Reviews with content warning for Animal death - The Society for Soulless Girls

This book was slow at first, but once I started to get into it I started to enjoy it. I like how the main focus wasn't the romantic storyline, instead the mystery behind the North Tower curse and the chemistry between characters were great.

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amyteurhour's review against another edition

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2.0

Content warning: unsolved murder, assault, violence, self harm, suicide/suicidal thoughts, possession, animal death

cat killed

, misogyny, sexism, domestic and sexual abuse, attempted grooming

I felt like this was trying to do too much. The pacing felt so slow, even during the parts that should have been exciting/kept me hooked as the mystery ramps up, I just felt that it was the same as when things were still slow and starting out. The end felt like Steven was trying to cram social commentary, but the lead up to this hadn't really set things up for that. I didn't really click with either of the main characters, and felt that their friend was also kind of crammed into the story without getting much development.

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ohsunnyaa's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.25

Female rage isn't the same as anger issues, but this book seems to think they're synonymous.
I get what the author was trying to do, but she should have done more research than watching girlboss-feminism tiktoks.

Alice was just an asshole. She was mean to Lottie the second they met, because "she looked similar to her bullies" -the bullies we only see mentioned once as a poor excuse for her behavior. She yelled at a school administrator, because her papers were missing (something that maybe even wasn't that woman's fault). Only once does she get angry at a person who really deserves it.
Then she does a spell to make her anger disappear and it backfires.

Lottie was described as a "sunshine" but to be honest I never thought that about her no matter how many times the author tried to push it onto me. She wanted to uncover the mystery surrounding deaths on her campus. In order to do that she stalked her roommate and went through her things.

The thing that made me hate the book the most was that the conclusion was: let women be angry! #Feminism. The real villains are men so women should never take responsibility for their actions.
I don't even want to defend men. And some men here were terrible people. But not all of women's actions can be blamed on men.
Why was Alice mean to other girls? If a man did something terrible to her

And he really didn't. She cheated on her boyfriend with her girl best friend. When he found out she tried to kiss him against his will so he pushed her away and she fell on a table. And now she's so terrified of men and angry at them.

why take out your anger on women?
Why did Alice TW ANIMAL ABUSE

strangle a cat

?

It's not that I don't believe that living in patriarchal society influences the way women think and the way women's emotions are treated. I just think this book executed that poorly.

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izzyvioletgrace's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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librarianloading's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

I really wanted to love this book. I love sapphic romance, I love classic retellings... I really thought it would be right up my alley. The underlying themes of generational rage in women and taking back power were enough to keep me reading until the end. The

throat rubies felt very weird and unnecessary

but the rest of the supernatural elements were engaging. I almost DNFed at the vivid description of

Alice killing Salem

. I was not prepared for on-page animal cruelty. Overall, I think this would be a good read for its intended audience; however, as an adult reading YA, it fell short for me.

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oolymee's review against another edition

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3.5

There are lot of things I really loved about this book. It is an excellent, eerie, and unsettling retelling of Jekyll & Hyde. Also it's sapphic. And the enemies-to-lovers is brilliant. The descriptions of rage are gritty and feel very tangible if that makes sense.

The downside to this book is that there were a few ends that just weren't quite tied up in the ending. While I did enjoy the ending, I wish the ending had been just a bit longer with a heavier focus on where the characters go next.

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mconant's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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