Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

The Society for Soulless Girls by Laura Steven

5 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

of_fantasy_and_fibre's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Bullying, Misogyny, Blood, Violence, Emotional abuse, and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Bullying, Sexual assault, Gaslighting, Suicide, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, and Mental illness

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

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

grrrlbrarian's review against another edition

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.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Body horror, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Gaslighting

Minor: Chronic illness, Suicide, Misogyny, and Vomit