The society for Soulless girls is a weird one; this book has been written by Laura Steven and was published halfway of 2022. A Dark academia; which I seem to be a fan off combined with Young Adult / Thriller.

In this book we have two POVs; Lottie and Alice. Two stark opposites if you look personality wise. Lottie is a ray of sunshine and very positive, easy to make friends with while Alice is dark and broody, has anger issues and is kind of Gothy. They ended up being roommates at the Uni that opened its doors again after it had been closed for ten years due to multiple deaths.

Lottie is determined to make friends with Alice because as roommates they will be spending a significant amount of time together but Alice isn’t having it. Lottie is way to bubbly and in your face. Both Lottie and Alice seem to change since they’ve arrived at Carvell Uni; Lottie thinks the North Tower, which their window is facing and where the murders took place 10 years ago is sentient. She has been sleepwalking for weeks, waking up after midnight at the foot of the tower, clawing at the wall. Not soon after a Ruby is lodged in her skin, feeling like it has gripped her and whenever she tries to pull it out, the Ruby either grows red hot or chokes her.

Alice’ anger is gone through the roof, having decked a guy in the face and thoughts of hurting people badly is on her mind so often, it actually scares her. When she’s in the library she finds a book, a book about some mind-altering potion / ritual and she decides to try it, even though the book is very old and it says nothing on if it actually works or not. When she takes the potion at the library weeks later, an alarming pain shreds through her stomach, it hurts so bad that she actually passes out. When she wakes up hours later, she’s in bed, bloodied and hasn’t got a clue how she got there. Lottie is staring at her, because she’s covered in blood and she learns that a murder has taken place that night.

Alice’ mind hasn’t been this clear since a long time, no rage nor thoughts about hurting someone – weeks go by without incident until it all comes back in tenfold. Having to redo the ritual and not having a lot of time to do so, she asks Lottie for her blood. Lottie gives in but, as soon as Alice drinks her potion, she seems to change. Her voice sounds like one out of a horror movie, her eyes are cloudy and she’s saying she’ll kill Lottie, slowly and painfully. Lottie barricades herself in, letting Alice tire herself out – it takes hours but when that time is up, Alice is herself again.

In this book Lottie and Alice become friends and are looking for a way out of this mess. For Alice’ mind to not being split in two anymore; she just wants to be normal again and for Lottie to get rid of the hold the growing number of Ruby’s in her neck have on her and while doing all that trying to find out what happened to the people that were murdered ten years ago. When the secrets unravel, nothing is as you thought it would be.

I’m giving this book ⭐⭐⭐⭐ stars, it was very intriguing.