2.5. I learned about this book from the HarperCollins Book Buzz, which hyped it up to be this magnificent, gorgeously illustrated gothic LGBTQ+ epic about two queer girls--Flo and Clara--who are killed by yellow jackets in 1902 while attending Brookhants School for Girls. In truth, Flo and Clara are mentioned only fleetingly, though their story serves as the backbone for the rest of the tale. Otherwise, Danforth meanders slowly between the present-day "heroines" (Audrey, Merritt, and Harper Harper [yes, both of her names are Harper]) and two other women who aren't Flo and Clara but who are from the same period (Alex and Libbie).

For a 600-page book, there's a debilitating lack of character development. The queer representation and recurring terrifying incidents are strong, but I grew increasingly frustrated by the way the plot was structured (or rather, the lack of structure); the story didn't really go anywhere. I was also more interested in the historical aspects, but Danforth insists on bringing the reader back to the present--as a friend said, "I feel like I was tricked into reading a book about Instagram influencers."

Good solid horror book with great feminist/LGBT+ themes throughout. Enjoyed the footnotes, although these may annoy other readers.

This is a fun and unique book that, while not particularly scary, is atmospheric and refreshing, and weaves several stories together beautifully.

Hooooooo boy, I did not vibe with this one.
I'm bored, I'm disappointed, I don't care about anything in it.
This didn't live up to the expectations I had set for it, but mostly I truly believe it's just that it clashed with my personal preferences in regards to writing style and narrative choices. If you want to gauge if you'll like it, I recommend reading the official description - it gives a good first impression of the book and writing, in my opinion

Content warnings include: death, animal attack (partially leading to death), insects, insect stings, Hollywood being Hollywood.

I was incredibly excited for Plain Bad Heroines as a (new?) adult horror tale full of queer women that crosses the boundaries of time. Not to mention the gorgeous cover!
I was delighted to get approved for an ARC, but even then my relationship with the book started off on the wrong foot. The format the ARC was provided in was pretty much unreadable to me, and it took a while for me to figure out how to best read it.
I want to make clear that that didn't influence my opinion about the book - but it was the first in a series of hits against the book, if the only one I am absolutely willing to let pass.

The second I also won't directly hold against the book itself, especially since I think that was an issue with the ARC file that won't be in the final copies, I HOPE - but it annoyed me a lot. It's the footnotes. I have nothing against footnotes, but what I do despise was the way they were embedded in this case. They were a) not numbered or linked, and b) all at the end of the book. There was no easy way to jump between the marks in the text and the footnotes themselves. Even if I was willing to page all the way to the end every time, looking up each individual footnote by counting is just... I'm sorry, but no. Fortunately, the footnotes also didn't seem to hold any relevant information, but to be honest, even if they had, they were so inaccessible that I just couldn't be bothered. Again, I SINCERELY HOPE that this won't be an issue in finished copies! But this was strike two against the book for me, even though I don't think it ultimately counted towards what made me not want to finish this.

Nope, the first true strike against the book that truly counted towards me not wanting to pick it up again was the narrator. And it's 100% a me-issue. I simply hate it when narrators address the reader directly. And, dear reader, the narrator addressed the reader a lot in this one. And I maintain that each and every time was unecessary. It added nothing to the plot or the book. The only thing it did was made me punch a wall. (Really, I have no idea why I hate this narrative device so much but it makes something in me go absolutely feral, in a very, very bad way.)

But on top of that, and possibly more importantly, the book was so boring. Not because nothing happens, but because it's so long-winded. I kept wanting to skim read everything. Nothing held my attention. Everything seemed irrelevant (I'm sure it was relevant, but I couldn't convince my brain to believe that.)
And really, the official description should have been a clue here, because that itself is tediously long for a book description already. And the book is exactly the same.
This could, again, be counted as a me-issue. Except I don't particularly mind slow writing styles -but this one just completely failed to engage me. I just did not care for any of it.

Okay, that's not true. There were some parts that got me excited. That made me perk up and think, oh heck yeah, it's finally picking up, I got through the thicket and reached the clearing and from here on out it'll be awesome! But that didn't happen. The few cool, enaging, exciting breadcrumbs were all buried between long chapters of boringness. Every time I got excited it was pretty much immediately followed up by mind-numbing bla again. And I'm sorry, but I can only bear so many disappointments before I give up.

The last and final strike was that when I reached a passage that actually interested me and... it was another disappointment. Again, arguably a me-issue, because this time the strike was that I simply did not like how things were developing. It didn't align with what the official description had me expecting.

I originally meant to at least read until I reached a certain part in the book, one that the desciption lead me to believe would happen early in the book. I'm over halfway in now and it still hasn't happened (which is another thing I deeply dislike about books - descriptions shouldn't give away things that happen past halfway in the book??)
Part of me still wants to keep going, because somewhere inside me I still have that spark of hope that I just have to keep reading a few pages, a few chapters more, and then it'll pick up! And who knows, maybe I will, someday.
But for not, this is it.

Fascinating story with a dark atmosphere, lending an air of Gothic horror to this parallel tale of death at a boarding school with strange connections to the present day women involved in making a movie of the same events.

this was one of my most anticipated books of the year, and i'm so happy to say it did not disappoint - i truly loved everything about it. this is a book with two timelines over a century apart that is narrated by an anonymous voice; it's like a story within a story within a story, that also features a book within a book and also a film within a film. it's definitely as complex as it sounds, but i never found it to be confusing or hard to follow. the way these stories were woven together was so impressive to me.

i will admit, this chunky 600 page book probably could have been trimmed down a bit. it's definitely a slower paced novel, and some of the chapters following Libbie and Alex weren't always the most interesting. for me, that didn't really affect my overall enjoyment of the novel, but it's definitely not for everyone. i personally loved the slow and gothic writing, and i think it helped set the tone for the rest of the novel really well, and i especially loved how the narrator brought humor and extra information with the footnotes. i thought that was a cool extra little touch.

along with the gorgeous writing, i fell in love with harper harper, audrey, and merritt. this is without a doubt, one of the gayest books i've ever read, and i love that. there were very few straight characters, definitely very few straight women, and it was the best thing ever. not to mention the ON PAGE SAPPHIC POLYAMORY!!! the polyamorous relationship is seriously one of the best relationships i have ever read: there was so much angst and yearning and i ate it up.

and the horror aspect? this is gothic horror so it doesn't have a lot of the traditional horror elements that you might think of, but oh i loved it. there aren't that many scary scenes for a book of this size (i was expecting more), but when they happened it seriously creeped me out. if you're not big on bugs - maybe skip this? it got really weird

again, the gothic genre and the slow build of everything is definitely not for everyone. if you like aesthetics and character-driven stories, you will probably love this.

Yet another one of those books from this year about which I cannot fathom the hype. What this has going for it is that it's incredibly queer, but unfortunately there isn't much more to the plot beyond that. First of all, if I was into facetious content warnings, here is where I would give one for yellow jackets; if you dislike or god forbid despise yellow jackets as I do, beware, swarms of this predatory social wasp that is the bane of my backyard are one of the main characters; indeed, two girls are killed by wasps within the first few pages. These girls, Clara and Flo, are students at the Brookhants School for Girls in 1902 and are ostensibly members of the Plain Bad Heroine Society, although that isn't really explained beyond them being avid readers of <i>The Story of Mary MacLane</i>, a possibly cursed book that appears to be in the excerpts quoted about being annoyed at lots of things and wanting the devil to save you from them and being a lesbian in a time when there was zero being out of the closet. After the deaths of Clara and Flo, the story jumps to present day and into the perspectives of actress Audrey Wells, actress Harper Harper, and writer Merritt Emmons. The first two women are set to appear in a movie being made about the book the latter wrote about Clara and Flo. This is interwoven with the lives of principal Libbie Brookhants and her "companion/roommate" Alex Trills, a teacher at the school, in the aftermath of the deaths of Clara and Flo. The movie is a red herring, as is Merritt's book; at no point did I have any idea what either of them were about beyond Clara and Flo kissing because very little is said about the Plain Bad Heroine Society, who else is in it nor what they do in the society, nor indeed who any of the other girls in the school are besides one other who gets a name and then dies horribly. It's incredibly frustrating that most of the present day story revolves around what part Audrey is going to audition for, Harper Harper's instagram feed, and how cute Merritt thinks Harper is, and that many of the creepy little bits that I expected to be aha moments (say, the plants in the Orangerie on campus growing eerily lush for no reason, or who Alex sees in the picture in the tower) fizzle out without going anywhere. I enjoyed the bits about what school was like at Brookhants (and will henceforth talk about being smashed on my crushes as well as wanting to smash them) but most of this comes from Merritt telling Harper what it was like rather than the reader getting to experience it for themselves. There is a lot of kissing, most of it while wasps are swarming, and the kissing is hot and excellent even though the wasps are the opposite of that, but I was expecting gothic horror/comedy along with the queerness, especially from the way it was talked up in Harper Collins' book buzz, and I found this to be pretty bitterly disappointing altogether.

My review on this one is a day late for publication day, but I was still finishing this yesterday. While I don't think it's written in a style that makes it overly complicated to read, the ARC copy clocked in at a hefty 623 pages, and with numerous storylines and asides, this uniquely, ambitiously structured book just requires savoring versus rushing.

I attended a small women's college that had plenty of ghost stories as part of campus lore, and maybe that is part of why I love a creepy old house or boarding school paranormal story so much, but this book absolutely spoke to those things that I love. There is queer representation in every part of this story, both the historical and contemporary sections. This was one of those stories that definitely felt eerie when I was reading it, and then when I woke up in the middle of the night having dreamed about parts of the story, unsettled me even more. This one is an investment in your time, but it's definitely worth it.

Plain Bad Heroines is written by Emily M. Danforth, illustrated by Sara Lautman, and is published by HarperCollins. It released just in time for Halloween. This is a gothic horror satire novel that revolves around sapphics and the horror they find on campus or on a Hollywood set. Readers follow two different storylines between Flo and Clara, two boarding school lovers who suffer a tragic death in the woods in 1902, and Harper and Audrey as they attempt to tell Flo and Clara's story on the big screen.

For starters, Plain Bad Heroines is not set up as a typical horror novel. It has a metafictional narrator directly talking to readers. While this doesn't always hit the nail on the head, Danforth's curt and satirical tone is wildly funny and utterly brilliant. There are many moments throughout the novel where Danforth criticizes the lives of the Hollywood elite, the silliness of fear, and the lunacy of online culture. The narrator's dialogue is distinct in tone and it is never confusing to follow. The narrator is present to help tie the two separate timelines together and it does its job well and seamlessly.

Readers will have an easier time knowing that there are two distinct aspects to this narrative. One part is a classic-feeling, gothic horror story revolving around young women obsessed with a memoir from the real-life Mary Maclane. For historical context, Mary MacLane was a prominent writer in the early 1900s and wrote about her attraction to other women and how she wished women were allowed to be perceived as anything but pure. Flo and Clara are two girls who found themselves dedicated to the writing of MacLane as they find solace that their queerness is validated. However, many of these young women who find hope in MacLane's words soon find their deaths. Despite Plain Bad Heroines having the "bury your gays" trope, I find that there isn't any subtext to these queer/ LGBTQ+ characters. There are sapphic relationships clearly stated and Danforth explicitly writes to ensure that there is not queer erasure within her novel. As the setting is gothic horror, their deaths don't hurt as much, as say Silhouette in Watchman (2009) (which in my opinion is a terrifying portrayal of violence against queer women that still haunts me to this day) or Tara in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (a sad display of a canon gay woman being killed off for plot development). Danforth throughout this 604-page novel explores this tragedy and, instead of exploiting their suffering, sets a pathway to write a novel that has more canon queer and gay woman than any other book I have ever read. As well, there are more queer women and LGBTQ+ folks present compared to straight people. I point this out because it feels good to see that type of present-day representation of social circles that reflect my own. As a queer person/ woman (I use she/they pronouns), I am in a relationship with someone who is not straight, my best friend/roommate is a lesbian and almost all of my friends are not cis-gendered or heterosexual. That type of representation is important and reading this mixed with horror was a delight!

The second narrative is where Danforth's ability for pace changes and meta-horror shines. Set in present-day Hollywood, we meet up with fresh on the scene actress Harper Harper (yes, that's her name and yes, it is ironically pretentious) as she is set to start in a film adaptation of the story of Flo and Clara at Brookhants. Set to co-star is the daughter of a renowned scream queen and former child star Audrey Wells. Stylishly, Plain Bad Heroines pens down a unique found-footage horror aspect as they film this movie. Danforth writes atmosphere and setting so well that the narrative feels like it was made for the big screen. The present-day story further contextualizes the past narrative's gothic nature and pokes fun at the idea of haunted places, the supernatural, and paranoia. Yellow Jackets have never seemed scary to me but the tense and feverish scenes featuring them are enough to make sure I don't hear any buzzing around. The last half of this novel focuses heavily on the present-day story and while many may wish that there wasn't as much time dedicated to it, I loved the indulgence in horror film satire.

Plain Bad Heroines was one of my most anticipated reads and it delivered so much more than I was even expecting. Danforth's unique storytelling may not be everyone's cup of tea. Her meta narration may get old for some but it definitely adds a charm that reminds me deeply of Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events with the narrator's ability to set mood and tone for chapters. The length of this novel is on the longer side due to the fact that it is wildly descriptive and wants readers to know that every stone has been uncovered and every base touched. This is not a traditional horror book and it never tries to trick readers into thinking it is. It holds your hand and shows you a beautiful amalgamation of queer culture, horror, and comedy that was what I didn't know I needed. You can order Plain Bad Heroines here via our bookshop.org affiliate link. 

RATING: 5/5 Yellow Jackets

This was not a book I liked. It was hard to get into the story and it didn’t keep me engaged at all. I struggled through the book, Thank you to Scene of the Crime and Net Galley for an advanced copy of the book. I really wanted to like the book and I thought the writing was good. It just didn’t flow for me at all.

It took me awhile.to really get into this book. I could see there were footnotes but I was having a hard time finding them. There were links for the footnotes but they didn't do anything. Without the footnotes, I really felt like I was missing things and WAS I??? I finally figured them out, after hearing how much other people were enjoying it. I went back and filled them in and then continued reading. It was much better after that! I enjoyed the narration and it felt like the narrator was telling me the story. I enjoyed the pictures throughout and thought the it was very well written. I'd say it really enraptured me around 60% of the way through.

Oh holly hell!Claustrophobic haunted school theme dances with queer gothic! This is one of the best unique, heart pounding and addictive concept!
But I honestly have to admit as soon as I saw the page numbers of the book, I want to drop the book and run. Don’t get me wrong: normally long paged books are great challenge for a person for me who read Stephen King’s Stand three times which weights more than a bundle of encyclopedias!

Actually my main problem was about working too hard lately and my head is so close to get explode because of extra usage of grey cells.

But literary gods answered my prayers because this book worths every grey cell I fry! There are some books look long but when you get into story you don’t count the page numbers, you just get lost in the chapters and you wish it never ends! Thankfully this book is one of them and I was so pleased to enjoy each stories and multiple characters.

It takes place in two time lines which was challenging thing to combine the stories and varied characters’ sub stories with perfect balance but the author did a marvelous job
One of the stories sets in Rhode Island’s Brookhant’s School for girls: centered around Flo and Clara who are obsessed with Mary MacLane’s memoir- the young girl who were electrified when she was only 19 and named her memoir as “I await the devil’s coming”, founders of the badass and dangerous girls’ club named Plain Bad Heroines Society. And at the present time, two young queer actresses making movie about the school and honorary members of club: Flo and Clara as an author joined them whose book written about the school has been adapted into script.

Well, I have to admit I loved the haunted, gothic high school and bad girls’ club theme more than the filmmakers’ present time chapters. If this book has been taken place in 1902 and it could be only about the creepy boarding school, I never hesitate to read even though it was more than thousand pages.

That story carries fantastic horrifying Halloween theme and I scared, I jumped and I screamed during those parts! It was scary, smart, entertaining, mind spinning queer gothic meets dark comedy book which I loved more than I expected!

I wish there were more Brookhant’s parts so I could give five stars. But I’m still giving four impressive boarding school theme, unputdownable, great choice for Halloween week stars!

Special thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins Publishers/ William Morrow for sharing this reviewer digital copy with me in exchange my honest thoughts.

This book takes place beginning in the early 1900s and carries forward until present day. It is completely original and unlike any book I have read before . But in a good way. It's well written, intriguing, and unique. For me, the only downside was that at times, it moved a little slowly. It made a long book like this a bit too daunting at times. That being said, I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the premise. The skilled and at times humorous writing was entertaining and the book was interesting. #PlainBadHeroines #WilliamMorrow #EmilyMDanforth #SceneoftheCrime #NetGalley

In 1902 at the Brookhants School for Girls in Rhode Island, three girls accidentally died. After a short while the school itself, closed. Now in the present day, a book about the incidents was written by Merrit Emmons, with insights into the happenings from the last Brookhants owner. It was now being made into a horror/thriller movie at the closed school building with the parts of the girls being played by a well known media star, Harper Harper and an lesser known actress, Audrey Wells.
The story moves from one period of time back to the other and throughout, giving the characters background and other bits of information as it progresses while the narrator speaks directly to the Reader with asides to make sure we are all paying attention to the details.
An inventive and twisty tale of gothic romance with happenings that might be real or maybe they are being manipulated, that keep the reader guessing.
Thank you Harper Collins and NetGalley for this e-copy of "Plain Bad Heroines".

I have many thoughts about this book, buzzing around in my head, not unlike the ubiquitous yellow jackets found within its pages. Plain Bad Heroines has one of my favorite story devices: a book within a book. We learn about another book, written long ago, that seems to be the catalyst for the destruction and death that plagued Brookhants school. I don't need to reiterate plot details, I just want to try and articulate my opinions about this book. First, I think this book pays great homage to people who identify as LGBTQ. I even learned a new word: sapphic. If you don't know what it means, look it up. The story behind it's derivation is awesome. All the women in this story make no apologies for their s*xuality, and those relationships are explored to great effect. Second, some of the things in this book were definitely creepy, which makes it a good story for Spooky Season. All of the threads throughout the book are plucked and twanged and entangled. Plain Bad Heroines is beautifully written, that's a fact, but it is just too long. I really struggled with the last 30% of the book. Even though the story was interesting, it felt like work to get into it. I think maybe 100 less pages, with a much more succinct storyline, could have made this a 5 star book. I would still recommend Plain Bad Heroines to anyone who likes a remarkably written story, with gorgeous style, queer representation, high creep factor, and leisurely path to the end.
3.5 stars

I was provided a review copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
Thank you to Harper Collins and Netgalley

I simply loved this book. Structurally, it switches back and forth in time from the early 1900s "ghost" story of girls and women dying at the Brookhants School for Girls, and the contemporary 2010s movie that is being made from the nonfiction book written about the hauntings. Though this sounds complicated, it never feels laborious and works well to keep the book's tensions going - the unraveling of the story in the past and the future makes it even more exciting than it would be already. And honestly, it would still be a great story without this structuring. The characters, particularly those in the present day, are compelling, complicated, sometimes unlikeable but always interesting. Though the universe of this book is one full of foreboding magical realism touches, it was a queer lady universe that I did not want to leave.

Now this is one heck of a story within a story within a story with sapphic love, humor, horror and devilish goodness.
The central story here is the book THE STORY OF MARY MACLANE, an autobiography written in 1902 by an unabashed lesbian. Now insert that book into the Brookhants School for Girls in coastal Rhode Island where impressionable young women are finding themselves as well as each other. There two of the (short lived) protagonists, Flo and Clara, start the secret group called The Plain Bad Heroines Society and unexplained, tragic things start to happen. Now jump forward to 2011 and a young woman, Merritt, has written a nonfiction book, with the help of a distant relative to the founders of the school, about the haunted and cursed school. Then finally add to the mix the making of a movie based on Merritt's book staring our last two protagonists Harper and Audrey.
Got that?

As a person allergic to bee and wasp stings I was often creeped out by the yellow jackets that are also a large part of the story.

Written primarily by an unnamed narrator as conversation of sorts with frequent asides to the reader, the story goes back and forth from 1902-05 and 2014. Although there are many characters I found it easy to follow and keep their stories straight (did I just say straight? There's nothing 'straight' about this story!). It's a big book, 620 pages, with an even pace that I was able to read in two sittings. While reading, it often gave me the same feelings I got while reading NIGHT FILM by Marisha Pessl which I loved.
So, dear reader, I highly recommend this one and ask you not be intimidated by the page count and just enjoy the exquisite storytelling and illustrations.
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I really enjoyed this book, especially the unorthodox narrator. In fact, the ending felt a bit abrupt to me, but I think this was because, even after 600+ pages, I was willing to keep reading. A few reasons to read this book: It is genre-bending, adding more diverse voices to gothic and horror. It is a great example of metafiction - it is self aware and you never forget that you are reading a book about a book, or watching the filming of a movie within a movie about a book. And the narrator delivers on her promise of providing examples of "plain bad heroines", women trying to be their true selves and be their own heroines, both in the past and present, in a world that does not support it.

The Miseducation of Cameron Post is one of my most treasured books, so I have been highly anticipating this release ever since the title was revealed. I can very happily say that this book did not disappoint me in any way, shape, or form. This book is everything I wanted it to be, and more.

Clocking in at just over 600 pages, Plain Bad Heroines is a sweater of mystery waiting to be slowly unravelled. This story is queer gothic horror and it does it so well. While typical horror fans might wish for more from it, the story isn't written to scare you the way typical horror does. The fear is quiet, underpinned in every chapter, expertly told through dual timelines. I was hooked on the story and the storytelling from chapter one. I can definitely say that this is some of my favourite writing I have read all year- it is witty, it is in your face, it is sarcastic, and it all works so well. I adored the addition of the footnotes, which is a writing device that I feel is either done right, or done terribly wrong, but Danforth weaves them seamlessly through the narrative. The narrator, the yellow jackets, and the setting of Brookhants all feel like characters themselves, and on top of that, nearly every single character in this tome is queer. The discussions and depictions of queer love are some of my favourites, but don't get me wrong- this is not a happy book. There is queer death (in the first chapter, setting up for the dark mystery through the whole story) and there is queer suffering, but not due to oppression or homophobia. If you're scared of insects, I'd go into this with caution- yellow jackets play a large part in the story and are often seen flitting around the pages. The story also deals heavily with death right from the get go. Danforth has proven that she has range, and I sincerely hope she writes more in the same realm in the future!

I adored unraveling this story, learning about the history of Brookhants and its inhabitants, and moving alongside our three main characters as they do the same. If you watched The Haunting of Bly Manor and need more queer gothic horror in your life, this is the book for you. I'm so glad that this book was my 100th book of 2020!

This was one of the most interesting and unique books I've read in a long time, and that was mostly a good thing. I am so impressed with the author's ability to essentially tell three stories at once, and weave them together in a way that felt clear and compelling. As a queer woman, I was drawn to the story for the queer stories, but I also appreciated the more thriller and historical fiction aspects of the story. That being said, I did think some of the devices the author used were a little too much. The copious footnotes were a lot to handle, and the frequent "Dear Readers" were not my favorite elements, but they didn't detract me to the point where I couldn't thoroughly enjoy the book.