Reviews tagging 'Vomit'

Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth

56 reviews

quinwithonen's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Drug use, Homophobia, Vomit, Car accident, Death of parent, and Lesbophobia

nenaveenstra's review against another edition

dark funny 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

4.0

I've read this book twice now, and both times I was enamored with its spooky atmosphere, its intricate storylines and its vibrant characters. And its gay-ness, of course.

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.

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Content Warnings

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

spamsbyjam's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, and Vomit

themixedpages's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Gore

Moderate: Suicide, Vomit, and Fire/Fire injury

jenniferlynnkrohn's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror

Moderate: Death, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Blood, Vomit, Grief, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Suicide and Pregnancy

terpsichore1674's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

4.0

This time jumping, atmospheric, romantic sprawl of a horror (?) novel upends convention -- much like its rotating cast of plain, bad heroines. Though it lags in some places and races breakneck (Readers, I used that word for a reason!) through others, it somehow all works. Except for the ending. Which doesn't NOT work, it's just ...

It feels rushed and missing context, like a Scooby Doo villain reveal during the historical portion and a little too pat and tidy in the modern day scenes.

That being said, the characters are richly drawn, the scares aren't too scary, the plot is built like a Matryoshka  doll, and the narrative rides like a vintage Jaguar.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Suicide, Violence, Vomit, and Death of parent

Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Sexual violence

Minor: Pregnancy

erinsbookshelves's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Drug use, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Suicide, Violence, and Vomit

Moderate: Body horror, Gore, Homophobia, and Grief

achillea's review against another edition

dark lighthearted slow-paced

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

Please don't get your eyebrows pierced with rings I'm begging you

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Drug use, and Sexual content

Moderate: Homophobia and Vomit

Minor: Biphobia, Fatphobia, Stalking, and Murder

mar's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.5

i usually get frustrated with audiobooks longer than ~8 hours, but I listened to the 19.5h of this one no problem and enjoyed it!! it's slow, but also really captivating and does a great job of building up the tension and creepiness, though it's sadly a little lacking in payoff in the end - I found the ends of both narratives a little abrupt and unsatisfying in different ways (genuinely finished it and went huh. more people should've died :/ or at least get traumatized a little more :/ FJDKGNKF) but overall I did have fun. the characters are compelling, if not always likeable, and the snarky omniscient narrator is excellent. in conclusion i love messy horror sapphics

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, and Death

Moderate: Drug use, Homophobia, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicide, Vomit, and Grief

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Fatphobia, Sexual assault, Forced institutionalization, Car accident, 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

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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