Jekyll and Hyde inspired story…school setting…supernatural…I was curious about this the moment I saw it on NetGalley, and I wasn’t disappointed.
The elite Carvell College of Arts has a fantastic academic reputation, but it’s association with student deaths has haunted it. Ever since her family friend Janie died there, having jumped from the infamous North Tower, Lottie is determined to find out what happened. Much against her family’s wishes, Lottie enrols at the college.
From the outset she feels a darkness to the place. Her roommate, Alice, appears unnaturally angry. Lottie finds herself waking in the middle of the night, covered in dirt, with no memory of having left her room. One morning she finds herself with a ruby - which seems to come from the statue of Saint Maria - embedded in her neck. Whenever she talks about leaving the place, the ruby grips her throat and causes intense physical pain. Soon after their arrival at college a student is found dead outside the North Tower. On the night in question Alice (having experimented in a ritual she finds written down in a mysterious book in the library) has several unaccounted hours and wakes drenched in blood.
When I see those events recorded in the way I have just presented them, this book sounds crazy. It requires you to suspend your disbelief and trust that the supernatural elements serve a purpose...and they do.
Once the parallels between Jekyll and Hyde were explicitly made, and we focused on the mystery surrounding the college, the book became more interesting. At its heart it is a story about friendship, love and trusting in others to help - while taking on those who would do their best to crush women simply for daring to have strong emotions!

I really enjoyed this book, the beginning could have been a little faster, and the ending a little more explosive however I did love the characters and how they developed thought the book. The writing was great and the overall idea for the book was exactly as expected from the description provided beforehand.
Would definitely read another book by this author.

The Society for Soulless Girls is a young adult thriller that retells the Jekyll and Hyde story at an exclusive university for the arts with a dark past. The infamous North Tower at Carvell College of Arts is where four students died ten years ago and Carvell closed, but now it is reopening, and Lottie, hockey-playing English student with a desire to investigate what really happened at Carvell, and Alice, goth Philosophy student with some anger issues, are starting there and find themselves put together as roommates, albeit ones with little in common. When Alice finds a book containing a soul-splitting ritual in the library, the cycle seems to be starting again, and Lottie and Alice must get over their differences to try and uncover the truth.

This book is very much aimed at the dark academia market (it even has a character who dresses like the aesthetic, quotes philosophy and literature, and at one point mentions The Secret History), with a focus on actual gothic, supernatural goings on as well as the prestigious yet dark education environment. The perspective of the narrative is split between Lottie and Alice, as their encounters with the secrets of Carvell combine with an enemies-to-lovers romance, and the pace is good, with plenty going on. The tone was a little darker than I expected, which pleasantly surprised me (I hadn't realised the characters would be 18/19 and starting uni, rather than at school, which again was a pleasant surprise), though some of the writing was less up my street (one character spends an entire scene talking in memes).

The engagement with Jekyll and Hyde was very interesting, with the book really focused on female anger and society's expectations of outlets for rage, and hinting towards ideas of gothic as ways of expressing repressed and difficult things in society. I liked the slightly sinister reputation of the gothic literature course, which brought a nice side of The Secret History-esque 'what if you studied something theoretical but for real life' though wasn't as prevalent in the book as you might expect. The quoting of philosophy and literature throughout made it ideal for pretentious teenagers (I'm sure I would've liked it when I was younger for that) who the genre is clearly ideal for.

Combining a mystery, a romance, and a look at how female rage is treated, The Society for Soulless Girls is a fun thriller that really taps into a bunch of things that I think will appeal to the target audience. It's one of those young adult books that is perfect for getting audiences intrigued by some of the intellectual and literary ideas within whilst also being genuinely entertaining to read and with enough darkness to at least keep it interesting.

This witchy, gothic horror murder mystery is a treat, so long as you don't make my mistake of reading it on a stormy night whilst home alone and find yourself unable to sleep for a week!

Carvell College closed after a series of unsolved murders, but 10 years later it has reopened its doors. Students Lottie and Alice find themselves drawn into a world they couldn't have imagined whilst searching for answers.

This book has such an eerie vibe, I found myself both gripped and hesitant to read on. Definitely one worth picking up!

I received a copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Ten years ago, four students lost their lives in the infamous North Tower murders at the elite Carvell College of Arts, forcing Carvell to close its doors. Now Carvell is reopening, and fearless student Lottie is determined to find out what really happened. But when her roommate, Alice, stumbles upon a sinister soul-splitting ritual hidden in Carvell's haunted library, the North Tower claims another victim.

Can Lottie uncover the truth before the North Tower strikes again? Can Alice reverse the ritual before her monstrous alter ego consumes her? And can they stop flirting for literally fifteen seconds in order to do this?

Wow. Wow. Wow.

If you're craving a sapphic, dark academia retelling of Jekyll and Hyde with a sprinkle of haters-to-lovers AND the sunshine/grumpy pairing... you've come to exactly the right place.

I don't spook very easily. In fact, I can read the most uncomfortable topics without flinching, and horror (when done right) is one of my favourite genres. What can I say? Sometimes your gal needs an adrenaline rush.

But for some reason, this book managed to creep. Me. Out.

I think it was maybe the mention of Mr Blobby on the first page that set me up with the nightmarish vibes for the rest of the book. Or maybe it was Salem the immortal (and hellishly chaotic) campus cat.

Actually, I think it was the reality of the topic - that women are not allowed to feel angry, and definitely not allowed to show it in our society. I feel it myself sometimes; the way it can eat you alive, make you feel crazy. But most importantly, anger with no where to go makes you feel utterly powerless.

Ultimately, this book was about the manipulation of women's emotions and how suppressing them can have dire consequences. And also, it's about how we can't fight the system alone. We are powerful when we put our anger together.

On a lighter note, I LOVED the philosophy weaved expertly into the narrative. Laura doesn't underestimate her reader - she discusses complex concepts whilst at the same time writing with a clarity that provides any philosophy novice with confidence.

The plot was exciting, unpredictable, and surprisingly lacking in religious imagery considering Lottie was possessed by a nun. I was really grateful for this, because sapphic stories too often have the threat of Christianity hanging over them like a storm cloud.

The Society for Soulless Girls is fabulously unsettling with waves of humour and heart. It is easily one of the best books I've read all year, and I'm so excited for you all to read it!

This is an unusual but compelling YA feminist horror/tale of the supernatural. I found it unpredictable and difficult to put down and I enjoyed the heavy references to Jekyll and Hyde, Poe and other gothic works/authors. The representation was well done (LGBTQ+ and neurodiverse characters) and all in all this was an interesting feminist take on a gothic tale of personalities, emotions and control. Goth-phase teenage me from the past would have been memorising parts of it I think!

Thank you to NetGalley and Team Farshore/Electric Monkey for the arc

The Society For Soulless Girls by Laura Steven’s was so unlike anything I’ve read before and I throughly enjoyed it! After a series of unsolved murders a school is closed. The story follows two girls Alice and Lottie who become roommates when a decade later the doors are opened to students again. Lottie sets it upon herself to solve the murders but what lies ahead is something she never expected.

This stories plot was so interesting and kept me hooked the entire time. Part horror/thriller and sapphic romance, what’s not to like?

I loved the different representation, from Lottie’s ace-spec sexuality to a side character who’s neuro-divergent

This book does contain a scene with animal cruelty which was very hard to read and mentions of sexual assault as well as physical assault.