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A review by carlisbookshelf
The London Séance Society by Sarah Penner
4.0
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ .5 out of ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Set in Paris/London in the late 1800’s Lenna Wickes is looking for answers in the unsolved murder of her sister. Knowing her sister was involved with spiritualism and seances, Lenna begins to study the art of mediumship under famed medium Vaudeline D’Allaire, a personal hero for Lenna’s sister. When Vaudeline is called to London to perform a seance of her own to help the London Seance Society solve the murder of their CEO, Lenna joins hoping to kill two birds with one stone to also solve the murder of her sister.
Penner took all the best aspects of the Lost Apothecary (aka the stories set in Victorian-ish era Europe with strong female characters and super dark atmospheric settings) and turned it up a few notches with this one. I loved the spookiness behind the story… and more importantly, I am a big fan of our two main heroines, Lenna and Vaudeline. I loved that they had such starkly opposite approaches to spiritualism (and life, I suppose) and yet they balanced each other out so well.
The only critique I had revolved around the final seance around the major climax of the book. I was kinda taken out of the story a little while reading because parts of that final seance came off as slightly chaotic and a little TOO fantastical/unrealistic for my liking. I totally get that the entire book was leading up to something big, but I personally just felt that, FOR ME, final seance scenes just crossed that uncanny valley.
REGARDLESS — and I may be treading into spoiler territory but, yolo. I am a FAN of unexpected LGBT/WLW storylines and was PLEASANTLY surprised that our two heroines ended up romantically together. (thank you for that lil nugget.)
Final thoughts: if you loved the parts of The Lost Apothecary that took place in the actual Apothecary, you’ll love this one. (Lost Apothecary was my favorite read of 2021 — if that helps sway your decision at all!)
Set in Paris/London in the late 1800’s Lenna Wickes is looking for answers in the unsolved murder of her sister. Knowing her sister was involved with spiritualism and seances, Lenna begins to study the art of mediumship under famed medium Vaudeline D’Allaire, a personal hero for Lenna’s sister. When Vaudeline is called to London to perform a seance of her own to help the London Seance Society solve the murder of their CEO, Lenna joins hoping to kill two birds with one stone to also solve the murder of her sister.
Penner took all the best aspects of the Lost Apothecary (aka the stories set in Victorian-ish era Europe with strong female characters and super dark atmospheric settings) and turned it up a few notches with this one. I loved the spookiness behind the story… and more importantly, I am a big fan of our two main heroines, Lenna and Vaudeline. I loved that they had such starkly opposite approaches to spiritualism (and life, I suppose) and yet they balanced each other out so well.
The only critique I had revolved around the final seance around the major climax of the book. I was kinda taken out of the story a little while reading because parts of that final seance came off as slightly chaotic and a little TOO fantastical/unrealistic for my liking. I totally get that the entire book was leading up to something big, but I personally just felt that, FOR ME, final seance scenes just crossed that uncanny valley.
REGARDLESS — and I may be treading into spoiler territory but, yolo. I am a FAN of unexpected LGBT/WLW storylines and was PLEASANTLY surprised that our two heroines ended up romantically together. (thank you for that lil nugget.)
Final thoughts: if you loved the parts of The Lost Apothecary that took place in the actual Apothecary, you’ll love this one. (Lost Apothecary was my favorite read of 2021 — if that helps sway your decision at all!)