#Laura Steven

[chaoticmiserablelover]

While I can't blame people for trying to market new releases, I would very much like to see them stop the comparison of every book with an academic setting to TSH. They truly are doing themselves a disservice since a lot of people will find the author making the comparison pretentious, or they will be overly critical because of that. And most importantly, people just get disappointed in the end when the tone of the book is completely different or it doesn't follow a similar storyline. 

Books about academia can exist without being compared to The Secret History and be just as good as TSH. 

This has been bothering me since I started to read more "dark academia" books. It just saddens me since, in the end, the most talked-about part is that the book is like TSH, which mostly ends up not being true, while the people who would like the premise probably miss it. 

I understand that comparisons are helpful, but at this point, I believe they're overdone.

[bones-clouds]

books i read in 2024:

"the society for soulless girls"

laura steven

rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

genre: dark academia, horror, mystery, wlw, ya

synopsis:

A dark and funny YA thriller with a supernatural twist. From the winner of the Comedy Women in Print Prize

Ten years ago, four students lost their lives in the infamous North Tower murders at the elite Carvell College of Arts, forcing Carvell to close its doors.

Now Carvell is reopening, and fearless student Lottie is determined to find out what really happened. But when her roommate, Alice, stumbles upon a sinister soul-splitting ritual hidden in Carvell’s haunted library, the North Tower claims another victim.

Can Lottie uncover the truth before the North Tower strikes again? Can Alice reverse the ritual before her monstrous alter ego consumes her? And can they stop flirting for literally fifteen seconds in order to do this?

Exploring possession and ambition, lust and bloodlust, femininity and violence, The Society of Soulless Girls is perfect for fans of Ace of Spaces, The Secret History and The Inheritance Games.

[shxpeshifterr]

Obsessed!!

[lgbtqreads]

Fave Five: Queer Dark Academia

For even more recs for dark academia fans, check out this post of Queer YA for Dark Academia Lovers. (Shopping links are affiliate; using them earns a small percentage of income for the site.) Society for Soulless Girls by Laura Steven (Bks) All That Consumes Us by Erica Waters (Bks) Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo (Bks) The World Cannot Give by Tara Isabella Burton (Bks) These Violent Delights by…

[musician-not-magician]

🌈June Books🌈

I used 🌈 before the title to indicate LGBTQ+ featured characters within the book. I rated each book from ⭐️ - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️. The books are listed in the order that I completed them.

🌈 “Breasts and Eggs” by Mieko Kawakami ⭐️⭐️⭐️

🌈 “The Society for Soulless Girls” by Laura Steven ⭐️

🌈 “Sunbringer” by Hannah Kaner ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

“The Princess Bride” by William Goldman ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🌈 “The Invocations” by Krystal Sutherland ⭐️⭐️⭐️

“The Dragon Republic” by R.F. Kuang ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🌈 “The Song of Achilles” by Madeline Miller ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

“The Iliad” by Homer; translation by Emily Wilson ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🌈 “This is How You Lose the Time War” by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone ⭐️⭐️⭐️

🌈 “Siren Queen” by Nghi Vo ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🌈 “Jade City” by Fonda Lee ⭐️⭐️⭐️

[horrorgirlreads]

My top 5 reads of 2023

(I wanted to include all new books as I did a lot of rereads this year)

[cottonthebutcher]

books I’ve read in 2024

The Society for Soulless Girls by Laura Steven

"Anger left to run free is like wildfire, indiscriminate in its destruction. But if you learn to tame it, to position it, to take aim with it? Then it becomes a candle. And what is the candle but one of man’s greatest assets? It warms. It nourishes. It shines a light in the darkest of places, and it illuminates the path forward."

[chudenko-art]

My headcanons (?) about Alice appearance from "The Society For Soulless Girls" by Laura Steven

The only details I remember from book descriptions that she had red hair, ice-blue eyes and scar on her lips that crooked when she smiled? Sorry, I have such a bad memory 😭

[gealach-in-a-misty-world]

Penny Paxton is the daughter of an icon. Her supermodel mother has legions of adoring fans around the world, and Penny is ready to begin her journey to international adoration, starting with joining the elite Dorian Drama School. When Penny’s new mentor offers her an opportunity she cannot refuse, to have a portrait painted by a mysterious artist who can grant immortal beauty to all his subjects, Penny happily follows in the footsteps of Dorian’s most glittering alumni, knowing that stardom is sure to soon be hers. But when her trusted mentor is found murdered, Penny realises she’s made a terrible mistake – a sinister someone is using the uncanny portraits to kill off the subjects one by one. As more perfectly beautiful students start to fall, Penny knows her time is running out . . . A seductive and searing exploration of beauty, identity, and what the pursuit of perfection can truly cost.

"Girls don't want beauty. Girls want power. And sometimes beauty is the closest substitute".

Laura Steven's Every Exquisite Thing is a YA feminist and sapphic retelling of The Portrait of Dorian Gray, with elements from the classic being woven in an interesting way. Without getting too much into spoiler territory, the link isn't as tenuous as one may think at first. The book comes with a much appreciated note at the beginning, detailing the book's trigger warnings.

The narration in first person serves the novel well, highlighting the main character's growing unease with the very real threat to her life and with the supernatural happenings around her. We get to feel her helplessness and see her struggle with anorexia in a way that is disconcerting and unnerving.

The book delves deep into the themes of beauty, control, and identity, aided by a prose that is stunning in its simplicity. The execution is lacking in some parts, especially in the second half, but the book makes up for it with its heart; perhaps the revelations towards the end might have been foreshadowed better.

Queer longing permeates the pages, with the tension between the two leads coming to an end in a frenzied scene that works all the better because the ending softens the edges and makes this novel a very real journey of self-discovery that can only end with healing. But while the main trio, and the relationship they shared, is well-developed, the other two recurring characters in Penny's set of friends end up being criminally underdeveloped. The adults, on the other hand, are written better, especially the tragic figure of Penny's mother.

Every Exquisite Thing is a book that helps young women.

✨ 4 stars

.

📚📚📚 IF YOU LOVE THIS, YOU MIGHT LIKE:

* I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast Is Me, by Jamison Shea

for: deals, sacrifice

[You can find more of my reviews about queer speculative fiction on my blog MISTY WORLD]

[bookaddict24-7]

New Young Adult Releases! (September 19th, 2023)

___

Have I missed any new Young Adult releases? Have you added any of these books to your TBR? Let me know!

___

New Standalones/First in a Series:

Nightbreaker by Coco Ma

When A Brown Girl Flees by Aamna Qureshi

How to Find A Missing Girl by Victoria Wlosok

A Prayer for Vengeance by Leanne Schwartz

The Forest Grimm by Kathryn Purdie

Of Dreams & Destiny by Sandhya Menon

All the Fighting Parts by Hannah V. Sawyerr

A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid

Champion of Fate by Kendare Blake

The Society for Soulless Girls by Laura Steven

The Only Girl in Town by Ally Condie

The Collectors by Various

Running Past Dark by Han Nolan

Archives of Despair by Caleb Finn

New Sequels:

Shadow Coven (The Witchery #2) by S. Isabelle

A Crown So Cursed (The Nightmare-Verse #3) by L.L. McKinney

___

Happy reading!

[axinite25]

I'm reading the Society for Soulless Girls for the first time and if Lottie doesn't hit Harris with a hockey stick for Alice I'm gonna loose it

[razreads]

There would always be cats. Cats hated you regardless of your thoughts. They could judge you, but it was probably too much effort, and anyway, they’d rather be left alone.

Laura Steven, The Society for Soulless Girls

[bones-clouds]

books i read in 2024:

"every exquisite thing"

laura steven

rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️, 5

genre: dark academia, thriller, wlw

synopsis:

A feminist YA horror-thriller-romance retelling of The Picture of Dorian Gray by the TikTok sensation and author of The Society for Soulless Girls. Penny Paxton is the daughter of an icon. Her supermodel mother has legions of adoring fans around the world, and Penny is ready to begin her journey to international adoration, starting with joining the elite Dorian Drama School. When Penny’s new mentor offers her an opportunity she cannot refuse, to have a portrait painted by a mysterious artist who can grant immortal beauty to all his subjects, Penny happily follows in the footsteps of Dorian’s most glittering alumni, knowing that stardom is sure to soon be hers. But when her trusted mentor is found murdered, Penny realises she’s made a terrible mistake – a sinister someone is using the uncanny portraits to kill off the subjects one by one. As more perfectly beautiful students start to fall, Penny knows her time is running out... A seductive and searing exploration of beauty, identity, and what the pursuit of perfection can truly cost.

[shxpeshifterr]

[lgbtqreads]

March 2024 Deal Announcements

Adult Fiction Ziyad Saadi‘s THREE PARTIES, a tragicomedy pitched as inspired by Virginia Woolf’s MRS. DALLOWAY, in which a gay Palestinian refugee in modern Detroit prepares to throw himself a birthday party that, unbeknownst to the guests, will also double as his coming out party, amid an escalating torrent of romantic, professional, and familial surprises, to David Ross at Hamish Hamilton…

[maxalotlxl]

What I've Read this October

I have made independent posts as reviews for these books so I won't be making this long.

Godkiller by Hannah Kaner. 5 stars. Finished Oct 5th. *

Masters of Death by Olivie Blake. 3 stars. Finished Oct 14th.

House of Hunger by Alexis Henderson. 3 stars. Finished Oct 16th.

Every Exquisite Thing by Laura Steven. 4 stars. Finished Oct 18th.

The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake. 3 stars. Finished Oct 30th.

You're Not Supposed to Die Tonight by Kalynn Bayron. 4 Stars. Finished Oct 31st.

I have not finished Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff, and I'm probably going to put it down for a bit as I'm enjoying the world and the adventuring feel to it so I don't want to just DNF but I'm not feeling it at the moment.

*By far my favourite this month, and tied for my favourite this year so far with Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir