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A review by rynstagram
Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth
3.5
There are two interesting narrative devices that I usually like in this book. One is the use of footnotes. I love when stories use footnotes, and this is a great example of how to (mostly) use them effectively! Sometimes, the footnotes would just confirm something that the character themself didn't know was true or not. Sometimes they would add info. And true to what footnotes should be, they definitely add to the story but most of them aren't essential to the story. Though there were a few that, if left unread, might leave some things more confusing than they already are.
The other device used was that the narrator addresses the reader(s). This, unfortunately, felt gimmicky. Especially with all the comments like, "you've probably already seen this" but then explaining them anyway. Those were strange, because if in this world it's something I've already seen, why address it like this? It takes you out of the world, if not the story itself. Because I think this device is supposed to take you out of the main story, but not the whole world created in the book.
I'm still a bit confused about the ending explanations. It was a bit rushed. I'm not necessarily upset that not everything was explained (I don't actually mind that), it was more that some characters' motivation weren't clear. There were attempts at explanation that were really obscured by the way they were depicted. And while I do not mind a confusing, unexplained book, this was one too many layers of confusion for me.
I can also add this book into the books about stories that include bees/wasps that I've read. Except this one was just yellow jackets, and they play a role in quite a few characters' deaths, which I found the most terrifying of all the things that were supposed to be terrifying. But the book was a bit slow and not really that scary. It was super meta, which might be why the horror wasn't so strong.
We didn't get to see enough of how the three main characters in the current day storyline became close and then not and then close again. There was a lot of, like, "it just was that way" or "they were all feeling it" and not a lot of buildup to getting there, especially when Merritt's distaste for Audrey did a random 180.
PLUS, this book is not fully dark academia. This is totally not a fault with the actual book but the way it is marketed. It's like a meta horror/thriller, I think. I don't know. But only like a third of this I would consider dark academia. (Still gonna use it for a reading challenge prompt, tho, because it's a big book so even a third could be a full book lol).
Anyway... While The Starless Sea and The Raven Cycle may have made me hate bees much, much less, I can't say I'm a fan of yellow jackets now. In fact, I might find them scarier than before... (Yellow jackets the wasps, not the clothing. I could rock a yellow jacket.)
The other device used was that the narrator addresses the reader(s). This, unfortunately, felt gimmicky. Especially with all the comments like, "you've probably already seen this" but then explaining them anyway. Those were strange, because if in this world it's something I've already seen, why address it like this? It takes you out of the world, if not the story itself. Because I think this device is supposed to take you out of the main story, but not the whole world created in the book.
I'm still a bit confused about the ending explanations. It was a bit rushed. I'm not necessarily upset that not everything was explained (I don't actually mind that), it was more that some characters' motivation weren't clear. There were attempts at explanation that were really obscured by the way they were depicted. And while I do not mind a confusing, unexplained book, this was one too many layers of confusion for me.
I can also add this book into the books about stories that include bees/wasps that I've read. Except this one was just yellow jackets, and they play a role in quite a few characters' deaths, which I found the most terrifying of all the things that were supposed to be terrifying. But the book was a bit slow and not really that scary. It was super meta, which might be why the horror wasn't so strong.
We didn't get to see enough of how the three main characters in the current day storyline became close and then not and then close again. There was a lot of, like, "it just was that way" or "they were all feeling it" and not a lot of buildup to getting there, especially when Merritt's distaste for Audrey did a random 180.
PLUS, this book is not fully dark academia. This is totally not a fault with the actual book but the way it is marketed. It's like a meta horror/thriller, I think. I don't know. But only like a third of this I would consider dark academia. (Still gonna use it for a reading challenge prompt, tho, because it's a big book so even a third could be a full book lol).
Anyway... While The Starless Sea and The Raven Cycle may have made me hate bees much, much less, I can't say I'm a fan of yellow jackets now. In fact, I might find them scarier than before... (Yellow jackets the wasps, not the clothing. I could rock a yellow jacket.)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death