3 Stars!

Synopsis: The Carvell murders left a mark and Carvell closed. But, years later Carvell has reopened and Lottie is determined to figure out the truth behind these mysterious deaths. However, when Lottie meets Alice, the mystery of these death becomes much more complex.

CW/TW: Death/Animal Death/Animal Cruelty/Murder/Mentions of Sexual Assault/Suicide/Mentions of Suicide/Blood/Violence/Possession/Sexism/Misogyny/Chronic illness mentioned – others may be present.

Rep: Bisexual MC, Sapphic MC, Asexual (Possibly Demisexual) MC, Queer side characters, Implied Neurodivergent side character (unspecified), Mentions of a chronically ill family member.

The Society For Soulless Girls, by Laura Steven, is a Jekyll and Hyde inspired/retelling with sapphic leads. As a lover of Gothic books I was thrilled to see this book on Netgalley!

Narrated by Beth Easdown; Farrah Cave – both Narrators were absolutely excellent and truly helped bring the experience to life. Both MC’s had such distinct voices and the narrators captured them so well – I adored both narrators and definitely believe they contributed to my enjoyment of this book.

Steven’s writing is incredibly atmospheric and engaging, it definitely hits the mark on being Gothic and manages to build tension and mystery well. The dual POV of Alice and Lottie also worked incredibly well for this particular book. Not only are the two characters polar opposites, they also have a very different view and experience of the Carvell Curse.

Lottie, we follow, as she arrives at Carvell with the intention to find out what actually happened to the victims of the Carvell Murders all those years ago. However, Lottie soon learns something more sinister may be behind the deaths as she begins to have unusual experiences at Carvell that leave her grasping at wisps of truth. Alternatively, Alice is at Carvell for the academics but when her anger starts getting the best of her she takes an unconventional route to help control it which leads to her experience blackouts and strange experiences. The two eventually realise they must work together to find the truth. The two pov’s work well to show how the two characters experiences differ but are also inextricably linked together. It gives us two unique insights into the mysteries surrounding Carvell and keeps you intrigued!

The plot was also interesting. However, it felt a little slow. The book has an incredibly slow start which is not inherently an issue as it set up Carvell, its mysterious past , and the characters. But, it felt a little drawn out to me and could have perhaps been a bit shorter because when the action actually begins the story is much more interesting. I really loved the mystery behind the deaths, questions as to if it was truly murder, or suicide, and if it was murder – who or what killed the Carvell victims. This was a very intriguing mystery that had a lot of twists and turns that kept you engaged. I also enjoyed the two mysteries experienced by the two MC’s.

Lottie’s mysterious experiences revolving around the tower where the deaths occurred was very interesting and I enjoyed watching her try to unravel the truth. Similarly, I enjoyed Alice’s own mysteries surrounding her anger and blackouts and what was truly happening to her, and how this was linked to the murders and to Lottie.

The book definitely felt inspired by Jekyll and Hyde especially with the focus and exploration of the duality of humanity, of good and evil. Though, and perhaps this is due to my own preferences, it seemed to lack something – subtlety perhaps. The book deals with many important themes that are explored throughout the whole book, but some times it felt a tad heavy handed. However, I did appreciate the themes explored and enjoyed how the author explored them through the plot and characters!

The characters were ok. Lottie is all pep and bright smiles and curiosity – which was great – she was a strong character (physically and mentally) and still had that brightness. However, it didn’t feel like she really developed beyond this persona and therefore fell a little flat. Similarly, Alice is all shar edges, pretention and anger. – which was interesting, it was nice to see a female character who wasn’t nice, happy, soft. But, again she didn’t really develop beyond this persona and came across as judgemental and a bit flat.

I was so thrilled to see this book would centre a sapphic romance and I did enjoy that it did. However, because of the characters lack of development the romance fell a little flat. It is incredibly slow burn (which I adored) but it didn’t fully capture me.

Overall, The Society For Soulless Girls by Laura Steven was an intriguing and atmospheric read that I enjoyed, but would have liked a little more from.

*I received an eARC via #Negalley and #HarperCollins UK in exchange for an honest review -thank you!*

3.5
I didn't love this as much as I'd hoped at the start but it was still enjoyable. I was hoping more for a murder mystery/thriller than a paranormal/mild horror with a slight mystery.
It was well written and I appreciated the different narrators for each POV as I think that helped keep me in mind of who we were hearing from.
I'm keen to read more from Laura Steven.

A creepy ghost nun, demonic rituals and an immortal cat, this book has them all! This was dark, creepy and thrilling and had me gripped all the way through. Lottie is determined to attend the newly re-opened Carvell College, to discover what really happened with the mysterious deaths that occurred there 10 years earlier. There she meets Alice and their friendship is rocky, to say the least. The investigation takes many horrifying and supernatural twists, leading them all the way back to the happenings a decade ago.
For the narration, I did like the voices but sometimes it was as though they were reading words they didn't know.

I have never come across a Jekyll and Hyde retelling before so with that cover and that title and the promise of a dark academic setting and a good dose of mystery thrown in I was looking forward to getting into this book.

I’m not going to lie it took a little while to settle into this story, I think because our first taste of Carvell and its history is through the main characters who are not the most compelling. The story is told through two POVs, Alice, who feels like everyone is against her but uses that mindset to judge everyone automatically, and Lottie, who always seems very bright and bubbly considering everything that happens to her and around her.

Alice is certainly not the most likeable character to start with, she does have a redemption arc but her spiky demeanour doesn’t seem to come from anywhere in particular which makes her quite difficult to connect with at first. She does start to very slowly open up but is in between bouts of terror and suspicion which means that when it does hit she almost feels like a very different character.

Lottie is a lot more likeable but, her sunshine outlook becomes her whole personality in the story and it just didn’t quite fit, within the first part of the story some very unusual things start to happen to Lottie and it seems like it doesn’t really affect her, and when she is confronted with what is happening to Alice she is a lot calmer about it that I imagine anyone would be. There was a lot of scope in the story for some real tension between the characters and instead it was like we barely got to scratch the surface.

I think the same can be said of the plot, the premise is exciting and mysterious, the setting should be atmospheric, but it never quite materialised the way I had hoped it would. Don’t get me wrong the story was entertaining enough. I did want to find out what was happening to each of the characters (although I’m still not sure I fully understand the purpose of what happened to Lottie) but this felt more like a parody of a scary story rather than a story that was wholly invested in itself.

The revelations in the story felt a little forced, I think that there should have been a little more foreshadowing because it felt like the biggest reveal came out of nowhere and at a time when I should have been at the edge of my seat with anticipation of what was going to happen next, I was wondering how the characters had arrived at the conclusions that had brought them to this point. I felt like I was left with more questions than answers.

It maybe didn’t help that there was a lot of telling rather than showing in the story, I think that being told that the characters are flirting or that Alice is vicious and wild but then Lottie seems fine to be around her, or that suddenly the women can be empowered, doesn’t let us get involved enough to really invest.

There could have been less telling if there was a bit more depth given to the characters because we would have discovered more about them through their conversations and interactions rather than revealing everything about themselves through their internal dialogue. To be honest it made the romance aspect seem a little tacked on as if it was put in for the readership rather than something that came up organically through the characters. I could have believed enemies to friends but I didn’t feel enough chemistry between them to feel like it was an authentic romance.

The Society for Soulless Girls was enjoyable and the narration was great, there was a different narrator for Alice and for Lottie which helped to define their voices a little more. I think I have probably been fairly critical of this book because I could see the potential in the premise for something amazing and it is always a little disappointing when a good book doesn’t live up to what it could be.

I picked this back up in August upon its release but the 40*C weather was not fitting the vibes of the book so I put it back down until the weather took a turn for the worst. Here we are now. I'm very glad I put this down for a little while until the time was right because the imagery, description and overall atmosphere of this book was made for the autumnal weather.

Many thanks to Netgalley, HarperCollins UK Audio and the author, for the ALC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The perfect book for the spooky season!! The society for Soulless girls follows the story of Lotte and Alice, two freshers and dormmates at at the elite Carvell College of Arts. The college that was shut down for over a decade, when 4 students lost their lives at the North Tower. Believed to be haunted, the students are warned from going anywhere near the tower on their first day at college.

If Lotte is sunshine, Alice is storm dark and grey, These polar opposite dormmates are hiding something very serious from each other until they realise the oly people who can help them is each other. When another student dies at the north tower just like before, everyone and anyone is under suspicion.

This book was gripping and haunting. I got hooked from the very beginning completely smitten by the 2 MC's. Its very fast paced and holds the mystery perfectly. <spoiler>The story is based on the medival medical practitioners (read straight men who studied medicine through male anatomy only) considering female emotions as a disease, which to this day is true and is also the plainest way of sexism expressed in day to day life.</spoiler>

The book leaves you with a lot of questions though, but the beauty of it is that, in the epilogue, Alice asks all those questions making it not something just the reader sees

TW: Suicide, murder, conversations about sexual assault, Physical abuse, Misogyny, sexism, Cult practises, magic

I really liked the atmosphere of the book, but the ending let it down. I wanted more from it. I wanted a solution to the mystery that was as clever and well worked as the premise, but it just felt too easy, they didn't even try that hard to find out who the killer was, it just dropped into their lap.

Also, not everything was explained. There was a whole bit with the cat that they gave no explanation for at all. It was built up but then was just left completely unexplained. This frustrated me the most because I hate when they just leave stuff hanging in books, it felt like the author just forgot about it.

The narrators were okay. The two different voices were good to distinguish between the two girls and they did a good job of making it creepy and disturbing, but one of them couldn't pronounce Jekyll and said it wrong several times.

In all, this book is good if you want just a creepy read, but don't expect much from the ending.

This book did its job to entertain me, and it gets three stars. The narrators of the audio definitely helped it for me. The first half held a lot of curiosity on my part; I was intrigued for sure. Later, the book shows all the whys to close the loops, and some of it didn’t jive fore me but will all good. It’s a quick, light read for me.

Thanks for the advance copy NetGalley.

Alice and Lottie are starting at Carvell, a College of Fine Arts with a dark past. It was even closed for ten years because of all the deaths there. Lottie has been obsessed with those because she knew one of the victims from her hometown and is so very sure she'll solve this mystery.
Alice is angry, so angry, all the time and it's fucking up her life, she wants College to be different, and she'll stop at nothing to make it happen...
When the two end up as roommates, they're both far from happy but that's honestly the least of their worries...

This was a pretty good read. I enjoyed the characters and the plot but it lost me a little at times and I wasn't truly captivated...
I still found the whole premise so interesting and I loved the dedication and what the book spoke of in terms of anger. But something was missing for me, I didn't fully connect with the characters despite the anger that I could relate to.
I also had trouble seeing the romance side of this book. I just didn't get how the connection formed, I didn't feel all the feels...
I did like the magical side of things, though, I found it so very interesting, the magic system was also intriguing and very well depicted.
Basically, a good book, perfect for Spooky season but with a little side note on the romance for me...

Thank you to Laura Steven and NetGalley for providing an audio ARC for this title in exchange for an honest review.

The alternating POVs are done well, with both characters having a very distinct ‘voice’ regardless of the actual narrator. This makes for an enjoyable read and listen, though Alice’s character can be quite tough going. A lot of her backstory is glossed over, alluded to but never quite explained and, as a result, she appears pretentious and hard to empathise with. Lottie however, is a little more personable which is clearly done intentionally. Again, there are some gaps and unexplained details however they appear less important in her progression as a character.

For the most part, the story is interesting, but the characterisation of Alice and the weak ending really does drag the novel down and makes it a slog to read. The pacing seems unpredictable but not in an intentional way.

I really enjoyed this book! Laura Steven has done a great job of writing two concurrent characters that are just as interesting as each other, so that every single chapter is properly engaging. Both protagonists feel dimensional and fleshed out, and the story follows a really good pace with a satisfying ending.

In terms of this particular audiobook, I did have a few minor issues. Some of the audio cuts between chapters and parts are too short, not giving the last sentence of Part 1 time to breathe before launching into the announcement of Part 2 for instance. Also at times there are inconsistencies and incorrect pronunciations that go beyond the accents the characters have been given - took me a moment to figure out some of the words at times. Still a great book though, and each narrator helps give their character a lot of personality.

Thanks for my audiobook arc. I couldn’t listen to this because of the quality of the sound when played faster than 1x speed but I will review the ebook/paperback in due course

A unique and interesting story with beautiful relatable characters. Themes throughout that are relevant and modern. I thoroughly enjoyed the twists and turns of the story and the element of magic. I did think there was going to be magic but I liked how it took inspiration from the gothic novels that the students are studying.

Audio review: Two great narrators who really captured each of the distinct MCs voices.



I ended up really enjoying this. I'm still on the quest for the perfect dark academia - and this wasn't it - but this was a quick and engaging read which took a long hard look at female anger. Now, I have thoughts about that topic which would probably fill a book so I won't inflict it on whoever is reading this review other than to say that this fit my experience of being a teenager in the 90s (when this book is set) and the sort of messaging girls were getting then about anger coupled with the specific sexism of that time. (Spoiler alert but it is completely different now, not gone but definitely much better!) And I will also add that I think it could have been explored in a more nuanced way than just 'girls are allowed to feel angry, it can be empowering'. Well, yes obviously but undirected angry is just destructive and pointless. It's not enough to feel your feelings, you need to learn from them, use them and set them aside, not be governed by them. I also would not have pegged the Jekyll and Hyde reference if it hadn't been hammered in there. I'm not sure that was a great fit and it drew attention to areas of the plot which were a little threadbare.



However, I really liked both MCs and while the plot had its issues, it was compelling. This book definitely delivered on the enemies to lovers promise too. If the overall ending was little flat and puzzling, the journey getting there was a fun one.

Carvell College of Arts in Northumberland reopened its doors after ten years. It’s infamous after four students were found dead near the North Tower. The building used to be a priory and one of the nuns became the first victim of the North Tower.

Lottie is from Kent, from a fairly well off family. She got into Carvell on a hockey scholarship to study English Literature. However, underneath it all, she is desperate to discover what happened ten years ago.

Alice is from Northumberland from a working class background. She grew up with brothers and she is sharp around the edges. Her mother suffers from lupus, that’s why Alice applied to study Philosophy at Carvell – she wanted to stay close to her family. There is a brewing anger inside of Alice, and it’s ready to spill…

The two opposites become roommates. Lottie is desperate to be liked and makes it her mission for her and Alice to become friends, much to Alice’s dismay and indifference.

Soon, strange things happen to Lottie. She sleepwalks and each night wakes up at the foot of the North Tower. Is she about to become its next victim?

Meanwhile, Alice finds an old book about soul purifications. She decides she had enough of being constantly angry and pushing people away, so she performs a ritual written in the book. However, she is completely unaware of the ramifications of her actions…

When another person is found dead at the bottom of the North Tower, can Lottie and Alice finally uncover the truth about Carvell?

I really enjoyed this audiobook. I liked the idea of two narrators, one reading chapters relating to Lottie, and the other to Alice. It really brought the characters to life.

There is an underlying theme of female anger featuring in the book and how it’s negatively regarded by the society, particularly men. I feel that the author portrayed the issue with merit.

I loved the supernatural element in the story, the talk of rituals and possessions.

This is an older YA novel, it’s gothic, tense. Definitely a perfect read for the upcoming Hallowe’en season.

Thank you to Electric Monkey for approving my NetGalley request to listen to this audiobook.

I love the concept for this. Sapphic, dark academia? Yes please! But ultimately, this book didn't win me over as much as I wanted it to. The plot felt a little weak and under-developed, with characters who felt quite samey. The two MCs were basically an amalgam of icons and tropes to make up for a dearth of actual character development and zero romantic tension.

Ultimately, this was a disappointment.

I was sold on this book because it's a sapphic retelling of Jekyll and Hyde and I immediately saw that tagline and was like...so much yes. Gimme. I've been super highly anticipating this book as a result and while I did enjoy it in parts, it did ultimately fall flat for me.

First of all, I literally did an entire research paper and source analysis on the Loudon possessions as well as a few other papers on possessions as part of a history module I did at University for Witchcraft etc, so I was living for that aspect of this!

While I did find the book to be quite gripping initially and I had a lot of curiosity about it, I found that interest starting to wane a little bit over the course of the book. One of my main issues with this is that I honestly didn't have a distinct voice for Lottie and a distinct voice for Alice and I'd frequently get confused about whose POV it was supposed to be as they were very similar and they weren't all that distinct from each other. While I initially liked the characters, I did start to get irritated at all the lack of explanation for why certain things were happening or why they were behaving a certain way which started to detract from the enjoyment of the book in my opinion.

Like many other reviewers have said, I feel like there could have been more depth to the book. More plot, more worldbuilding, more build up of the romance because I honestly spent a chunk of the book wondering how this was supposed to be sapphic and then it was kind of shoved in at the end and I'd been expecting a slow burn romance but this wasn't it.

I also thought it would be a little more darker but it reached a point when it was a little bit meh and things grew repetitive. I was also growing concerned about how the book wrapped up and I found myself ultimately disappointed with the ending. It felt a little bit rushed and convenient and the messages that were trying to be conveyed just didn't hit right and felt kind of shoved in at the end at the last minute.

All in all, this had a good start but it fizzled out and left me feeling quite disappointed. Perhaps my expectations were too high for what this was, although I did enjoy the references to Loudon and the possessions!

As for the Narrator, I think they did a truly wonderful job however even they weren't enough for me to form a distinction between Lottie and Alice. They did, however, do a great job of building up tension and did keep me reading, or listening as the case may be.

A sapphic dark thriller about female rage - it's perfect for the spooky season. My only complaint is that the relationship felt last minute and rushed. The build up that the story did have was enjoyable but infrequent. Otherwise the story was interesting and enjoyable!

I found this modern teen tale inspired by Jekyll and Hyde okay. It has brilliant ideas but is slightly repetitive and belabours both it’s plot and the subtext.

There is YA which gets to it’s highest highs better and with more style, but the sense of atmosphere is excellent and the two main characters are both distinct and very well drawn.

A page turning YA which does hold interest very well while reading - you’re just not sure you’re going to remember it a few months later.

I really liked this book, the characters were great and the storyline was engaging, the narration of the audiobook was also good