Reviews with content warning for Death - Plain Bad Heroines

Overall Thoughts:

⁕ Danforth's ability to flesh out characters is strong, but comes at the cost of a painfully slow narrative. Even though I appreciated the depth of the contemporary characters (Meritt, Audrey, and Harper), it took FOREVER for them to be united and on the set of Brookhants. Once there, only a minimal amount time was spent in the spooky gothic setting that I picked the book up for in the first place.

⁕ I was disappointed with the weak connection between the contemporary storyline and the historic one. There was so much potential for a paranormal overlap (or, at the least, a metaphorical one), but after hundreds of pages of build-up, both storylines diverged and went their separate ways? It was infuriating!

⁕ This book did have its moments. The unreliable, self-aware narrator gives major Lemony-Snicket-tells-ghost-story-vibes, and when the action did move forward I was gripped by it. I just wish these features of the book had been more consistent.

⁕ SPOILER: I hate that the entirety of the horror elements in this book are rooted in the sexual assault of a woman that's not even really introduced until the last 100 pages or so. Way to use random, gendered acts of violence as a plot device (*read that last sentence as sarcasm*)!

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Content Warnings

hunkydory's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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mariebrunelm's review against another edition

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dark funny mysterious reflective medium-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

Plain Bad Heroines (PBH) came with a host of Instagram friends' recommendations, which made me wary because of the hype. But what a delight when, a few dozen pages in, I realised the hype was completely justified!
PBH follows two main timelines of sapphic women caught in the webs woven by a book and the deaths it seems to have inspired. In 1902 three girls are found dead at B's school for girls. The cause seems to be an attack of yellow jackets, but the girls' morbid obsession with Mary MacLane's diary throws a shade over this simple explanation.
Today between Hollywood and Rhode Island, writers and actresses become embroiled in a movie project with a twist.
This was a festival of sapphic extravaganza, mysteries, a touch of dark academia and a very sarcastic narrator. I loved every page of it and savoured the gorgeous edition I found second-hand, complete with illustrations. A new favourite!
Rep: Sapphic relationship.

Content Warnings

rachelditty's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-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

4.5

This was a great read. While it took me a little while to really get into it, the first half definitely interested me when being introduced to all the characters. The last half was extremely gripping, and I just wanted to know how everything came together.

I found myself disliking Merritt and Alex at first, but the more I read, I ended up really loving Alex and enjoying Merritt's points of view and what she had to add to the story. Gosh, I wish we had gotten SO much more of Flo and Clara, I really do. I really loved Audrey; I think she was one of my favorite characters alongside Libbie. Libbie was such a gray character and I really enjoyed reading from her perspective. Of all the deaths in the book -- and Alex's really hurt when I read it -- I was the most rocked by Libbie's death on the beach. I was listening to "Potatus Et Molassus" from Over the Garden Wall while reading her being dragged out to the waves, and holy cow, that really added to the scene. It got me teared up. I'm glad Audrey, Harper, and Merritt ended up in a good place together at the end. I like to believe they'll be okay. I like to hope Libbie is in France. I really do. I feel like there's so much to this story that I missed because I was just seeing it for the first time, I'll have to pick it up again when the time is right and my heart hurts less.

Some quotes I liked:
"It's true, of course, that all death is troubling to those of us left alive to bear witness, but certainly among the most troubling of all are the ugly, unexpected deaths of young people just starting to understand who and how they might be in the world. Or how they might remake the world to better be in it."

"...a camera had picked them up to store them for the future..."

"'Don't find yourself regretting this. You're much too young to haunt your own life.'"

"That's history for you, my darlings. When you dig it up, it always carries a whiff of rot."

"But Brookhants might as well have been France, the way she lived there. I mean the way she gave herself permission to live there."

"The only curse our Lainey has to worry about is her mouth and what too often comes out of it."

"She did not scream. She id not even try to do so. It may be that our Libbie accepted this fate as punishment for what she knew to be her previous inaction, or perhaps as something foretold by a curse that she now believed in her very marrow she could not outrun. It may also be that she was only trying to save her breath."

Content Warnings

eleanora's review against another edition

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dark medium-paced

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

4.25

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re_leyendo's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious reflective 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

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decie's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

5.0

honestly a little bit offended nobody told me about this book. dark academia that isn't pretentious? contemporary and historical storylines that are beautifully woven together? a witty, self-aware narrator? sapphic characters EVERYWHERE in a book clearly written FOR sapphics? yes pls. it's sharp, fast, and kept me up at night. so. fucking. good.

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booksthatburn's review against another edition

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Not a style I like.

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