The London Séance Society

When I started reading this, I was pleased because it seemed so much better than the Lost Apothecary (which I thought was ok but not great). This was my Book of the Month book and I got it in the hopes that the author had improved with her second book. But this book turned out just ok. Some reworking could have made this a very good story. Like others have said, this book was very well researched. It's clear the author put a lot of work into the spiritualism parts of the book. The story itself had issues. The main character, who is unlikable, is also an idiot in a lot of the situations she finds herself in. This is also a “men are creepy and terrible” book. When one male character seems to be redeemed, the author makes sure to tell us that, no, he's really not a good guy after all. The reveals are eye-rolling or unsurprising. There's no chemistry between characters who are supposed to be romantically involved, after knowing each other all of two weeks. The author felt the need to include cringey “50 Shades Lite” scenes. The main character is an expert in her field, again, after about two weeks. This author has good ideas but her books so far have needed some rewrites. I don't think I will read another book by this author.

After reading this author's first novel, The Lost Apothecary, I was really looking forward to this one, and it did not disappoint. The premise is this - set in London in 1873, Lenna's sister Evie was killed and the police have no leads. She sets out to learn how to conduct a seance under the tutelage of Vaudeline D'Allaire, who is well known and respected for her seances that are used only to communicate with murder victims in order to find justice. Vaudeline is invited back to London as a favor to find out what happened to someone, and the story grows from there with suspicious activities happening at the London Seance Society, a gentlemen's club in London. The author's notes at the end of the book are very good and clearly state what is historical custom versus author's imagination. Very well done!

This review is published in full here: https://literaryquicksand.com/2023/01/book-review-the-london-seance-society-by-sarah-penner/

The London Séance Society started out in such an interesting way: with a séance! It really pulls you in and gets you excited for everything that's about to follow.

There are some real positives about this book. When you read through reviews, you'll see a lot of comments about the dark, gothic vibes, which I'll agree was really the star of the book. It really pulls you right into the whole séance scene and makes you feel like you could be sitting around the table with them. Very cool stuff.

Things got pretty intense at the end with a very dark, very high-stakes séance. The whole book really is leading up to this one big thing (it's talked about through a lot of the story), and the big thing didn't disappoint for me. It actually gave the book back half a star!

Now, the parts I didn't love so much...the pacing. Somehow I was bored at times, and just wanted to get to the juicy stuff. It seems like that's what the author was trying for, as there's some sort of “dun dun dunnnn” reveal/revelation at the end of just about every chapter for a good stretch. That kind of pacing made it a little cliché for me.

There's also one point near the end of the story where you find yourself yelling at a main character, “What the heck are you doing?? Don't you think maybe you should get the heck out of there?!?”