Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

The Society for Soulless Girls by Laura Steven

11 reviews

sinnybuns's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense 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

An incredible depiction of female rage and how easy it is to fall into the trap of believing that in order to be accepted by society, you need to be “nice” and “sweet”. I love that Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was incorporated into the story. I also particularly loved that being in love with someone of the same sex was completely normalised. No huge coming out moments or internalised homophobia like you so often find in sapphic romance, especially YA sapphic romances. 
This book is a slow burn in terms of romance but the plot itself moves quickly. If you’re looking to read this for the romance only, don’t. You will be disappointed. The love story shared between the two main characters is a sub-plot and not a main focus in this book. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Animal cruelty, Murder, Animal death, Death, Self harm, Suicide, Sexual harassment, and Suicide attempt

raye_charlie's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Violence

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Suicide, Sexism, Self harm, Death, and Animal cruelty

Minor: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Blood, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Mental illness

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 

---

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

of_fantasy_and_fibre's review

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.

---

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

matcha_cat's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Mental illness, Religious bigotry, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Murder, Violence, Misogyny, Death, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Self harm, Alcohol, Blood, and Physical abuse

kmarlowe's review against another edition

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.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Suicide, Mental illness, Murder, Sexual assault, and Religious bigotry

babsi_222's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark informative mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

goth-dark academia-fall-queer-1990‘s-angry women-blood ritual

This book was amazing and great for me! If you like some mystery a bit psychology and witchy stuff you will love this book! I’m usuall not into this genre but this book is an exception. 
Also if you like the Netflix show ‚Wednesday‘ this is a great book to read because the characters and vibes are similar.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Chronic illness, Death, Gore, Grief, Physical abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, Misogyny, Stalking, Torture, Animal death, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Animal cruelty, Sexual harassment, Suicide, and Vomit

ashlislibrary's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious fast-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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, and Suicide

emhromp's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious 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

"Ohhhh a book about female rage! Sold."

I admire Laura Steven for always teaching her readers something about feminism without being obvious about it. Like, feminism is part of every day life. 
This book was interesting, eerie and funny. 
The title mismanaged my expectations. I expected the society to be a major part of the story, so I kept waiting for the actual story about the society to begin, and then suddenly it had already almost finished. 
So, boys and girls, don't expect this book to be about a society, because it isn't, despite the title.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Suicide, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, and Death

Minor: Sexual harassment

matheo's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring mysterious

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Child death, Grief, Religious bigotry, Gore, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Alcohol, Cursing, Medical content, and Mental illness