Reviews with content warning for Body horror - The London Séance Society

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."

Content Warnings

caseyblue75's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

I was so excited for this one after The Lost Apothecary. The beginning was so painfully slow that I almost quit reading. The men felt flat with vile being their only characteristic, and that one notedness didn’t feel believable. Towards the end the plot picked up as the reader and characters start to uncover things with the love interest being a pleasant surprise.

Content Warnings

torturedreadersdept's review

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

theespressoedition's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.0

Content Warnings

gee_reads_books's review

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.25

"Established in 1860, the mission of the London Séance Society is to provide clairvoyance and mediumship services throughout the city of London, with the intent of providing peace to mourners and satisfying the populace's growing curiosity about the afterlife."

In Sarah Penner's sophomore novel, "The London Séance Society", we meet one miss Lenna Wickes who is trying to find out who murdered her sister. Despite being a skeptic regarding anything afterlife-related, the need to solve Evie's death sees Lenna becoming renowned medium Vaudeline d'Allaire's apprentice. Under Vaudeline's tutorship, Lenna will find out that another gruesome murder took place the night Evie died; that there's a lot more to the mysterious London Séance Society than it seems; and that the spirit world might be more real, and more dangerous, than she ever thought.

Through the winding streets of Victorian London, and in the hushed backrooms of upperclass houses, this novel takes place in an exquisitely Gothic manner. There's a certain melancholy to Penner's writing, a certain delight in the dark details of the tale, that make this a perfect read for stormy nights in front of a fireplace—or, if you're like me and don't have one, in front of a YouTube video of fireplace ASMR. Filled with ghosts, mystery, and tangled deceit, this was an excellent read for the rainy week we've had where I live, and I was mesmerised by the tale Penner has spun.

Our main character, Lenna, is an exceptionally intelligent young woman who loved her sister enough to plunge into a supernatural world of séances and mediumships she doesn't believe in, if only in case it'll lead her to Evie's murderer. Despite her lack of belief in anything that can't be explained by science, Lenna finds herself growing ever closer to her mentor, the elegant and renowned Vaudeline d'Allaire, who has more than one trick up her sleeve. Even though Lenna and Vaudeline start off student and teacher, they soon develop a much tighter bond, which evolved right before my eyes in a heartwarming way. I was really fond of these two women—but also really intrigued about whether they would get this or that resolution, since more than one character's doings kept twisting reality and messing with Lenna's head. I was really glad to find that, despite being women in a Victorian society that held little to no sympathy towards females, Lenna and Vaudeline didn't allow any man to step on them and their skills. As misogynistic as many male characters were, this book was also filled with strong female characters who stood their ground, and I was absolutely delighted to watch them thrive.

This book has another narrator: mister Morley, one of the most important men in the London Séance Society, who hides a deep insecurity and secrets he would do anything to keep safe. Morley's chapters, unlike Lenna's, were told in first person, and it was really intriguing to go down that path and see things from his point of view. I believe that seeing things through his eyes really added to the mystery, and the eventual unfolding of the truth—no matter how much I disliked him personally, I was really fascinated by him as a character.

Although the story took a bit to truly capture me, once I got into the rhythm of it I was hooked. I felt like I would've liked a slightly broader plot, but everything tied up nicely; and there were a couple of plottwist that, although previsible, nonetheless made me gasp and hold my chest. I was entertained all along, and I would, without a doubt, recommend this book to everyone who enjoys good murder mysteries, spirit world reads, and strong females proving misogynistic times wrong!

Content Warnings

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