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I feel like this book started out really well and then lost me somewhere along the way.

What I liked: I really like retellings of classics, especially those add in more female characters, so that part of it was really fun. There was a lot going on but for the most part I think all the characters from different stories meshed well together. I really liked the girls themselves and how the book took time to comment on what being a woman in that time period was like and the limitations they had to overcome based on people's perceptions of them. Also I liked that Holmes and Watson were actually in character rather than how they have come to be in certain recent popular adaptations.

What I didn't like: It just dragged on and ON. I feel like the structure of the book was really bad because it was supposed to be about solving the mystery [apparently] but then they basically take care of that 3/4ths of the way through and spend the rest of the time rambling... and really a lot of the time before that rambling as well. I also didn't like how they would randomly insert dialogue of the girls arguing over the book being written into the actual chapters of the book. It was cute at first but by the end it was just 'how did you know I was thinking that?' 'I didn't I just made it up' over and over again.

Also I feel like the book was trying to say something about how society views independent women as 'monsters' because it just wants to control but like it never actually GOT to that point except maybe in the epilogue-ish bit at the end and by that point it was too late. Honestly this book probably should have had another pass through an editor to streamline the concept or something. Also by the end of the book I feel like the whole thing was more of a set-up for a future series than a compelling story in its own right.