Reviews tagging 'Death'

Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth

166 reviews

mar's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.5

i usually get frustrated with audiobooks longer than ~8 hours, but I listened to the 19.5h of this one no problem and enjoyed it!! it's slow, but also really captivating and does a great job of building up the tension and creepiness, though it's sadly a little lacking in payoff in the end - I found the ends of both narratives a little abrupt and unsatisfying in different ways (genuinely finished it and went huh. more people should've died :/ or at least get traumatized a little more :/ FJDKGNKF) but overall I did have fun. the characters are compelling, if not always likeable, and the snarky omniscient narrator is excellent. in conclusion i love messy horror sapphics

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, and Death

Moderate: Drug use, Homophobia, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicide, Vomit, and Grief

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Fatphobia, Sexual assault, Forced institutionalization, Car accident, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

cinnamingsley's review against another edition

funny lighthearted mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.5

If you love a narrative with sarcasm and dry humor, then you will love thissss. But if you don't, you're probably going to find it really slow-paced. I love the narrative and the whole vibes of this book. It's like Dead Poets Society meets The Haunting of Bly Manor. But, I won't lie, I did not love part of the ending. It was like this massive info dump where a lot of the stuff just felt a bit random/irrelevant. Howeverrrrr, the very last chapter was sososo good, like literally the best possible ending for a horror story that haunts everyone that comes across the book's storyline. You'll know what I mean if you read it. I really want to read Mary Maclanes book now just to understand PBH's storyline better.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death

Minor: Sexual assault and Grief

ionka's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Misogyny, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Alcoholism, Body horror, Drug use, and Fatphobia

joufancyhuh's review against another edition

challenging dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

 Points for being super sapphic, but I think I hated every character at least once during the story. I wouldn't call this horror so much as super gross bug experiences. I do think I know who the narrator is, considering the whole speech of "knowing everything" that's given near the end. Not sure I would recommend this to anyone. It's a lengthy commitment for a story I left feeling meh about. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse

Moderate: Bullying, Child death, Death, Homophobia, Suicide, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Biphobia, Drug use, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

violet_pages's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Death

Moderate: Child death, Cursing, Drug use, Gore, Homophobia, Mental illness, and Vomit

Minor: Fatphobia, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Dementia, and Grief

neowitcher's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

4.0

 This was queer in every sense of the word, I had ACTUAL nightmares because of it but it was totally worth it!! (I think??) The writing is gorgeous and the characters are flawed in an odd but endearing way. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death

unboxedjack's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Sexual assault, and Violence

rishel's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Death

questingnotcoasting's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

This is one of my favourite reads of the year so far. It combines so many elements that I enjoy: a story within a story, illustrations, footnotes, queer female characters, a enigmatic narrator and a map at the beginning. It's a really strange, imaginative book, with a lot of different ideas woven together but I thought it worked so well. I loved how it moved between the historical and contemporary storylines and I found it completely immersive. There were some brilliantly unsettling parts. I didn't imagine that wasps or apples could be so creepy. I'm not really a horror fan but I've discovered a few exceptions to that rule over the past few years, like Wilder Girls and Shirley Jackson's work and this reminded me of those books in parts.
It's over 600 pages and the first 200 are fairly slow but it built until I found it compulsively readable. I've seen mixed reviews, I think largely due to its length and meandering style but I was having such a good time I didn't want it to end. I borrowed the ebook from my library but I think I'll buy a copy in the future because I definitely want to re-read it one day. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, and Vomit

Moderate: Alcoholism, Sexual assault, Suicide, and Death of parent

amandas_bookshelf's review against another edition

Xe Sands is a great narrator and each character had their own sound. But, I switched to the hardcover edition because I read faster than they spoke and I grew impatient about learning what happens next (haha).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death