4.5 stars
What a brilliant and creative book. I adored Eleanor as a character, she was both naive and clever in her actions. The historic setting for her chapters were so fleshed out and well researched that it really felt like I was living in that era with her and Emily. I also liked Elizabeth, as far as unlikeable characters go. Her unflinching cruelty made her easy to hate and root against, a perfect combination of characters for a story like this.

The plot, inclusion of magic, history, immortality and everything else was so unique. It had elements of other fantasy-esque stories I’ve read, but the horror aspect made this stand apart. I found myself racing towards the end, desperately trying to fit the puzzle pieces and figure out what was happening. I won’t give anything away, but there are a few twists towards the end that were plotted and planned super well. A thrilling, macabre and addictive book.

Drawn in by the cover, title and synopsis I dnf sorely disappointed this didn't live up to the hype. For me it fell flat I was confused with plot and characters, I really feel this could be so much more without the complexity.

This book left me very unsettled. I found it hard to get through parts due solely to the heaviness of the subject matter. I think this book will strike a lot of people in the same way. I am glad to have read it and been affected by it.

I dnf this one. Not because the story was bad but I wasn't able to dive in it at all. It's flat and not at all what the vibes sounded on the summary. And the forced white mode is painful to read. I'll not post review on my social and blog about it as I didn't finish the book.

"Slashed Beauties" started out really strong in my opinion, building up the tension and my expectations, but the last third didn't really work for me. The ending felt rather anti-climactic.

Slashed beauties was a spellbinding tale of sisterhood, betrayal and reclamation revolving around three 18th century anatomical Venuses. Legend has it, these beauties are bewitched, coming to life to murder men who have wronged them.

The story was told through a dual timeline which I loved, bouncing between the 1700s and present day.

One perspective is Eleanor, an 18th century girl who has run away to London to seek out a new life, where she meets a charming woman called Elizabeth who promises her hope and the opportunity of allowing her to experience the finer things in life if she joins her soon to be Sérail.

The other perspective is Alys, a present day antiques dealer who is offered a great sum of money to collect and destroy one of the venuses.

I absolutely loved this story and found myself adoring the characters Eleanor and Emily. The story really took me on an emotional journey as I experienced both hope and turmoil with the characters.

I did guess one of the plot twists at the end but that made it even more of an enjoyable read for me by being able to read the story unfurl as I had hoped.

It truly is a beautiful gothic tale that I would urge people who love historical fiction with a mix of fantasy and gothic themes to read!

Thank you NetGalley and the author for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review - I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book!

2.5⭐️ This is described as gothic feminist horror novel which is one of my favourite genres and the blurb sounded great so I couldn’t wait to dive into it. Unfortunately it fell flat for me and it wasn’t at all what I was expecting.

I found it very slow and quite confusing in places and I can’t really tell you what the plot was because I don’t feel like it had much of one. It was also very repetitive especially in the historical storyline.

Disappointed I didn’t enjoy it but thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this before publication in exchange for an honest review

This is a book I’m going to be thinking about for a long time.

Slashed Beauties is a haunting and disconcerting yet thought-provoking novel told from dual POV. There is a legend of three 18th-century wax models of women, known as Anatomical Venuses or 'slashed beauties', and legend says they are bewitched, coming to life to murder men who have wronged them.

Eleanor is an 18th-century sex worker. Young and naive, she is taken in by Elizabeth and Emily, who promise her a life of luxury if she joins their soon to be illustrious sérail.

Alys is a modern day antiques dealer, offered an extremely generous amount of money to transport one of the anatomical venuses to London - but she is told that it must be destroyed when it gets there.

“𝑭𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚, 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒔𝒆 𝒎𝒆𝒏 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒈𝒆𝒕 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒗𝒆. 𝑾𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒎𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒊𝒕. 𝑻𝒐𝒈𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓.”

A story of sisterhood and betrayal, this is a gothic feminist horror that made me sad and angry from start to end. Emily and Eleanor were by far my favourite characters, I was absolutely enamoured by them and how their story unfolded. But it was really the end of this book that hit me the most, and the plot twist that I truly never saw coming.

I would give this 6⭐️ if I could, genuinely.