Scan barcode
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.
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
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
thesincoucher's review against another edition
adventurous
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
5.0
I want to pat myself on the head because I thought I didn't have the ability of reading a book longer than 400pp anymore. It helps when a book is as awesome as this one so not all the credit goes to me. Before I forget I want to give a shout-out to one of the characters that doesn't even have a line in the book, Lily Strichtfield, who, when told about the messy business of the movie, said Hell No and went on to live her life in a normal way. Not all heroes wear capes!
Things that I really loved about Plain Bad Heroines:
- The narrator: I love when the narrator is a separate character and this one gave a lot of flavor to the book. This was the best way to tell this story, without a doubt. I'm a huge fan of footnotes on novels so they added more brownie points for me.
- This is the story of a book inside a book and very much aware of that and I love that fully awareness. I loved that Danforth knows her characters and uses them to maximum effect to tell this story.
- The story is the sapphic story of my dreams involving a boarding school and a horror movie and the people who are trapped there. This kind of books make me so happy because they were not there when I was growing up (or at least, not in easy reach) and now I have so many to choose from.
- There were moments deliciously atmospheric. Danforth knows how to write gothic horror well.
- This book was chunky but it did very much feel like it needed to be. It tells a whole story and when you finish it, you feel satisfied with it. I cannot ask for more.
I have the Miseducation of Cameron Post but now I'm putting it higher in my reading pile.
Things that I really loved about Plain Bad Heroines:
- The narrator: I love when the narrator is a separate character and this one gave a lot of flavor to the book. This was the best way to tell this story, without a doubt. I'm a huge fan of footnotes on novels so they added more brownie points for me.
- This is the story of a book inside a book and very much aware of that and I love that fully awareness. I loved that Danforth knows her characters and uses them to maximum effect to tell this story.
- The story is the sapphic story of my dreams involving a boarding school and a horror movie and the people who are trapped there. This kind of books make me so happy because they were not there when I was growing up (or at least, not in easy reach) and now I have so many to choose from.
- There were moments deliciously atmospheric. Danforth knows how to write gothic horror well.
- This book was chunky but it did very much feel like it needed to be. It tells a whole story and when you finish it, you feel satisfied with it. I cannot ask for more.
I have the Miseducation of Cameron Post but now I'm putting it higher in my reading pile.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Car accident
Moderate: Confinement, Mental illness, Suicide, and Forced institutionalization
emsim's review against another edition
mysterious
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death and Death
Moderate: Vomit
Minor: Sexual assault, Forced institutionalization, and Dementia
manicfemme's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Plain Bad Heroines was a haunting, humorous, and extremely sapphic blend of historical & contemporary storylines that I absolutely adored. I was intimidated by the length at first, but this book was compulsively readable, and hard to put down! I'm not usually a gothic horror reader, so I wasn't sure how I would feel about Plain Bad Heroines, but the promise of explicitly stated, on page lesbian rep lured me in, and I'm so glad it did!
I know this is a book review, but I gotta say: Can y'all imagine how amazing Plain Bad Heroines would be as a movie? Come on, Hollywood, make it happen!
ARC Note: This one is a little complicated, because I received an e-ARC from Netgalley, then won a physical ARC in a Goodreads giveaway, and then received an ALC from Libro.FM. So thank you to Netgalley, Goodreads, Libro.fm and William Morrow! All opinions are my own.
I know this is a book review, but I gotta say: Can y'all imagine how amazing Plain Bad Heroines would be as a movie? Come on, Hollywood, make it happen!
ARC Note: This one is a little complicated, because I received an e-ARC from Netgalley, then won a physical ARC in a Goodreads giveaway, and then received an ALC from Libro.FM. So thank you to Netgalley, Goodreads, Libro.fm and William Morrow! All opinions are my own.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Homophobia, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, and Grief
Minor: Fatphobia
isnotacrayon's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Death, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Vomit, Religious bigotry, and Medical trauma
Moderate: Drug use and Forced institutionalization
Minor: Fatphobia and Dementia
caseythereader's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
4.0
Thanks to William Morrow Books for the free advance copy of this book.
In 1902 at the Brookhants School for Girls, a group of young women become obsessed with the published journals of Mary MacLane, a scandalous book in which she confesses to sapphic tendencies, and where the girls see themselves reflected. After creating the Plain Bad Heroine Society, though, two of them die a horrific death on school grounds - the first in a series of terrible deaths. A century later, a famed horror film director is making a movie about the story, starring the hottest it girl celesbian. But the curse of Brookhants seems to be following them now...or is it?
Whew, PLAIN BAD HEROINES is hard to sum up - it's a series of nested stories that all feed on each other, with recurring imagery and old bloodlines and perpetual questions about what is real and what is staged. And I loved it.
It's one of those rare books where I'm equally invested in each set of characters, and there are several sets of women we follow in this book. Some scenes had my skin crawling, others had me laughing and reading passages out loud to my partner. And on top of all that, it's queer, so queer! Generations of women loving women and they all felt real to me. Don't let the fact that this book is 600+ pages deter you - sinking into the world of Brookhants was a fully engulfing experience and I didn't want it to be over.
Content warnings: homophobia, death, murder, wasps, sexual assault, institutionalization.
In 1902 at the Brookhants School for Girls, a group of young women become obsessed with the published journals of Mary MacLane, a scandalous book in which she confesses to sapphic tendencies, and where the girls see themselves reflected. After creating the Plain Bad Heroine Society, though, two of them die a horrific death on school grounds - the first in a series of terrible deaths. A century later, a famed horror film director is making a movie about the story, starring the hottest it girl celesbian. But the curse of Brookhants seems to be following them now...or is it?
Whew, PLAIN BAD HEROINES is hard to sum up - it's a series of nested stories that all feed on each other, with recurring imagery and old bloodlines and perpetual questions about what is real and what is staged. And I loved it.
It's one of those rare books where I'm equally invested in each set of characters, and there are several sets of women we follow in this book. Some scenes had my skin crawling, others had me laughing and reading passages out loud to my partner. And on top of all that, it's queer, so queer! Generations of women loving women and they all felt real to me. Don't let the fact that this book is 600+ pages deter you - sinking into the world of Brookhants was a fully engulfing experience and I didn't want it to be over.
Content warnings: homophobia, death, murder, wasps, sexual assault, institutionalization.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Homophobia, Sexual assault, and Forced institutionalization
More...