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

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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samanthaxjean's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

2.25

I wanted to like this more so badly. I listened to the audiobook and I think the narrators were not for me. The story was okay, kinda slow and confusing. Ending was disappointing.

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jaedyn's review against another edition

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The writing felt forced and I couldn’t bring myself to care enough about the characters. After 134 pages, I had definitely read more than I should have.

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gen_wolfhailstorm's review against another edition

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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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raye_charlie's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense

4.0

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raphynette's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

3.75

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avidreaderandgeekgirl's review against another edition

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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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of_fantasy_and_fibre's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

I loved the two main characters and how they wrapped up and packaged their anger. This is a strong theme in this book and the way the world labels women and their anger. The grump /sunshine plot in this worked well not because they made each other better but how they came together to give an overall balance to each challenge they faced. This overall was a hopeful story in how to give us the will to turn that anger we feel into motivation to arm ourselves and not let it turn into self hatred. As an angry girl who has somewhat been given the tool to realise it's passion and caring at the heart of my anger I invite you to take the little trip into this world and hopefully find what your anger is rooted in.

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