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ehmannky's review against another edition
- 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
I didn't particularly love the reveal of the source of the curse at the end, and would have preferred if it had stayed much more abstract, but the rest of the book is so good that it kind of renders that complaint to a far off and distant concern.
Graphic: Child death and Death
Moderate: Drug use, Suicide, and Forced institutionalization
Minor: Biphobia, Rape, Sexual assault, and Murder
lisakey's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Suicide
Moderate: Mental illness and Sexual assault
Minor: Fatphobia
misscatw's review
- 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
4.5
Graphic: Body horror, Death, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Homophobia, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Grief, Pregnancy, and Lesbophobia
just_one_more_paige's review against another edition
- 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? It's complicated
3.0
Graphic: Death and Violence
Moderate: Sexual assault, Murder, and Pregnancy
Minor: Forced institutionalization and Lesbophobia
rileyxchaos's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Graphic: Death and Murder
Moderate: Homophobia and Sexual assault
coleyglasses's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
Minor: Sexual assault
mengzhenreads's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
Graphic: Body horror, Child death, and Death
Moderate: Drug use, Homophobia, and Suicide
Minor: Sexual assault and Pregnancy
julesadventurezone's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Moderate: Child death, Death, Drug use, Homophobia, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Suicide, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury
nenaveenstra's review against another edition
- 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
Plain Bad Heroines follows two stories set at the same place but over a century apart. We follow Libbie Brookhants and her lover's perspective on creepy things evolving on her property and its boarding school in the 20th century, and a set of queer women involved with the making of a movie about said story in the 21st. The former creates a chilling frame to set the tone for the latter.
This is by no means a perfect book, but I did enjoy reading about fictional lesbians in the early 20th century dealing with, yes, scary things, but with life, above all. The ends they have to go to live their life the way they want to. And then the way the movie-making was set out to be. It could've been very corny, but it wasn't. It was super creative and I ate. It. Up.
This book is quite long, and I think it suffered for it a little bit. It felt like the author didn't quite know which story she wanted to tell - wanted to tell too many stories at once - and some storylines felt to drag on while others were rushed. I wonder if it would've done this book good to focus on the present storyline, and only keep some highlights from the 1900s.
Anyway. If you feel like being swallowed up in a gothic universe for about 600 pages, I would recommend this book. It's not super scary, so don't go into it expecting that, but it's so much fun.
Graphic: Cursing, Drug use, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Moderate: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Fatphobia, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Vomit, and Stalking
Minor: Suicide attempt
jenniferlynnkrohn's review against another edition
- 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? It's complicated
3.75
Graphic: Body horror
Moderate: Death, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Blood, Vomit, Grief, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Minor: Suicide and Pregnancy