Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - Plain Bad Heroines

Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth

80 reviews

wordwilderness's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious sad 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

4.5

Content Warnings

imcourtneymarie's review against another edition

Go to review page

mysterious slow-paced

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

1.75

If this book had been 50% shorter it would have been more interesting. I kept waiting for it to get better. There were a couple of tense moments when you could feel some of the goings on at Brookhants, but I wish I had added this to my DNF ages ago.

The best part was the Libbie storyline. I would’ve read a book just about her story and it would have been a thousand times more interesting.

Redeeming factors were some of the characters and that there was a chunk towards the end that were gripping.

Content Warnings

maryy_r0se's review against another edition

Go to review page

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

panthalassa's review against another edition

Go to review page

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

bluberrybooks's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

2.0

Content Warnings

kayereads's review against another edition

Go to review page

1.0

Content Warnings

amandaquotidianbooks's review against another edition

Go to review page

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

3.5

I wanted to love this and the first few chapters were compelling. But the plot dragged on through the entire book. I don’t know if delaying the climax of the historical timeline worked well in amping up the tension in the modern timeline. And that tension of the modern timeline fizzled for me. I think I came to this looking for more horror than the book ever wanted to give me. The book did an excellent job of exploring the characters and relationships of diverse queer women. The atmosphere was also palpable and continuous. I found the overabundance of yellow jacket appearances and metaphor became hokey with its increasing prevalence. But my interest on the characters never waned. I’d say pick this up for a sprawling, sapphic character exploration rather than a tense mystery plot.

Content Warnings