Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

The London Séance Society by Sarah Penner

11 reviews

kelisabeth's review against another edition

emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Biphobia, Sexual content, Fire/Fire injury, Misogyny, Classism, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Alcohol, Blood, Grief, Lesbophobia, Toxic relationship, and Gore

whimsylee's review

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

Loved the Victorian spiritualism  and the sapphic romance. The mystery pulled me in and compelled me to keep reading. Some of the writing was redundant and I personally disliked the use of misogyny in this book. If you like spooky/historical mysteries and sapphic romance, I recommend this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, Grief, Blood, Misogyny, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexism, and Alcohol

Minor: Vomit, Toxic relationship, Sexual violence, and Sexual content

emilywemily6's review

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

This one is kind of hard for me to rate, especially because I loved Penner’s first book! The writing at the beginning was hard to follow and so I was confused for the first half of the book that the beginning seance was Evie’s. The first half was kind of slow while the second half got more interesting and definitely picked up speed. I feel like these characters were overly sexualized and the focus on lust detracted from the story and from the other personality traits of the characters- literally everyone is obsessed with sex in this book. I found the society’s secrets very intriguing and how the scandal kept growing, though some of the “twists” were very predictable. I also feel like the ending wrapped up too nicely because of the paranormal being able to do things these characters could not. Lenna did some stupid things and often didn’t even try to fight her way out of tricky situations. I would have appreciated a bit more effort on her part. This book feels  different than Penner’s previous and while I generally enjoyed it, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Misogyny, Violence, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Sexism, and Death

Moderate: Rape and Sexual harassment

Minor: Alcohol

gracescanlon's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Blood, Death, Grief, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Murder, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Sexual content

blackcatkai's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

CW: blood, murder, death, lite sexual content, ableism, body shaming, gaslighting, sexism, sexual assault, alcohol, fire, classism, homophobia, toxic relationships, grief, some gun violence 

it was ok. I would've liked it more without Morleys POV but whatever. love me a good sapphic love story with ghosts. more of that, please! 

honestly my biggest issue was the constant framing of a port wine stain birthmark being ugly. I know this is a historical novel, but it is so frustrating seeing it constantly mentioned throughout the book. ready player one did this too and it pisses me off. 

your birthmark is not an imperfection, a problem, nor is it disgusting. there is nothing wrong with any type of birthmark, regardless of where it is. what size it is. nor its colouring. and dont let anyone or any book make you feel otherwise. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Classism, Murder, Toxic relationship, Sexism, Body shaming, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Ableism, Violence, Grief, and Blood

Moderate: Sexual assault, Lesbophobia, Homophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual content, Gun violence, and Alcohol

savheath's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Death, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Misogyny

Minor: Misogyny, Gun violence, and Rape

felofhe's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, Stalking, Toxic relationship, Violence, Classism, Cursing, Death, Murder, Blood, Gaslighting, Grief, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, and Sexual content

unboxedjack's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

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

1.75

Really disappointed with this one. It read like a sixth grader dabbling in queer fanfic: no character development, a predictable and lackluster plot, and eye rolling prose (if it can even be called that). 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Gaslighting, Grief, Death, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, and Murder

bookedandbusy's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

I enjoyed this one a lot! The spooky atmosphere was perfect and I really liked Lenna and Vaudaline! I found this a bit confusing at times but other than that I really enjoyed it! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Murder, Blood, and Toxic relationship

kelly_e's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

2.75

Title: The London Séance Society
Author: Sarah Penner
Genre: Historical Fiction
Rating: 2.75
Pub Date: March 7, 2023

T H R E E • W O R D S

Atmospheric • Reckless • Mystifying

📖 S Y N O P S I S

1873. At an abandoned château on the outskirts of Paris, a dark séance is about to take place, led by acclaimed spiritualist Vaudeline D’Allaire. Known worldwide for her talent in conjuring the spirits of murder victims to ascertain the identities of the people who killed them, she is highly sought after by widows and investigators alike.

Lenna Wickes has come to Paris to find answers about her sister’s death, but to do so, she must embrace the unknown and overcome her own logic-driven bias against the occult. When Vaudeline is beckoned to England to solve a high-profile murder, Lenna accompanies her as an understudy. But as the women team up with the powerful men of London’s exclusive Séance Society to solve the mystery, they begin to suspect that they are not merely out to solve a crime, but perhaps entangled in one themselves.

💭 T H O U G H T S

I am a sucker for a gorgeous floral cover, and this one certainly fits the bill, meaning I added it to my TBR without even reading the synopsis. Maybe that's where I made my first mistake, but this book ended up just not working for me.

The premise of two women performing séances in order to solve murders was so clever. And in my opinion the first 50 pages were very atmospheric and mysterious drawing me into the depths of the Victorian era. While I do have an interest in the afterlife and spiritual world, for me there was too much focus on the whodunit aspect than the actual paranormal aspect. As the story unfolds, it gets overly repetitive and it is easy to figure out who did it very early on. Therefore, the unraveling of the mystery felt sooooooo drawn out, and the séance wasn't as big a part of the story as it should have been.

But my biggest qualm is with the audio. It irritates me to no end when narrators mispronounce words in audiobooks. In this one there are a lot of French words or words drawn from the French language, and as someone who speaks French, these mispronunciations were incredibly bad! Like not even close! This issue could have been avoided if I'd kept to reading with my eyeballs, but I am not sure I'd have been able to make it through if I'd stuck to just the written copy.

At the end of the day, this one just fell really flat for me in its execution. I didn't care about or connect with any of the characters. And of course, I had a hard time getting passed the poor attempt at French by the narrators.

📚 R E C O M M E N D • T O
• fans of Murder She Wrote
• readers who like paranormal historical fiction

🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S

"We may die, but we are never really gone."

"There's no money in truth." 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, and Death

Moderate: Gore, Rape, Grief, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Body horror, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

Minor: Confinement, Homophobia, and Lesbophobia

sibling death