Reviews with content warning for Child death - Plain Bad Heroines

as far as ghost stories goes, plain bad heroines certainly has the intensity you would expect.

it also has exactly what you would expect from the backstory of said ghosts… so keep that in mind.

if you’re over gays dying in literature, maybe don’t read a book about a haunted girls boarding school. it’s sapphic. and haunted. there’s ghosts. at one point, they had to die. at least some of them, anyways.

now that that’s out of the way— i enjoyed this book. i am personally not a fan of slow paced books, which this certainly is, but i still couldn’t put it down. i needed to know the truth. and i certainly did find it.

the blending and constant shifting from past to present, the slow unveiling of the truth, made for an elaborate narrative that at once made you sure you knew exactly what was going to happen— and then left you speechless when your feet were knocked completely out from under you.

truthfully, i’m of the opinion it could have been accomplished in a shorter time, i don’t believe it needed to be quite so drawn out. but perhaps we would have lost something if it hadn’t been. i didn’t much care for the ending, but i also can’t deny it isn’t realistic. especially for the genre. it is.

but i would much rather know what became of our plain bad heroines than have been left guessing. i’ve grown rather fond of them.

(edit: i came back and changed the star rating on this to 4.75 and to say i literally CANNOT stop thinking of this book. if we had gotten a bit more for the heroines ending? it’d be a 5.)

Content Warnings

wellintendedbibliophile's review against another edition

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emotional reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

lolajh's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Very cool plot and the integration of fantasy themes into a modern setting, set with an unreliable narrator and FOOTNOTES. Back and forth time skipping with so many sapphic characters, a heap of them lesbians and I think I spotted a few butch lesbians too.

In the past timeline, a boarding school is deemed cursed after two young girls (they were lesbians too) went into the woods and were mauled to death by yellowjackets and seemingly spreading a curse of insanity and hallucinations that are driving people mad. Every single character’s backstory is explored, which I love, and the imagery in the horror scenes are so visual (I love that).

Then in the future, or present, timeline, three sapphic actors, one lesbian, one bisexual, and one not labelled that I think is quite lesbian-coded. These girls are all starring in a film about the history of the same boarding school and playing the lesbians at the beginning who died first from it as well as a depiction of their romance. Whilst these actors are working through the movie the curse set on the surreal events recorded to happen at the boarding school begin happening to them, so the mystery of the curse is found out by the reader and them at the same time as they discover it for themselves.

During this, the trio gradually fall in love, with all three of them, perfectly sorting out the jealousy that occurred when two of the people were romantically involved and one is left out. The time they all come together and romance all three of them is when their relationship really comes together.

Such a sick concept without the romance being the main plot of the story.

Content Warnings

maryy_r0se's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

“Don’t find yourself regretting this. You’re much too young to haunt your own life.”

In the early 1900s, a series of gruesome deaths occurrs at the the Brookhants School for Girls. Speculation runs rampant that these deaths are somehow connected to The Story of Mary MacLane, a radical new book that has several of the students transfixed. Headmistress Libbie Brookhants and teacher Alexandra Trills are stuck trying to protect the girls (and trying to protect themselves.) In present-day, Merritt Emmons’ book about Brookhants is being adapted into a movie starring queer superstar Harper Harper and former child actress Audrey Wells. The women go to Brookhants to film and find its history is still alive.

This book was incredibly ambitious, and to me it more than succeeded. Despite being over 600 pages, I found myself wishing it was even longer because I enjoyed it so much and would have loved to learn even more about the school’s lore. The narration style and use of footnotes was so unique, and I fell in love with the characters (Audrey and Libbie were my personal faves!) After hearing this book somehow combined gothic, horror, comedy, and dark academia (and had all sapphic main characters), I had very high expectations, and I was elated to find that this book surpassed them. The tone is very unique and it certainly takes some getting used to, but I had such a fun time with this one.

(Aside from the content warnings mentioned below, this book also has a lot of horror surrounding wasps, so if you have any sort of wasp or bee phobia you may want to tread carefully!)

Content Warnings

mallory10100's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

oh my god i loved this book so much, what a creative story. i LOVED how gay it was

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panthalassa's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

best described as "absorbing." I wanted more from the ending, so taking off a star for that.

Content Warnings

flyingryndeer's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Content Warnings

thetinytrashcan's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book was beautifully written, I felt so drawn into both timelines and the characters involved in each of them. They were balanced perfectly and I never felt like one was taking away from the other. I loved so many of the characters, how human and flawed they were, how they made mistakes and felt like people. The writing of the book was amazing and I’ve annotated so many lines that I’ve gone through multiple packs of post it flags. The horror and thriller element was there but it didn’t feel like it was trying To scare you so much as share a story that could scare you at points. Overall everything about this book made me extremely happy and I’ll definitely be rereading and looking for new things now that I know the ending.

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