Reviews with content warning for Rape - Plain Bad Heroines

I have such a love and hate relationship with this book. I love the writing style and the language, by God, I truly do. I’m also amazed at this book for being my first book with polyamorous characters in it! I’m personally aroace and find it at times very discomforting (a lot of horny-ness), but loved the ending! Sometimes, one of the characters get so fecken annoying and edge-lordy, but I’m glad I decided on reading through. I’d recommend this to people who like long books with hella queerness in it.

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teagan105's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

this was a kind fuck of a book and i felt the descent into insanity in parts which was a really weird and interesting experience. although it is a beast of a book i would highly recommend reading it because of the dual timelines and just the amount of thought put into it and the amount of thought it produces in the reader. i am so glad i finally got around to reading this

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eve_reads's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.25

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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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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pineneedles's review

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dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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sm_moon's review

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dark mysterious slow-paced

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

5.0

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writtenontheflyleaves's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious tense medium-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? It's complicated

5.0

Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M Danforth 🐝
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

🐝 The plot: In the early 1900s, two students at Brookhants School for Girls fall in love, brought together by a controversial memoir. Soon after, they die gruesome deaths, and they aren't the last before the school is forced to close. Over a century later, the school is reopened to become the set of a Hollywood film about the tragedies - but will our three young heroines survive the school's infamous curse?

I knew within about 20 pages of picking up this book that I was going to love it. There were so many elements that reminded me of my favourite books - the pulpy horror of Grady Hendrix, the buoyant characterisation and LGBTQ rep of Casey McQuiston, the metafictional playfulness of Jess Walter. From the very first page it was fun.

Given the fact that the cast of main characters is five-strong across two timelines, it's no surprise that the plot moves pretty slowly, but I felt like I knew who every character was and their place in the story. There was real defiance in the way they were written, a refusal to let them be beaten into submission either by society or the reader's expectations. I actually really admire Danforth for letting her characters go to uncomfortable places and win the reader over later - there is no character who is uniformly likeable throughout, and a lot of times they were at their most real when they were being most frustrating!

This is a five star read for me for sure, but I will say that the ending was a liiiiittle bit of a letdown. I expected more of a showdown with the forces at work throughout the novel, and instead I got zero resolution, just a partial explanation. And like, that's fine. But also I wanted some drama!!! Sue me!!

🐝 Read it if you like any of the authors I mentioned above and want to be creeped out while also enjoying the company of a cast of brilliant queer characters.

🚫 Avoid it if you want an out and out horror read (this is more creepy than horrific), if you hate unorthodox narration or spiky central characters (Merritt can be a... challenge...)

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maryy_r0se's review

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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!)

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