This is a book within a book. In 2015 a group of young women head to the fictional Brookhants School for Girls to create a film about its gruesome demise. While the story is fiction, its based on the real memoir “The Story of Mary MacLane” published in 1902. Mary is bored with being a female and her attraction to females is documented. Well, of course, this book was considered to outrageous to be anything but fiction. This lesbian “ghost story” combines gothic horror and Hollywood irony. After finishing the 600+ page book, I’m still not sure what I think about it. It covers a lot of territory and it just seems to go on and on with so many backstories. I gave up trying to write a synopsis of the book.

Thanks to HarperCollins and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this to review! Honestly, I thought that this was YA until I started reading it. Not in a bad way. But the characters, for the most part, aren’t teenagers. This is still a great read for October, with lots of spooky vibes and gothic feels.

I’d really emphasize the gothic feel because the overall tone of this book felt like Jane Eyre to me. Which is fantastic! Jane Eyre is one of my favorite classics. Plain Bad Heroines is completely different from Danforth’s first novel, both in genre and in form. You’re sucked in with the story of Flo and Clara at the beginning, and the rest of the stories always connect back. The weaving of the narratives is masterful; combining each level of story in such a way that you need to know what happens next.

The narration is almost a character on its own and adds a lot to the story as well. It’s never clear who is narrating the novel, and none of the characters ever know the full story. This adds to the mystery element of the story, and definitely what adds to its gothic appeal. And the characters! Though some of them weren’t as fully fleshed out as I would have liked, they really add to the whole atmosphere of the book. A full cast affected by the curse at Brookhants.

While I enjoyed each story in here, this book could have been trimmed down a bit. There were parts that felt a little dragged out. But the characters and the atmosphere by the end definitely make up for it.

Looking for a great sapphic horror to read just in time for Halloween? Definitely pick this one up!

This is the queer gothic we have been wanting all our lives. I loved this so much, i pre-ordered a hardcover to keep on my shelves. Equal parts delightful and equal parts horror, a delightful 600 pages begininng to end.

There’s a lot going on here, plotwise, so bear with me as I attempt a summary:

In 1902, Flo and Clara, two students at The Brookhants School for Girls, become obsessed with a scandalous lesbian memoir by Mary MacLane. In celebration of the book, they start a private club called The Plain Bad Heroine Society that secretly meets in a nearby apple orchard. Not long after, they’re later found stung to death by hoards of angry yellow jackets, a copy of the book splayed out beside them. After several more deaths on the property, the school closes for good.

A hundred and something years later, a young writer named Merritt Emmons publishes a bestselling book on the cursed, queer history of Brookhants. When the book gets picked up for a film adaptation starring celesbian Harper Harper and former child star Audrey Wells, Brookhants opens its gates for the first time in a century.

The book switches between these two timelines, so we get to see the story of Flo and Clara unfold right as we’re seeing the present-day gals experience the creepiness surrounding everything Brookhants for the first time.

And I truly cannot overstate how queer the entire thing is. A queer principal! A creepy old gay benefactor! Multiple sapphic romances!

It’s also a delightful work of metafiction, where the narrator, though never identified, is one of the strongest characters. They address the Reader directly with sly asides and winks, and never hold their own opinions on the other characters back:

Later, horrible Charles would say that he’d found great purpose and meaning in the fact of his life being spared that day. By all accounts he used that purpose to idle away his remaining days, spending his inheritance while failing at several half-hearted business ventures and in general behaving like the brutish, moneyed, bowl of rancid bowels that he was.

The book also uses a copious amount of footnotes, which give room for both more asides from our narrator and bits and pieces of queer history. The stylistic choice is a nod to the fact that LGBTQ+ stories are often relegated to footnotes—which emily m. danforth explains in an introduction to the book, writing that she only learned of Mary MacLane in the first place because of one.

But in this book, queerness isn’t only in the footnotes. It’s splashed across every single page and central to every storyline, past and present—and that’s what makes it such a joy to read.

In the same introduction, emily writes about her Great Aunt Maude. After her death, the relatives who cleaned out her home discarded a stack of letters from women with whom she’d once had romances, eliminating any evidence of her queerness.

After reading this anecdote, my girlfriend said she was reminded of her own queer aunt. In her words: “I didn’t know my aunt was queer until recently, and after she passed away. I don’t think this part of her was kept away from me in an act of intentional erasure, but I do think it was done because of societal views about being queer—that it’s private thing and should stay that way. But there’s so much I wish I knew about her, and so much I imagine her life was.”


A pre-teen version of my girlfriend with her aforementioned aunt

The reality is that despite enormous efforts to bury queerness, it’s been here all along. And though the women in Plain Bad Heroines are fictional (and cursed), their stories are a wildly enjoyable way to bring that fact to light.

Queer points:
+3 for ample usage of the word “celesbian”
+8 for multiple lesbian poltergiest jokes
+14 for the fact that all of the main characters and most of the side characters are queer. And there are many! It is tough for me to recall a single straight, male character, and personally, I think that’s beautiful.

Pre-order it from Bank Square Books

P.S. In case you’re interested, lesbian-owned bookstore Charis Books & More is hosting a virtual event with emily m. danforth and Andrea Lawlor next Friday, October 23. Register at https://www.charisbooksandmore.com/event/plain-bad-heroines-emily-m-danforth-conversation-andrea-lawlor

Emily M. Danforth’s adult debut Plain Bad Heroines is an intricate, capital-G Gothic tome of sapphic love, tragedy, and so many yellow jacket wasps. Seriously, just an exorbitant amount of wasps.

This novel is truly many-layered. Danforth balances several characters, storylines, subplots, and intertextual sources. It’s told by an unidentified narrator to you, the Reader and narratee, whose footnotes and conversational style of narration lighten the mood and create that playful kind of dark humor promised in the synopsis. The mood is also definitely there. Plain Bad Heroines certainly delivers on the cursed boarding school slash behind-the-scenes Hollywood production telling the story of said cursed boarding school front. A certain eeriness lurks beneath the story, sometimes veering into shocking or tragic territory. The setting is also established well, immersing the reader especially in the spooky New England coastal town experience.

It’s undeniable that some serious craft is at work here. Unfortunately, the structure wasn’t always totally effective, sometimes harming the reader’s experience in its complexity by getting in its own way of the actual story and overall mood. I often found myself distracted by all that was going on in the book, rather than focusing on what was happening on the page. I also found that the pacing was affected by the structure; the two timelines were rarely telling parallel stories, and so jumping between the two created a kind of intuitive imbalance. I did appreciate how the recurring symbols threading both timelines together, such as the wasps, created a sense of cohesion. I’m also torn about how to feel about all of the sapphic death in the twentieth century timeline; it just didn’t always come across as meaningful, and one character in particular deserved better.

Overall, I had a lot of fun reading this book, but I’m definitely questioning some of the decisions that were made. If you’re looking for Gothic metafiction with a whole lot of queer characters and a curse, this is for you. I think a lot of readers will find value in Plain Bad Heroines.

I could see this working brilliantly for another reader, but for me I'm just going to have to set it aside.

Well-written and intricately plotted, this book, through no fault of it's own, buzzes a few of my pet peeves right off the bat - multiple POVs and long-(long, long)-game plots. I really only feel invested in the three present-day girls, and the overarching sense of dread on their behalf makes it really hard to pick up the book.

I'm also not really finding that there's a good balance between the horror and the comedy. That could totally be the state of my mental health right now, but I'm just not finding that the levity of the meta-narrator is making up for the horrific, doom-and-gloom of the rest of the story.

If you're a horror fan and you like massive, complicated plots, and maybe you're less squeamish than me, check it out!

First off, I want to thank William Morrow for gifting me with this book in exchange for an honest review.

The second I heard about Plain Bad Heroines I had to immediately read it. Sapphic horror is an especially loved genre of mine and there's so little of it out in the market. On top of that, I love celebrity novels. Coming from the author of The Miseducation of Cameron Post, I absolutely knew that I needed my hands on a copy as soon as possible.

I definitely wasn't expecting the length! This is a chunky book, but even with that length it's never boring or slow. The descriptions of the school, atmosphere, and characters that Danforth gives is lyrical and atmospheric. That was one of my favorite parts of the book! It's also engaging, and my only critique is that a few of the chapters could have been a bit shorter or wrapped up faster, but other than that it held my undivided attention.

I felt on the edge of my seat the entire time. The seamless switching between past and present helped keep my interest, bouncing from storyline to storyline without confusing the reader. Not only that, each character is well fleshed out with their own arcs and subplots that never got tangled up. It was so beautifully done.

Even non-readers of horror will find a slice of something in here for them. With Danforth's atmospheric writing, beautifully flushed out characters, and well thought out plot lines, there's something for everyone here.

Readers, this book will pull you in, drag you down, and keep you reading until the mysteries of Brookhants decide to let you go - just be wary of any yellow jackets you run into along the way.

Seamlessly weaving two timelines (that of 1902 and of modern 20--) together, author Emily M. Danforth takes her readers on a journey of young love and dark curses that pulls you in further the farther you read. Brookhants School has been cursed: by death, hallucinations, lost love, and now filming issues. Readers move from the tragic history of Brookhants founding and the love shared between Libbie Brookhants and Alexandra Trills, to the modern social media frenzy of the Brookhants movie, its haunted film set, and the weird things our three modern heroines - Harper, Audrey, and Merritt - keep experiencing while on set.

Danforth created a great story in Plain Bad Heroines. The chapters flow between the tragic past and the uncertain present, and details from both timelines clarify and answer the questions from the other. The writing was easy to get lost in, and there were so many little details that the reader could easily glance over but added so much more to the story if caught. The plot was obviously meticulously planned out, and Plain Bad Heroines will surely reveal more upon a 2nd or 3rd reading. The world building was exceptional, and the details were phenomenal in both the 1900s and 2000s. The characters all came off the page, each with distinct personalities and their own follies which only contributed to the plot. Each player had their own purpose in the game, and they all played their parts so well. While lesbian romance was at the center of both timelines, Danforth did a fabulous job at contrasting how such a relationship would be handled in 1902 versus how it could play out now. Overall, this was such a great read; it pulls you in with its mystery and intrigue and keeps you hanging on until the last chapter.

*Advance copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*

Plain Bad Heroines follows Libbie Brookhants and her ill-fated girls school in the early 1900s and the parallel tale of making the story of Brookhants into a 2019 horror film. The three very different modern young women brought to Brookhants eerie location - Merritt, the author of the book the film is based on; Harper, a rising star that seems effortlessly cool; and Audrey, scream queen royalty - discover that there is much more than the contrived scares at work as they find out who they truly are.

The narrator is extremely engaging and I loved the juxtaposition of the old-school Jane Eyre approach of direct address of the reader with the 2019 jargon that flowed equally as naturally. I wasn't a huge fan of the alternating plot lines, which made the book difficult to start. It felt like some areas in the beginning lacked development - just as they were getting going, the chapter would end and the plotline would switch. This was a slow-go for me until about two-thirds of the way through. As all the pieces began to fall into place there were moments where I doubted whether or not I was under Brookhants' spell and seeing things that weren't really there. I loved this feeling and thought it played perfectly with Audrey's own unraveling when she also begins to question what's real and what's not.

Overall, this was a spooky fall read that I would recommend given the unique approach and experience that it elicits.

Literal fucking goosebumps. Jesus H Christ, I will never again be able to look at a yellow jacket without a queer feeling of fear creeping up my spine. See what I did there?

This was amazing. So amazing that I’m sad that it’s over. But also relieved? Not all the way relieved because true horror like this leaves you with that feeling at the end, like there is just enough truth in it to be plausible. Like maybe it really did happen.

Three women. And again. And again. And again? Witchy without being specifically and directly witchy. Horror without gruesomeness is a kind of art. And the narrator playing directly into the story like this, do we know who she is by the end? Maybe? But not in an unsatisfactory way like a loose end untied, but like a seed of possibility that was left for the reader to interpret as they will. To make the story seem even more real.

If your are queer and you like horror, you must read this. If you’re not queer and you like horror, you must read this.

This is the best book I’ve read this year. I will be avidly picking up anything Emily Danforth going forward, with both excitement and fear. 5 stars. 6 stars. 5 stars...and a yellow jacket?

This is one book that I was super excited about and I was not disappointed! First of all, a queer love story that takes place at a haunted school? It just called my name. I loved the Gothic horror feel to the book, which I know will be off putting to people, like Mexican Gothic was for many readers. I personally like drawn out stories like this, so A+. I loved the interlinking, multi-timeline plot which was written in a way to sprinkle clues as to what was going on and to all come together at the end. I will leave you with bees are horrible!

I picked this book out to read because the description sounded very interesting and I have previously read The Miseducation of Cameron Post and loved it. I could not have predicted what this book would hold and how events would unfold.

This novel is very much unlike any other novel that I have read before. The jump from past to present is handled excellently and the information that each time period reveals plays into one another, telling a story without directly saying the words. The suspense and curiosity of the novel was infectious and I looked forward to the next time I was able to pick it up. Even after finishing it, I feel like I still have unanswered questions, though not in a way that I feel incomplete from the story. The story from start to end was beautifully mapped out and the lingering curiosities just adds to my love of this book. Danforth puts a lot of trust in her readers to make of the story and happenings what they may. Though there are clear answers to some questions, there is much left to interpretation.

Instead of the usual aggravated feeling I get from this, I am planning on preordering the book so I can read it again and see what I make of it this time around. Depending on who the reader is and what they believe, the events in the book can be seen through many different lenses.

The theme of queerness in this novel made me so happy to see, especially since this book focused on queer women from the late 1800s to present day. As a queer woman, there are other books that contain and evoke the same topic. But in this book, I felt as if the pride and love of queer women was pouring out of these pages and I could not get enough of it. I felt so invested in the characters and their relationships, I would love to read more by Danforth about these women.

I have not felt so complete and satisfied by a book in this way for such a long time. It felt similar to being a young teen and discovering my love for reading. This is definitely a book that I am going to buy and reread again very soon. To anyone who enjoys novels about strong queer women, haunted stories, and unconventional relationships, then this is the book for you!!

As a side note: I get scared quite easily and don't usually find joy in horror, but I very much enjoyed and appreciated the suspense and fright of this novel.

4 Haunted School Stars

I hardly know where to start with this one! You should first know that it is long, 608 pages! Once I got into the story, it did read quickly, but I was daunted by the size at first. There are some interesting black and white illustrations sprinkled throughout too.

There is a haunted school and grounds at the center of this one, set in Rhode Island – The Brookhants School for Girls – and this part of the story starts in 1902. We get to know Clara and Flo and their obsession with a certain book by Mary MacLane and their club, appropriately called The Plain Bad Heroine Society. The school and grounds seem to be haunted (or cursed?) as bad things start happening to the students. Look out for the yellow jackets! A teacher and the principal play key roles in this part of the story too.

Another storyline features the movie world, and we meet two young actors who are making a movie about the Brookhants School and playing Clara and Flo. There’s a third woman in the mix, Merritt, an author who has written a story about the school that is the basis for the movie.

This one has a lot going on and quite a few characters, but it wrapped up in an interesting and satisfying way. I think I liked the earlier storyline more and I wish more had centered around the haunted school! Overall, this would be a good one to read for Halloween!

The narrative tone of the book is great. The use of the phrase "dear reader" asides to the reader of the book make it seem as if the reader is involved in the story and not just a passive observer. The action unfolds slowly which increases the suspense. The characters are also very relatable. Recommended.

Wow. Fully enjoyed this intense, exciting, sexy, unnerving tale. I was glued to this book and it was perfect for an October read.

Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this book.

Rating: 3 stars
Rep: sapphic MCs.


First up, I just want to mention that I ended up listening to the audiobook for this one, courtesy of Libro, without that I 100% would’ve DNF’d, but I pushed through for the sapphics (which get a 5 star from me, everything else, not my thing).

I'm genuinely so sad that I didn’t end up loving this, it seemed to have everything I look for in a book, but the execution didn’t work for me.

I would recommend this to people that adore chunky, slow-paced books, dual timelines, mostly contemporary with a dash of the paranormal.

I thought this would be a horror/mystery type novel but that’s not really what it is. As it is, I was extremely bored throughout, especially the modern-day chapters and as this is a 600+ page book, it ended up being a bit of a slog to get through.

Overall, while “Plain Bad Heroines” wasn’t my cup of tea, I definitely understand why people love this one and I can’t wait to read more by this author in the future!

Plain Bad Heroines is a Sapphic novel wrapped up in horror with influencers, movie makers and oh yeah, humor. Oh oh, and it's meta. I'm mostly all out of my element with this one and I LOVE IT.
Readers are going to take a trip back and forth over a hundred years to an old-timey girls prep school, Brookhants (pronounced Brookhaunts). Then fast forward to now when some distant relatives of the original owners of said prep school have worked it out to do a movie based on a few students and staff that died under mysterious and harsh circumstances. Creepiness abounds throughout the campus and main home of the principal and all of that evil is intact 100 years later when the movie production begins.
It's a meaty book with lots of characters and did I mention Yellow Jackets? Yeah, they're a character, too.

I'm so happy I was able to get my hands on a galley of Plain Bad Heroines! I'd been wanting to read it ever since I saw a blurb for it on goodreads, and was not at all disappointed. PBH is a well written story within a story, with the two timelines interwoven so expertly. My only grievance with PBH is that the story really isn't horror for me, while there are some creepy aspects, I wasn't ever on edge or scared while reading.

Y’all, I had an entire post already for this book. It was a solid 2.5. Then 80% hit, and it got turned up! This was a rollercoaster of emotions, so bare with me.

This is a story within a story. You have the creepy yellow jacket story of Flo and Clara from 1902. Then, we go to present day..ish to Harper Lee Harper (Harper Harper) playing Flo in a horror film based off of Merritt Emmons’s book. Audrey Wells, part of the mother/daughter scream team plays Clara.

You see, after the horrific death of F + C, 5 years later, they school closed its doors forever because of some mysterious deaths. Basically, a curse. So, now, Harper, Audrey, & Merritt venture off to the school, that hasn’t opened its gates since it closed. It intertwines as you don’t realize if the horror is the movie, or if it’s real life from a curse.

I was going to leave this out of my review, but I can’t stop thinking about it. There’s a scene where a minor character drives through a house yard and gets into an accident. After driving the dog of the house attacks the woman because she is covered in blood and there are kids in the yard screaming. (Looked like a zombie). Of course, the author had to make the dog attack from a pitbull mix. Could have just said dog, but no. 🙄 “I’m sorry it happened but this is about what she did, not what our dog did in reaction.” while it was nice to see it was “justified” it still validates everyone’s notion that pibbles are vicious creatures, when really they’re just on land sea lions. I understood the car crash, but the dog attack seemed excessive. That could be because of my stance of pibs, but that’s my opinion. Okay, off my soapbox.

Because this is two stories in one, I felt this didn’t flow as well as it could have. It would just stop abruptly and go into the other story without any type of flow or way to tie into the next story. This could have been done a bit better and the jaggedness of the stories made it hard to really get a rhythm in reading the book. This truly had my ADD on high alert because we had this story, that story, footnotes, narrators, side humor, side thoughts, tangents happening like it was me telling the story, etc etc. it was everywhere and so was my brain. I also believe a lot of the passages were just.. excessive (see above about car crash) There was a lot of paragraphs that didn’t help with character development or add to the plot, so I felt it was just filler.

Overall, I enjoyed the older story more. I really was bored with Audrey, Merritt, and Harper until about 80% through and we hit the hot springs. Y’all, this was IT! It saved the ENTIRE book. I still stand by everything I said before with a lot of excessive writing that does not come to the plot or characters, but HANG. IN. THERE. [you DNF’ers].

This is labeled as adult horror, but this screamed YA for me. The characters were amazing, and truly made the story. I wish the journey to get to the end was as good as the actual end. Thank you William Morrow & NetGalley for the gifted copy. This one is out October 20th.

Plain Bad Heroines is amazing and I just read a glowing bit about it in the Washington Post, so I think it's safe to say this novel, which contains a multitude of genres mixed together in a truly unique way, should be a huge hit with lots of demand!