The Society for Soulless Girls is a dark academia thriller set on the campus of Carvell Academy of the Arts. The esteemed college and former convent houses a dark and mysterious past and has reopened ten years after four students died from falling out of the North Tower. One of the novel’s narrators, a freshman English major named Lottie, comes from the same hometown as one of the previously murdered students, and she is drawn to the college in the hopes of investigating the unsolved murders. The novel’s other narrator is her roommate Alice, a philosophy major who harbors anger issues and a violent streak. When a new student is killed in the North Tower, Lottie and Alice become involved in a dangerous plot to learn the truth, incriminating themselves in the process.
Steven’s book is a delightful read for fans of dark academia and offers plenty of atmosphere to set the stage for the story. The philosophical and literary studies of Lottie and Alice pair nicely with the frightening mystery, and when Alice uses a spell from a library book to perform an ancient soul splitting ritual that will soften her anger, the novel reworks key themes from Robert Louis Stevenson’s Gothic masterpiece the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The Society for Soulless Girls expertly uses the supernatural to explore the way society teaches young women to suppress their anger, guilt, and shame, ultimately showing how these emotions must be integrated with hope and love to form wholeness.
In addition to navigating a haunting atmosphere, Lottie, an outgoing athlete, and Alice, an introverted Goth, must find a way to survive the transition to college, live with one another in a small dorm room, and face their own social insecurities. The novel also hints at a Sapphic romance. This is the perfect Young Adult/New Adult read for those interested in classic literature, dark academia, and coming of age stories. I would definitely consider using this text in my Young Adult Literature classroom! You can find the book here.
Thank you to NetGalley for a free copy of the book in exchange for a fair review.
Kelly Jarvis works as the Assistant Editor for The Fairy Tale Magazine where she writes stories, poems, essays, book reviews, and interviews. Her poetry has also been featured or is forthcoming in Blue Heron Review, Mermaids Monthly, Eternal Haunted Summer, Forget Me Not Press, The Magic of Us, A Moon of One’s Own, Baseball Bard, and Corvid Queen. Her short fiction has appeared in The Chamber Magazine and the World Weaver Press Anthology Mothers of Enchantment: New Tales of Fairy Godmothers. You can connect with her on Facebook (Kelly Jarvis, Author) or Instagram (@kellyjarviswriter) or find her at https://kellyjarviswriter.com/
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