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mwohlbrandt 's review for:
Plain Bad Heroines
by Emily M. Danforth
I love the idea of this book more than the actual book. Really, the idea of this book is so creative - the story within a story within a story, the gothic Sapphic romance, the lingering fear and potential corruption in a historical boarding school setting - but the actual experience of going through it wasn't as fun. It was simultaneously too much (wow is this one long and boy does it feel like we're going nowhere at some points, there's also a lot of extra in terms of footnotes, asides, snarky narrator comments) and not enough (the modern main 3 never move out of feeling like caricatures, their backstories feel wanting, the ending is meh).
Obviously the queer representation is great and wonderful and the relationships formed were lovely to read about, but that wasn't enough to make me feel really invested in the modern storyline. There are 2 timelines that don't really, truly connect (another 'not enough' issue for me or I missed the connection in all the excess) and the modern timeline is my least favorite. As mentioned above, the trio of main characters in that one don't really progress from their 'roles' and I didn't feel like their story went anywhere in terms of plot. The Brookhants storyline on the other hand was engaging, the characters were interesting, and the plot was intriguing to the point that the modern storyline felt extra slow in comparison. I definitely get the hype here, but I ran into the same problems many other reviewers mentioned and due to that this wasn't a favorite of mine.
Obviously the queer representation is great and wonderful and the relationships formed were lovely to read about, but that wasn't enough to make me feel really invested in the modern storyline. There are 2 timelines that don't really, truly connect (another 'not enough' issue for me or I missed the connection in all the excess) and the modern timeline is my least favorite. As mentioned above, the trio of main characters in that one don't really progress from their 'roles' and I didn't feel like their story went anywhere in terms of plot. The Brookhants storyline on the other hand was engaging, the characters were interesting, and the plot was intriguing to the point that the modern storyline felt extra slow in comparison. I definitely get the hype here, but I ran into the same problems many other reviewers mentioned and due to that this wasn't a favorite of mine.