NetGalley ARC | The Society for Soulless Girls

I received a free digital ARC from the publisher via NetGalley

Rating | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

So boarding schools and murder are always a sure-fire way to get me to read a book.

But to top it off, this book is highly inclusive in ways that don't feel forced. The characters don't all come out and say, "I am this-and-this-and-this", but they way they are written with such care, and fit seemlessly into the story and within their spaces in relation to other characters is beautiful. Sometimes I feel like authors write a character to fit certain requirements, then try to force that character into the plot in a way that is not organic, and ends up coming off as inauthentic. Not so here, at all.

This book is an lgbt+/POC friendly dark academia feminist retelling of Jekyll and Hyde that follows a pair of roommates who are set on solving an infamous cold case involving several murders on their campus a decade earlier.

Lottie and Alice are assigned as roommates at the Carvell Academy of the Arts. A decade earlier, four students died in the North Tower and the school closed. Lottie insists on finding out what really happened ten years earlier, while Alice discovers a ritual meant to stay hidden in a book in the school library.

Surely nothing can go wrong.

Unfortunately for one unlucky student, another death quickly follows the re-opening of the school, in the same location as the previous deaths.

It's so difficult to describe the plot any further, without giving away major spoilers. However, I will say that the moment the title of the book makes sense and everything clicks into place? PURE MAGIC. Chef's kiss. No notes.

On top of the inclusivity of characters, the thing I loved most was how the author represents rage in young women and girls. Our rage, our fury, is a thing of beauty in a society that wants us to be sweet and kind and docile. Society is frightened of our power, as it should be.

This is a book meant to be devoured in a single sitting. It is stunning, truly brilliant, and I loved every moment.

Highly recommended.