Reviews tagging 'Death'

Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth

166 reviews

_teoeo's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes

4.0

I really enjoyed reading this. I loved the voice of the narrator and getting to know the characters. I also liked how everything is connected. You really should annotate while reading to remember the scenes you think might be important and relevant (because they certainly are)! 
But I have to admit that the explanation for everything (most of it?) isn't as satisfying as I hoped. And, ngl, this book didn't have to be 600 pages long. 100-150 pages less would totally do it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Alcoholism, Suicide, and Death of parent

Minor: Animal death

flamesocks's review against another edition

dark funny slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Drug use, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Car accident, Death of parent, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Biphobia, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Grief, and Pregnancy

eshiltonn's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious 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? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

ekmoore11's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• 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: Child death, Death, Drug use, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

Moderate: Infidelity

Minor: Forced institutionalization

bri_fabiano's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense slow-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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Body horror, Death, Grief, and Lesbophobia

Minor: Forced institutionalization

carrots02's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.75

i will be thinking about this book for a long time. it’s delightfully eerie and weird and sapphic! i borrowed it from the library and before i got halfway through i ordered it from my local bookstore. 

the characters are fascinating. the story is rich with history and gory details. i adore how self referential it is and that it’s truly a mystery!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Sexual assault

thekatreturns's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny 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

4.75

I adored this book. I won’t say too much so as not to spoil it, but it was my favorite read of the year. It feels like a rebuttal to the way that horror stories are often told, but beyond being a statement about the world, it is frightening, engaging, and deeply, darkly funny in its own right. The main cast is almost entirely lesbian and bisexual women who are distinct and flawed and real and so interesting to watch interact. That said, unless I missed something, the main cast is all white Americans with some degree of class privilege. The class aspect is intentional and absolutely commented upon, for what that’s worth, and the supporting cast is racially diverse, so that’s why I marked “it’s complicated” for diversity. I knocked a half point off because I wanted more worldbuilding out of the ending, for what was revealed then to be discussed as it relates to the previous events of the book, but the very last chapters were immensely satisfying nonetheless. I would highly recommend this to horror fans of all kinds, metafiction fans, those who like stories interweaving the past and present, anyone into Fraught Female Friendships, and those who just love really wonderful-in-all-their-flaws queer woman characters. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Mental illness, Suicide, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cursing, Drug use, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, and Classism

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Racism, Violence, Car accident, Murder, and Pregnancy

Insects, specifically yellowjackets, feature heavily in this book. They are included in nearly all of the horror elements. For me, graphic=extremely unavoidable, long, plot crucial elements. moderate= plot or thematically relevant, but don’t stand out as particularly graphic. Minor=not described in detail.

penofpossibilities's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Drug use, Hate crime, Misogyny, Stalking, Murder, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Addiction, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Minor: Fatphobia, Dementia, Abortion, and Death of parent

owenwilsonbaby's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious slow-paced

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

4.25

"She'd pass a flooring place and imagine her life selling carpet. She'd pass a beauty salon and imagine her life doing hair. Mostly she tried to imagine contentment: the state of being content. She didn't think it was something she'd ever been before, so it was difficult for her to accurately imagine how it might feel. But she did try."

I loved this! The last 600 page novel I read was Dune and in some ways that felt like such a slog in comparison to this. I occasionally had issues - pauses that lasted too long, issues with the pacing - especially when the beginning and middle felt like they were building to something that wasn't quite carried to fruition by the culmination of Alex and Libby's plot and the modern Hollywood plot. The tone at the start was also interesting to adjust to, with a very camp Gothic element - often an interesting shift when the narrator themselves is a bit of an all-knowing, anonymous character (and frequently reminds the reader of this).

That said, all of these are minor quibbles in an otherwise fun and absorbing take on queer horror. Danforth has a brilliant grasp on when to employ terror and when to employ horror. The novel has lots of potential themes but ultimately seems to be about the dangers of spectacle, not unlike my other horror favourite of this year, Jordan Peele's Nope. I also loved Harper, Audrey and Merritt's characters, who are all complex and three-dimensional. Merritt was especially interesting and accurate as a survivor of bereavement by suicide, and someone who came to writing and success young and is now floundering in her 20s. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Homophobia, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Death, Suicide, and Death of parent

Minor: Fatphobia

matcha_cat's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Sexual content, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Body shaming, Homophobia, Infidelity, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol