I have to start out by saying that I absolutely loved the writing style in this book. I'm a sucker for meta-fiction, omniscient third-person narrators, and rambly narrative footnotes, and Plain Bad Heroines absolutely delivered on all of those counts.

This book wasn't really what I was expecting going into it. I'd honestly be surprised if it was what anyone was really expecting going into it - there are so many layers, and so many directions taken, that it seems impossible for someone to anticipate all of the stories that are being told. If you like puzzling together different narratives and plotlines as you read, you are going to love this.

It feels a bit strange this to say for a book that's already over 600 pages long, but I wish that it had been even longer. There was a lot that seemed to get wrapped up very quickly at the end, and there are some parts that I would have liked to spend more time with.

Yes, this book is over 600 pages, and I want more. Someone please write a 100k word fanfic about Harper, Merritt, and Audrey after this ends, I'm begging you.

I was approved for this arc months ago, but I could not get over the frustration of reading footnotes in an ebook. My finger is too big to click the little asterisk to take me back and forth.

Plain Bad Heroines has unique storytelling techniques with part story within a story and part web commentary. There were some parts that were very chilling and the book had the makings of a great gothic novel, but I felt like the witty dialogue and flirtation of the main characters withdrew me for the atmosphere that could have been maintained.

This was kind of a longer drawn out read for me. Maybe it being three stories in one and I was sometimes finding it hard to keep my attention. I really enjoyed the old story timeline and about Brookhaunts. I feel like that part of the book I enjoyed most. The movie part and those characters, not so much. It just seemed weird like forcing the wrong puzzle piece in place.

I just reviewed Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth. #PlainBadHeroines #NetGalley

This was definitely an interesting read. I liked it of course, but it definitely lacked in certain areas that i found myself noticing a lot more as the story continued. for one, the story was long, and i felt like it dragged out a lot longer than necessary. other elements of the novel though, the sapphic love, feminism, and sarcastic humor definitely made the 600-page story a little worth it.

My Highly Caffeinated Thought: A darkly haunting tale of the female relationships and the fascination with one author’s book spanning over a hundred years.

PLAIN BAD HEROINES is a novel that I will not soon forget. The melding of the history behind one location, the mystery surrounding several deaths, and the complicated nature of relationships is superb. What the author manages to do within this eerie tale is bring the past into the future through the guise of a novel turned into a movie. It may not be an original plot, but Danforth does make it her own. As the reader, I loved how I was able to move back and forth through time. Learning the history surrounding Brookhants, made the current day story richer and added to the suspense of what could possibly happen next.

In the beginning, Danforth lays the foundations for what is to come in such a way that the reader cannot help but continue reading. I do have to say that even though I enjoyed this book, there were moments when it dragged for me. However, the slower pace in some areas was worth it when I got to the last quarter of the book. I will not give anything away, but the way the author finished this tale of gothic fiction was exactly what I wanted.

This gothic tale of love, loss, and female companionship is one that makes you think as well as entertain. So curl up, grab your coffee, and settle in. Oh…and if you hear the buzzing of yellow jackets, then you may want to beware.

This book was creepy when it wanted to be but it also dragged on for so long. This book is slow burn, perhaps a little too much. We shift between 1902 and 2015 every chapter or so, slowly gaining more of the larger story. And, ultimately, that larger story wasn't necessarily worth 600 pages of buildup. I was much more interested in the dynamics between our three modern-day heroines, two Hollywood actors and a wunderkind writer. A lot of the 1902 scenes felt like very long, drawn-out backdrop. Was the atmosphere was creepy, yes. Was it full of lesbians, bi girls and W/W relationships; so much so it made me jealous, yes. Did it take waaay too long to get the plot going and the point across, yes.

I do want to say that I appreciate that this book is basically a love letter to queer horror fans. I will always and forever be here for Sapphic horror and hope to see even more books like this. Plain Bad Heroines is an ambitious book that will probably have a lot of diehard fans. I just happened to be lukewarm on it overall.

Going back and forth between Brookhants, a school for girls, in the early 1900s, and the film set of ‘The Happenings at Brookhants’ in 20something, the story follows the women of the school, the actors and crew of the movie, and the book that connects them all (and some say, let to these so-called ‘happenings’). There is a pervasive sense of wrong in the book - like being followed by yellow jackets, or seeing shadows out of the corners of your eyes. A chilling, sapphic, weird and wonderful book, that despite taking me a while to get into ... I am glad I read.

Plain Bad Heroines is a solid Sapphic American Gothic novel, replete with mad characters, spooky estates, questioning of destiny, dark romance and horror elements. The book mostly set Rhode Island takes place in two time lines 1902 and present day and the story is told in a manner where one minute the narrator makes the reader feel as if they are part of a secret and the next the reader is told to mind ya business, so how one enjoys Plain Bad Heroines will depend on how comfortable you are navigating that storytelling dichotomy or your enjoyment of metafiction. I was quite comfortable with both and still found the narration to be incredibly frustrating at times, particularly towards the end when I was looking for the book to definitively answer underlining questions presented throughout the book, which did not come. In my opinion, the most enjoyable parts of the book were the character study, I truly enjoyed getting to know Libby and Alex in the past and Harper, Merritt, and Audrey in the present, yes being queer is a huge part of who they are but I found each character had depth, once their story was revealed and my attachment to them aided in the horror element since I was constantly in fear of their safety. In sum, this book is not for everyone it is over 600 pages, and if you are someone who needs a page turner then I suggest you stay away, but if you enjoy a spooky atmospheric novel with interesting characters and good writing then I suggest, you pick this one up.

Plain Bad Heroines is a story within a story within a story; one part ghost story, one part love story, one part feminist manifesto. And one hundred percent unputdownable. Hands down, one of my favorite books of the year.

Netgalley specific note: I split my reading between a physical ARC I won in a Goodreads giveaway and an audiobook copy, because I wasn't able to download the digital ARC I received from Netgalley to my Kindle, as I requested it before Netgalley added the feature to show what formats were available, so that's why my review is delayed. ⠀

Plain Bad Heroines was a haunting, humorous, and extremely sapphic blend of historical & contemporary storylines that I absolutely adored. I was intimidated by the length at first, but this book was compulsively readable, and hard to put down! I'm not usually a gothic horror reader, so I wasn't sure how I would feel about Plain Bad Heroines, but the promise of explicitly stated, on page lesbian rep lured me in, and I'm so glad it did!

I know this is a book review, but I gotta say: Can y'all imagine how amazing Plain Bad Heroines would be as a movie? Come on, Hollywood, make it happen!

Emily M. Danforth is an incredibly imaginative author!
This book is extremely weird and unlike anything I have ever read before. However, I really enjoyed it because of that.
This was the first book I’ve read in a while that was told in omniscient narrative. I felt it was done very well and actually adding to the story!
I’m surprised this is her first venture in adult because it was done extremely well!

DNF @ 15%

I'm really sad I didn't love this like I expected to, as it was one of my most anticipated releases of this year

It started out really interesting, but almost immediately began to drag. There's two timelines, one in present-day and one in 1902, and I was much more engaged by the 1902 plotline; in fact, if that had been the only story, I probably would have devoured this. As it was, I just could not bring myself to care about anyone in the present-day timeline, particularly when the minutiae of their lives was so excruciatingly drawn out. This book is over 600 pages, y'all! It's just too damn long.

While I absolutely loved the intertextuality, metatextuality, and creepy elements, the moment I put this down I felt absolutely no pull to return to it, and when I finally did make myself pick it up again, I couldn't get through a single page.

3.5 stars

i wanted to like this more than i did. it's definitely not BAD, but it's very long and at times felt like a slog to get through, to be honest. i appreciate the Gothic sensibilities but it's a very fine line between slow burn and just plain slow, and the author wasn't always successful on that front.

i did really enjoy the creepy imagery and the storyline set in the past. (The Hollywood story, not so much).

<i>Thank you NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.</i>

1.5 stars

Well, I started this somewhere in the beginning or middle (I don’t remember) of October 2020 and now I’ve FINALLY finished it in January 2021. I probably would have given <i>Plain Bad Heroines</i> one star but I wanted to make it feel like it was somewhat worth it to tough it out until the end instead of caving to the many, many times I almost quit reading the book altogether.

Because it took me so long to finish, I don’t have many cohesive thoughts and opinions since I’ve definitely forgotten most of the book over the several months it took me to finish. <b>The main problem was that the pacing was shockingly awful.</b> I was bored to death...and for a book marketed as horror, there’s no reason I should have been so bored. I think this could have worked if a couple hundred pages were cut out of the book but unfortunately, every single scene felt like it dragged on forever. The writing was clever and detailed but this didn’t make up for the fact that so many parts of the book felt incredibly insignificant towards the plot. Even after reading over 600 pages, I feel like I remember just about nothing (except the frequently reappearing yellow jackets) because I kept spacing out.

Overall, I was extremely disappointed with <i>Plain Bad Heroines</i>. If the pacing wasn’t so slow over such a ridiculous amount of pages, I think this could have easily been a four or five star book, but instead it felt like I chore every time I tried to read.

Where do I begin with this book? It’s a MASSIVE undertaking with parallel stories beginning in 1902 and then over a century later, following the lives of many women centered around Brookhants School for Girls.

The Brookhants School for Girls has a deep and haunted past and weird things start happening on the set of a film attempting to tell its story.

I loved the queerness of this story and that it’s about the queer women associated with the setting across time. However, I got lost. There are so many characters with such intricate plots in both lines, and I personally got bogged down in all of it.

I did finish it thanks to Libro.fm, but I nearly gave up more than once. Don’t let me deter you, though, if you like huge books with lots of plot and many characters, you will probably enjoy this epic work. It was just a little much for me.

I'm giving this book a 2.75 out of 5, but rounding up because I'm just.. unsure of how to feel about it. First off, this book is just way too long. There is no changing my mind about this. I wish the book had been significantly shorter or faster paced but instead, for the first 40% of it, I found I had to force myself to pick it up. The first part of the novel is so dense and so dragged on, it made it impossible for me to really enjoy the characters. I hated Merritt, didn't understand Harper or Audrey, and was annoyed that I kept learning a little bit about Flo and Clara, only to be pulled away by Alex and Libbie, and then to Eleanor, and then to Merrit or Harper or Audrey and on and on. I just wanted to stay with a set of characters long enough to get to know them. I kept reading because I was mildly curious, not because I had a strong desire to understand the motives or because I loved the characters. I just wanted to know what this could all be leading up to. Part 2 was significantly better for me. I found I was reading quicker and that I was looking forward to getting time to pick up the book. However, I don't think the ending makes up for what the book lacks. I was so unsatisfied. What happens? Who was Addie/Simone/Hanna/any of the people associated with Harold???? I just want some answers! And what is the buzzing about! The wasps are probably the book's strongest horror element because they're deadly and disgusting and the constant buzzing carries through each generation. I get leaving the 'why' of a lot of the horror elements a mystery because it makes it creepier, but I just wish things were better explained or we were at least given more backstory about them. I don't remember the wasps or apples or any other 'significant' horror element pertaining much to the story Addie tells us in Part 2. The book was okay. It wasn't my favorite and I wouldn't recommend it, but I'm not mad I read it. I think something that really took away from the intrigue of the plot was the writing style. The narrator talks to the readers in such a way that it makes me want to roll my eyes. I don't quite understand the appeal of it and I think I would have gotten through the first half much sooner if it weren't for that.

Plain Bad Heroines had been on my list of most anticipated reads lists for awhile now, so was really excited to read this one. Dual timeline, book about a book, creepy school for girls, Hollywood starlets... all the elements I love are there, but I'm not sure this one worked for me. I'm cautiously swinging on a pendulum of "this was genius" and "what a disappointment" - I think I'll eventually settle somewhere in the middle. But it's definitely a book I haven't stopped thinking about and will most likely continue to do so.

Emily Danforth is an incredible writer. Her words are like magic. She created this snarky narrator who speaks right to the reader and it was definitely one of my most favorite parts of the story. Thankfully - this narrator kept me reading. Because at 600+ pages, and a verrrrrry slow start - I wasn't sure if I was going to finish.

Although, these beautiful words she writes can sometime slog down the pace of the story because there are SO many words. At times a lot of the narrative drags and seems so unnecessary. I much preferred the past storyline as it was the focus of the creepy book, and girls deaths. The modern day Hollywood plot was very tiring, almost unnecessary, until we get to about halfway through the book.

I'm glad I kept reading because the second half was much more attention grabbing and fast paced than the first half. But unfortunately the end - which I anticipated a big "wow" - was a bit "meh."

It's certainly an ambitious debut and had all the elements that kept me interested. The pace was what really made this somewhat fall flat for me though and I wished the plot had been much more of a creepy tale of a secret society of mysterious girls vs a Hollywood soap opera of drama and exploitation.

I will absolutely still pick up her next book - as the talent is definitely there - and I look forward to what she comes up with next.

I could not get into this at all. Loved the idea, didn’t like the prose or style one bit. I could see other people liking it but there was something about it that just put me off. Maybe my expectations were too high.

Thank you to the publisher & NetGalley for providing this book for an honest review. I must be honest and let everyone know that I did not finish the book. After multiple attempts to pick up the book & read...I simply ran out of time before my access to the title expired. I feel I did not give it enough of a chance to honestly review it so I am going with the average of 4 stars in order not to hurt the titles overall rating. I feel I would really like this title if I had more time to give the book a stronger attempt at reading it. Thinking I may try the audio version instead!