Reviews tagging 'Sexual harassment'

The Society of Soulless Girls by Laura Steven

26 reviews

gen_wolfhailstorm's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• 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

 The Details:
 Narrated by Farrah Cave and Beth Easdown
Unabridged 

Absolutely adored Every Exquisite Thing, so was excited to see that Steven's debut was available through my library app.

This is a sapphic, modern gothic retelling of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
I'm not sure if it wad the share name of Lottie combined with the sapphic grumpy x sunshine, but it at first had a wholesome likness to The Rosewood Chronicles. It also reminded me of Claire and Elise from The Coldest Touch.

This was such a good story! 
I definitely see improvements in storytelling and writing style in the delivery of the modern gothic/dark academia genre, going back to this after reading Every Exquisite Thing, but it wasn't off putting.

The conversations did feel a little more juvenile than I'd expected but it was easily overlooked once I connected to the characters and got really invested in the story.

This inspiration of the classic has made me appreciate the themes of mental health that the original introduces.

I hope there are more in to come from these retellings, as I see these as becoming very beloved.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Sexual harassment, Murder, Sexual content, Bullying, Child death, Toxic relationship, Gore, Gaslighting, Grief, Sexual assault, Violence, Animal cruelty, Blood, Body horror, Death, Death of parent, and Toxic friendship

avidreaderandgeekgirl's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

3.25

    Lottie and Alice start at the newly reopened  Carvell College of Arts. But history starts to repeat itself as a new series of killings start, eerily similar to the ones from ten years ago that caused it to close its doors. 
    This book is reported to be dark and "funny". Dark yes, funny much less so. The animal murder is resolved in a way that makes it less traumatic to the reader, but at the time it happens it's very dark and disturbing. As an animal lover, I had to stop reading the book for the day after that scene.
    I get where the author was coming from with the message about female anger and how it needs to be accepted and we need to change the sexism in the world. I really wish the author had stayed away from harming animals. I'm a person who prefers human death to animal death in fiction.
    The book was decent. I liked the premise but the execution wasn't as good as possible. 

Extra ratings: Fluff - 0/5  Heartfelt- 4/5   Helpful-NA    Horror- 3/5    Inspiration- NA   Love aka Romance-2/5   Mystery-3/5    Predictability- 3/5    Spice- 0/5  Suspense- 2/5   Tear 3.5/5  Thrill- 3.5/5  Humor-1/5 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Animal death, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Violence, Blood, Sexism, and Misogyny

Moderate: Murder, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Body horror, Domestic abuse, Confinement, and Self harm

Minor: Chronic illness, Sexual harassment, and Dementia

sovner736's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

• 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Sexism and Blood

Minor: Sexual harassment and Vomit

styxx's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Animal death, Self harm, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Murder

bookishmillennial's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

disclaimer if you’ve read other reviews by me and are noticing a pattern: You’re correct that I don’t really give starred reviews, I feel like a peasant and don’t like leaving them and most often, I will only leave them if I vehemently despised a book. I enjoy most books for what they are, & I extract lessons from them all. Everyone’s reading experiences are subjective, so I hope my reviews provide enough information to let you know if a book is for you or not, regardless if I add stars or not. Find me on Instagram: @bookish.millennial or tiktok: @bookishmillennial

Premise (from the author’s own description!!!):
🥀 f/f enemies to lovers
🌲 Northumberland in the 90s
🔮 sinister rituals
🖤 slow burn romance
🩸 all-girl fight club
🌞 grump/sunshine
🛏 there’s only one bed
🔪 hurt/comfort

Thoughts:
Hmmmm, what to say, what to say…. I love a sapphic reimagining with ace representation of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde but I especially support young angry femmes. 

It was giving Wednesday x Enid & I didn’t hate that! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Animal death, Sexism, Misogyny, Sexual harassment, and Gaslighting

thecourtofreading's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

this left me with a lot of unsolved questions that i feel like could've been patched up at the end, although in general this book was actually alright. speaking of the ending, it did feel a little rushed, but this story was captivating enough that i wanted to keep reading, and i am somewhat satisfied with the ending we got.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Suicide, and Animal death

Minor: Sexual harassment

_p0ssum_'s review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Murder, and Animal death

Moderate: Suicide and Self harm

Minor: Sexual harassment and Sexual assault

zombiezami's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Animal cruelty, Religious bigotry, Animal death, Child death, Body horror, Physical abuse, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Misogyny, Suicide, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Vomit, Sexual assault, Forced institutionalization, Sexual harassment, Medical content, Torture, Gore, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, Stalking, Alcohol, Grief, and Rape

Minor: Infidelity

hayleythegoose's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Murder, Sexism, Animal cruelty, Violence, Animal death, Death, Misogyny, Body horror, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Suicide

Minor: Toxic relationship and Toxic friendship

itsnotalakeitsanocean's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

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

3.0

Overall I think this book is okay, but I don't think the blurb on the back of the book does a good job of explaining the basic premise of this story. I picked this book up for cheap in a final clearance sale at my local Forbidden Planet, so I'm not too annoyed.

Things I liked about it:

• It filled that Dark Academia niche that scratches at my brain on occasion.
• It was nice seeing a POC who is heavily implied to be autistic and have a sex life.
• It was nice seeing a slow burn, non-sexual sapphic relationship

Some minor nitpicks:

• I don't think the author realises you can be sapphic and asexual at the same time in the case of Lottie. Seeing how rare asexuality is portrayed in media (let alone respectfully) I can understand where this misunderstanding comes from, but maybe some further research/sensitivity readings would be warranted next time.
• Some of the descriptions can be a bit repetitive and sometimes got repeated pages apart from each other.
• The antagonists gave up far too easily. The girls' victory felt too easy when all they did was essentially walk up to a secret society meeting (in the back of some bar no less), barge in, speak up and threaten one of the family members and that was it. The clues were there for Dacre's true motivations but the "mystery" felt a bit half baked
• There were a bunch of loose ends that just ended up being dismissed at the end, almost in a very out of place fourth wall break as if the characters knew we'd be questioning these loose ends too.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Violence, Murder, and Blood

Moderate: Suicide, Misogyny, and Sexism

Minor: Sexual assault and Sexual harassment