We Should Bring Back Seances: A Review of The London Seance Society by Sarah Penner

Hello, Book Nerds! Welcome back to Reading Has Ruined My Life or welcome if you are new. As always, my name is Hannah and I am your captain on this journey into my bookcases.

I hope you’re all having a wonderful Spooky Season, Book Nerds. I know I am. I’ve been enjoying all the Spooky Season movies and reading even more horror and spooky adjacent reads than I normally do; which is saying something cause 90% of the books I read are like that. Anyway, I’m bringing you a read all about 20^th Century Spiritualism today!

Yay!!

Please give a warm welcome to The London Séance Society by Sarah Penner!

As always, a spoiler alert is in order. If you’ve read any other review on this site then you will know that I love to spoil the entirety of the books I read. This is your one and only warning. With that, let’s get to the synopsis.

Our story today follows Lenna Wickes and her journey into the occult. At the start of the novel she is training under the famous medium Vaudeline D’Allire. Vaudeline is known throughout Europe for contacting the spirits of murder victims in order to reveal the identity of their killers. Lenna is studying under Vaudeline for that very reason.

Prior to the start of the book, Lenna’s sister Evie was found dead. Lenna knows there is more to her sister’s death than meets the eye. She knows Evie was studying the occult, she knows Evie was interested in the London Séance Society, and while Lenna doesn’t know who could be involved with her sister’s murder or the motive behind it, she will stop at nothing to find out; even if that means delving into the spiritualism movement that she herself doesn’t believe in.

And it seems like Lenna will get the answers she’s desperately seeking for sooner rather than later. Vaudeline receives a summons from the London Séance Society. She’s to return to London to help them solve the murder of the society’s president, Mr. Volckman, by leading a séance in the spot of his death; for he too was murdered. Lenna soon realizes that Evie’s death may be tied into Mr. Volckman’s, and those in the London Séance Society know more than they’re letting on. What follows is one woman’s quest for the truth. She must search the seedier parts of London to find clues, and search deep within herself as her beliefs are challenged.

She's about to find out if ghosts are real or not.

For years I have put off reading The London Séance Society because I heard it did not live up to Sarah Penner’s debut novel. After reading the former, I can say that statement is correct. While The London Séance Society is decent, it is not as good as The Lost Apothecary. Now I know I should not be comparing an author’s books. These two novels are vastly different. But I do feel let down by The London Séance Society because I know how well Sarah Penner writes. I know how engrossing her stories are. The concepts of her novels are top tier, but in the case of The London Séance Society, the execution is so-so.

My main issues lies with the narrative. It’s told in two alternating points of view. One being Lenna’s, which is told in third person, and the other being a character known as Mr. Morley who tells the story in first person. I hate when books switch between two different point of view styles. The switch is always jarring, and it takes me out of the story’s immersion. Real important question, am I the only one who hates jumping between point of view styles? Or are there others out there like me? Personally I think it’s best to stick with one narrative style as it keeps the story cohesive.

Thankfully the main characters of Lenna and Vaudeline are stellar and make up for the issue I have regarding the switching POV styles; Lenna especially. Her worldview is grounded in reality. She believes in science and facts. But with her sister’s suspicious death, Lenna must challenge her beliefs and view the world differently. It causes her to have a major internal struggle. That’s maybe not so good for her, but it is good for us readers as it makes for a satisfying character arc.

As I said, Vaudeline is also a fantastically written character. While she doesn’t have much of a character arc, she is a character readers must question every step of the way. By the midpoint of the story I truly questioned if she could be trusted or not. I had no idea if she was a surprise villain, a pawn in someone else’s scheme, or a tragic figure. I won’t say much more on the matter for those who want to discover her secrets themselves, but I will reiterate that Vaudeline is a surprise on every page.

There is one character I really didn’t care for. That character being Mr. Morley. I did not like him from the moment he was introduced. He gave me the ick right from the start. I'm sorry, I have no better term to use in this situation. The main reason I did not care for him was because he was obviously the villain and I feel Sarah Penner didn’t want that tidbit to be known until further on in the story. Or at the very least, readers are supposed to question if Mr. Morley will be the villain. But when his character was introduced in the second chapter, I pegged him as the antagonist in that very moment. The mystery of who’s behind Evie’s death ends up not being a mystery which sucks because one of the main reasons I picked this book up was for the mystery.

Morley is a major red flag and I clocked him way too fast.

I do have one more issue with The London Séance Society. To me, the pacing was off. The beginning of this novel is very slow. Now I do appreciate a slow paced novel from time to time. In fact next week’s review is on a book with slow pacing that I found to be extremely well done. But The London Séance Society’s pacing was not it. Virtually nothing happened in the first ten-ish chapters. Honestly the book feels very ending heavy. All the action happened in the last third of the novel. That doesn’t make for a satisfying read as there was virtually no tension in the beginning. Nothing was happening, and then when the book reached the climax, too many secrets and reveals occurred. Most of what the main character learns during the climax could have happened earlier in the novel to build tension and helped the pacing not feel off.

Yeah, it's a no from me.

Sarah Penner is a fantastic author. She creates beautiful worlds with interesting characters. The Gothic elements of The London Séance Society and historical facts on the Victorian Spiritualism movement are top tier. The execution of the story causes the novel to suffer though. The issues and the strengths of the book do end up balancing out, but at the end of the day this is just an okay novel.

With that, I shall bid you all adieu. Thank you very much for joining me today, Book Nerds! I hope you had a lovely time here. I will see you all again next week with another new Spooky Season review. If you can’t wait that long then you can always follow the blog over on Instagram (@ReadingHasRuinedMyLife). I post there almost daily so come back often to revel in literary goodness. You can also follow the blog on Twitter and BlueSky (@RHRMLBlog). If you want something not related to books then I highly suggest checking out my podcast Nothing to See Hear. It stars me and two of my dearest friends as we talk just about everything. May I suggest our review of Disney’s The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad for some cozy Spooky Season vibes? You can listen to the show over on Spotify and YouTube.

Until next time, stay safe, wash your hands, and read some good books for me.

See y'all then, bye!