Reviews with content warning for Murder - The Society for Soulless Girls

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.

Content Warnings

kmarlowe'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? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

It’s felt like dark academia met The Sex Lives of College Girls (without the sex). Not necessarily a bad thing! I think it was an intriguing plot but lost me a bit in the end.

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grrrlbrarian's review against another edition

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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? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A really enjoyable read - loved how dark, tense and moody this novel was. Also loved the relationship between Lottie and Alice, and Alice's past with Noemie, which really echoed my own experience as a teenager. About 2/3 of the way through the book, I did start to feel a bit lost and the plot felt like it was all over the place, but it all came back together in the end.

Side note specific to the audiobook: this is the first audiobook I've listened to, and although I loved the narrators' emotional and funny performance, I did find it frustrating that they constantly mispronounced things, including Hafsah's name. Could really have done with someone to check pronunciations during recording.

Content Warnings

kategorveatte's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

Look, I had a nice review written out for this book on Goodreads that I was going to copy and paste over here. But when I went to click "Done" my iPad registered a downward swiping motion and my review disappeared... I might try to rewrite it tomorrow but the gist of it was great dark-academia with lovable characters despite their focus on their flaws, with the exception of one very dark moment meant to be a catalyst that really just made me nauseous.

Content Warnings

raynearchv's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? N/A

3.5

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