Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth

30 reviews

gardens_and_dragons's review

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Sexual content, Death, Child death, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Sexism and Drug use

celery's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny lighthearted mysterious slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Car accident, Child death, Death, Misogyny, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Grief, Infidelity, Animal death, Cursing, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Blood, Suicide, Violence, Body horror, Classism, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Injury/Injury detail, Sexual violence, Stalking, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Vomit, and Sexual harassment

ferns_citruscorner_8's review

funny mysterious tense slow-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

3.75

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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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual content and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Violence, Suicide, Sexual harassment, Rape, Suicide attempt, and Fatphobia

pjdotcom's review

dark funny lighthearted mysterious slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Mental illness, Death, Grief, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Sexual assault

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

sauvageloup's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

glad to have read this, because the concept is fresh and interesting, and I need to read more wholly sapphic books. but it tried to do too much and didnt pull it off.
this review on tumblr by flying-elliska has all my thoughts well said:
https://www.tumblr.com/flying-elliska/672822130083233792/and-now-for-sapphic-reads-time-the-sequel-tm?source=share

pros:
- the setting was a fleshed out character in itself and I loved that. the orchard apples, the tower, the orangerie, the beach, etc.
- I liked the story of the original woman, simone, who lived on the land.
- some imagery was definitely creepy and disturbing, especially eating wasps.
- the main characters were interesting, and I liked that they became a poly triad rather than a love triangle.

cons:
- too many characters, too much rambling, too meta, too plotty and just too long.
- I never really got truly creeped out. it just didnt sink deep enough into that and there wasnt enough real danger. the deaths were distant and over fast. didnt feel that sad at any of them.
- more interesting to see more flo and Clara for sure.

a different read for sure and I'm glad I read it, but disappointing and a bit slow too.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Sexism, Death, Infidelity, Cursing, Animal death, Body horror, Grief, Death of parent, Bullying, Child death, Alcohol, Murder, Misogyny, and Fatphobia

Moderate: Body shaming, Suicide attempt, Mental illness, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Lesbophobia, Vomit, Sexual assault, Panic attacks/disorders, Drug use, Terminal illness, Classism, Sexual violence, Homophobia, Drug abuse, Addiction, and Suicide

lili_geek's review

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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

Story plot: the impact of cursed land over generations, with the focus of the storyline on queer women. 

Pros: unreliable narrative, the progression of the curse, difficulty identifying what is manufactured and what is real. 

Cons: the narration of the story often came across as preaching and annoying, constant POV shifting. 

My overall vibe about this book is idk. While I read it and after I finished it, I still don’t know what I think about this book or if I like or don’t like this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror

Minor: Sexual assault and Violence

uhhlexiconic's review

dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

2.0

More akin to a textbook than a novel, and perhaps twice as long as it needs to be, Plain Bad Heroines pulls every ounce of tension out of its material and and dilutes some of its stronger attributes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Body horror, and Violence

Moderate: Car accident

carrots02's review

adventurous dark informative mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.75

i will be thinking about this book for a long time. it’s delightfully eerie and weird and sapphic! i borrowed it from the library and before i got halfway through i ordered it from my local bookstore. 

the characters are fascinating. the story is rich with history and gory details. i adore how self referential it is and that it’s truly a mystery!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Child death, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury, Body horror, Suicide, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Violence, Gore, and Excrement

Moderate: Sexual assault

thekatreturns's review

adventurous dark funny mysterious 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? Yes

4.75

I adored this book. I won’t say too much so as not to spoil it, but it was my favorite read of the year. It feels like a rebuttal to the way that horror stories are often told, but beyond being a statement about the world, it is frightening, engaging, and deeply, darkly funny in its own right. The main cast is almost entirely lesbian and bisexual women who are distinct and flawed and real and so interesting to watch interact. That said, unless I missed something, the main cast is all white Americans with some degree of class privilege. The class aspect is intentional and absolutely commented upon, for what that’s worth, and the supporting cast is racially diverse, so that’s why I marked “it’s complicated” for diversity. I knocked a half point off because I wanted more worldbuilding out of the ending, for what was revealed then to be discussed as it relates to the previous events of the book, but the very last chapters were immensely satisfying nonetheless. I would highly recommend this to horror fans of all kinds, metafiction fans, those who like stories interweaving the past and present, anyone into Fraught Female Friendships, and those who just love really wonderful-in-all-their-flaws queer woman characters. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Body horror, Death, Suicide, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Drug use, Homophobia, Cursing, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexism, Sexual content, Misogyny, Outing, Classism, Fire/Fire injury, and Lesbophobia

Minor: Violence, Racism, Biphobia, Car accident, Pregnancy, Murder, Addiction, and Alcoholism

Insects, specifically yellowjackets, feature heavily in this book. They are included in nearly all of the horror elements. For me, graphic=extremely unavoidable, long, plot crucial elements. moderate= plot or thematically relevant, but don’t stand out as particularly graphic. Minor=not described in detail.

penofpossibilities's review

slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Stalking, Murder, Pregnancy, Misogyny, Lesbophobia, Drug use, Child death, Death, Sexual harassment, and Hate crime

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Car accident, Vomit, Alcohol, Abandonment, Addiction, and Violence

Minor: Dementia, Fatphobia, Death of parent, and Abortion