Told in dual timeline. The book will give you the vibe of eighteenth century london. It has a shroud of mystery and filled with unsettling happenings. The timeline of 1763 was quite intriguing and drew me in quickly. While the other timeline had buried mysteries and cursed connection. In the midst of darkness, secrets, and history, Antique dealer Alys ventures on an oddsey to find the reason behind her cursed connection to Venuses. She discover dark secrets and truth. While in other timeline, Elizabeth was city’s most desired courtesan. She was hiding so many secrets and her motives were questionable. When both timelines intersect, the truth comes out and it all makes sense.

4.5

Thanks to the Publisher

A gothic tale focusing on the Anatomical Venesus and their imagined origins. A clever concept with atmospheric writing, but fairly predictable with generic villains and a vague magic system. It had a lot of potential though, so I'll be interested to see what the author does next.

I absolutely loved this book! Drew me in from the very first word and captured my attention all the way till the end. SO good!!!

Thank you to Verve Books and NetGalley for the ARC of Slashed Beauties!

The story follows Alys, in present day, and Eleanor in 18th century London, as tends to be the issue with multi-POVs there always seems to be one POV that grabs people more than the other. In Slashed Beauties this was Eleanor for me. The characters felt more fleshed out and the plot was definitely more captivating. That isn't to say that Alys' POV wasn't interesting, following the legend of the Venuses and Alys' need to destroy them while being hounded by difficulties.

While I would recommend this to people, I would definitely warn them of the themes of this book as they do skew darker and perhaps difficult for some people to read, that being said I did enjoy this story.

This was such a cool, eerie read. Slashed Beauties blends gothic vibes, creepy wax figures, feminist rage, and a touch of witchcraft—all wrapped up in two timelines that actually work really well together.

In the past, we follow Eleanor, who gets drawn into a dangerous world of men, money, and control. In the present, Alys is trying to track down the last of three Anatomical Venuses—haunted, lifelike wax women—and finally destroy them. The more you read, the more the two stories start to reflect and echo each other in smart, emotional ways.

I really liked how the dual POV wasn’t just a gimmick—it meant something. The pacing kept me interested, the horror was unsettling without being over the top, and the themes—about grief, survival, and reclaiming power—really hit.

If you like dark, feminist stories with a slow-build unease and some genuinely creepy imagery, I’d definitely recommend this.

What a brilliant and creative novel. I was completely drawn in by the historical sections, especially Eleanor’s story—her character struck a unique balance of naivety and sharpness that made her arc feel both tragic and compelling. The 18th-century setting was so richly written, I felt completely immersed. Elizabeth, while thoroughly unlikeable, was such a vivid antagonist that she became one of the story’s standouts.

The dual timelines worked well, though I found myself more invested in the past than the present. Alys’s storyline, while intriguing, leaned a little too heavily into witchcraft, which didn’t quite match the tone set by the eerie, unexplained magic of the rest of the book. I would have loved to see the wax figures maintain their sense of mysterious menace without needing that explanation.

Still, the plot was utterly gripping. The mix of horror, magic, history, and revenge was original and thrilling, with twists that kept me racing to the end. While some characters could’ve been more memorable, this was an addictive and macabre read I’d definitely recommend.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and VERVE Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for this advanced reader's copy and the opportunity to this early. Review has been posted on Waterstones and Goodreads.

This didn’t work for me

I kinda feel like I should apologize for putting this book on your updates feeds, because a woman with a torn open back might be a little too much for some people. The cover does fit the book remarkably well though, and it ultimately was what caught my attention in the first place. It's a fictional story about the morbid real-life history of the so-called Anatomical Venuses, or Slashed Beauties – anatomical wax figures of women that were used for medical education purposes. And because men apparently can't learn anything if a body isn't prettily laid out before them, the wax models were a strange mix of beauty and violence, sex and death. It's such an interesting topic, and I'm really glad that this book introduced me to it.

The story is told in dual timelines. Alys is a present day antiques dealer who finally gets a hold of one of three Anatomical Venuses. Her goal, however, is to destroy the wax models, because they are said to be cursed with coming to life and murdering the men that harmed them. The other plotline follows Eleanor in 1769s London as she starts life as a sex worker after she got talked into it by the elegant and generous Elizabeth. Eleanor is promised a glamorous and easy lifestyle but slowly realizes that she is used in more than one way. The past storyline shows how the wax figures came to be in the first place while the present-day chapters are about their end. I was more invested in the past storyline, mostly because the present-day destruction of the wax figures was connected to witchcraft and that just didn't fit the overall story at all in my opinion. I would have preferred the supernatural aura surrounding the wax models to be some kind of unexplained magic rather than witchcraft with evil intent. The witchcraft also took away the opportunity to make this a true revenge story, because the wax women were always controlled by someone. It would have helped too if the characters had stronger personalities. I found both Alys and Eleanor to be quite unremarkable. That doesn't mean that I didn't like to follow them around, but they were both way less intriguing than the side character of Elizabeth, which made for a unbalanced constellation of characters. So yes, I had some problems with this book, but I still had the most interesting reading experience. It's more of a 3.5 star book for me, but I would recommend it if the topic sounds compelling to you.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and VERVE Books for providing a digital arc in exchange for an honest review.

I thoroughly enjoyed this dark and twisty novel, and days after finishing I am still struck by thoughts of it at times, and want others to read it so I can talk about it with someone. This is a tragic story, a horror of more than visceral proportions, beautiful and wicked. Its setting, its characters, its prose, its pacing - everything has a thick, tremulous texture to it. Simply divine!

I understand that this is an uncorrected proof version of the novel, but it felt like getting just a glimpse of it.
I mean, the story is strong, but the execution falls flat. It's so confusing, like the editing process was just at the very beginning. It needs massive interventions, that might make it a brilliant book. So far, it feels like an embryo of a cool book. Pay attention to the repetitions, there are way too many. I know it's more common in the us market but it was very annoying.
The concept was great, it needs to be heavily revised and the story will truly shine!

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.