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A review by rachelditty
Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
This was a great read. While it took me a little while to really get into it, the first half definitely interested me when being introduced to all the characters. The last half was extremely gripping, and I just wanted to know how everything came together.
I found myself disliking Merritt and Alex at first, but the more I read, I ended up really loving Alex and enjoying Merritt's points of view and what she had to add to the story. Gosh, I wish we had gotten SO much more of Flo and Clara, I really do. I really loved Audrey; I think she was one of my favorite characters alongside Libbie. Libbie was such a gray character and I really enjoyed reading from her perspective. Of all the deaths in the book -- and Alex's really hurt when I read it -- I was the most rocked by Libbie's death on the beach. I was listening to "Potatus Et Molassus" from Over the Garden Wall while reading her being dragged out to the waves, and holy cow, that really added to the scene. It got me teared up. I'm glad Audrey, Harper, and Merritt ended up in a good place together at the end. I like to believe they'll be okay. I like to hope Libbie is in France. I really do. I feel like there's so much to this story that I missed because I was just seeing it for the first time, I'll have to pick it up again when the time is right and my heart hurts less.
Some quotes I liked:
"It's true, of course, that all death is troubling to those of us left alive to bear witness, but certainly among the most troubling of all are the ugly, unexpected deaths of young people just starting to understand who and how they might be in the world. Or how they might remake the world to better be in it."
"...a camera had picked them up to store them for the future..."
"'Don't find yourself regretting this. You're much too young to haunt your own life.'"
"That's history for you, my darlings. When you dig it up, it always carries a whiff of rot."
"But Brookhants might as well have been France, the way she lived there. I mean the way she gave herself permission to live there."
"The only curse our Lainey has to worry about is her mouth and what too often comes out of it."
"She did not scream. She id not even try to do so. It may be that our Libbie accepted this fate as punishment for what she knew to be her previous inaction, or perhaps as something foretold by a curse that she now believed in her very marrow she could not outrun. It may also be that she was only trying to save her breath."
Some quotes I liked:
"It's true, of course, that all death is troubling to those of us left alive to bear witness, but certainly among the most troubling of all are the ugly, unexpected deaths of young people just starting to understand who and how they might be in the world. Or how they might remake the world to better be in it."
"...a camera had picked them up to store them for the future..."
"'Don't find yourself regretting this. You're much too young to haunt your own life.'"
"That's history for you, my darlings. When you dig it up, it always carries a whiff of rot."
"But Brookhants might as well have been France, the way she lived there. I mean the way she gave herself permission to live there."
"The only curse our Lainey has to worry about is her mouth and what too often comes out of it."
"She did not scream. She id not even try to do so. It may be that our Libbie accepted this fate as punishment for what she knew to be her previous inaction, or perhaps as something foretold by a curse that she now believed in her very marrow she could not outrun. It may also be that she was only trying to save her breath."
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death