A review by itsnotalakeitsanocean
The Society for Soulless Girls by Laura Steven

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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.

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