many disappointments I felt in this book. (I won’t even bother getting into the plotholes.) Normally, I don’t like to fully review or highlight books that I didn’t enjoy, but there were so many negatives in this book, I felt it necessary to share with my fellow readers. With so many amazing dark academia books on the market, I wouldn't recommend adding this story to your list.

Thank you to Randhom House Children’s and NetGalley for an E-ARC copy of this book.