I was expecting to be a lot more creeped out by this book but surprisingly wasn’t. It’s pretty darn creepy at times and I had to keep going back to the section with the dolls to add pieces of the jigsaw together. Felt a bit long at times but really well written.

Well this book was definitely different from what I expected.
This book is told in multiple POV and in 2 timelines. It focuses on the story of a girls school that has some supernatural things happening and about a mysterious book that keeps showing up in relation to some dead girls.
The second timeline follows current times in which a director is creating a film based on past events.
I think I expected a much darker thriller but I did still enjoy it for what it was. It was definitely much longer than it needed to be and I'm not sure really how I felt about it

I can see how well this is written and wanted to love it but not in right headspace for it. I will come back to it eventually

DRC provided by The Borough Press via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The book was not for me. I just could not connect with the characters and the pacing was not my favourite.

Plain Bad Heroines is sexy, creey and dangerous all at once, and so meta. This is great queer storytelling for teenage girls and upwards. Death and killer wasps lurk around every corner and there is so much passion and longing on the page. I can't wait to read Emily Danforth's next book. Delicious.

This book had everything I like on paper, but I couldn't get on very well with the narrative voice, which felt very obtrusive and cutesy.

Thank you to HarperCollins UK and HarperFiction for giving me a free Advanced Review Copy of Plain Bad Heroines in return for an honest review.

First of all: it has taken me SO LONG to get to this book, for which I can only apologise. I was given a copy of this book in August 2020, and has now just been published in paperback, so I am definitely way behind on this one!

Plain Bad Heroines first caught my eye with that stunning and very eye-catching cover — and the premise of a gothic horror really intrigued me too!

The story changes between 1902 and 2014. In 1902, two young students, Flo and Clara, are students at The Brookhants School for Girls. They become obsessed with Mary MacLane, a young author of a memoir — even starting their own fan club, The Plain Bad Heroine Society. Unfortunately, both girls are killed by an angry swarm of yellow jackets (or wasps), and more victims die soon after in strange circumstances. Fast-forward to 2014, and a book exploring the school's history is now going to be made into a horror film. The book's author, Merritt Emmons, is thrown together on set with the two stars: celebrity actor and 'it girl' Harper Harper as Flo and former child star Audrey Wells as Clara.

I read this as both an eBook (given to me by the publisher) and as an audiobook (purchased myself). I really loved the audiobook narrator, Xe Sands — she did a fantastic job and really gave life to the characters! The narrator throughout the book has a very tongue-in-cheek style of humour, which I thought Xe captured well, and when reading the eBook I definitely heard the story in her voice.

I loved all of the main characters in this book, from both historical settings and modern day. I think I most felt sorry for Alex, the partner of Brookhants School's headmistress in 1902. She seems to be most affected by the curse, and I think she deserved better! The relationship between Merritt, Harper and Flo were intriguing, being intertwined and a little messy. It felt like all three were a little out of their depth. Harper particularly gives an interesting commentary on the cult of celebrity and social media, with her every move tweeted and Instagrammed for everyone to see and comment on.

However, the book is really long at 623 pages, and I felt that it could have been cut shorter. The ending especially was a bit of a disappointment for me — it felt like it was building to a big crescendo which never happened. I was also a little confused by what happened and what was going on at the end, which was a shame as the rest of the book is incredibly well-written, with vivid scenes and incredibly atmospheric. While this is supposed to be a horror, I was left feeling dissatisfied and unsure how much of the goings on were real and how many were imagined.

Overall, I did enjoy Plain Bad Heroines and it's one that I think I would go back to in a few years time. I'm not sure I'd refer to it as a horror, but it's certainly an atmospheric story that pulled me in with all the mystery and goings on. The narrator of the story is also interesting with lots of pop culture references and humour that kept me interested throughout.

(Also, I only found out afterwards when I finished the book that Mary MacLane's I Await the Devil's Coming is a real book, not fictional, and that 'yellowjackets' are actually wasps, or perhaps hornets. Maybe this will spare somebody some confusion!)

I loved this! I wish there were more books like this when I was a young queer searching for characters I could see myself in!

A queer duel time line mystery Plain Bad Heroines had so much potential in my eyes but unfortunately it fell short.

The plot follows a couple of teenage girls at a boarding school and their relationship and untimely end. In the modern day a movie is being made of their story and follows the lead actors involved.

Where the book fails is its length. It feels immensely over written and hence the flow and pacing is off. There are numerous footnotes that are pointless to the plot and takes away from the reading process rather than enriching it. It is also littered with clichés that are then recognised and crisitised within the text.

The queerness while refreshing is overdone where every character you're introduced is queer. My problem with this a character's sexuality is mentioned even when it has nothing to do with anything. It seems to have been done to make a point than be authentic.

The older timeline is much more engaging and interesting. The pacing is swift and not over done. The modern timeline however is littered with text speak that feels unnatural to read. Internal monologues are lengthy and rambling. Characters all seem insecure when they speak and backtrack and repeat themselves multiple times. This becomes irritating rather than endearing.

Overall the concept of this book is far better than the execution. I'd highly recommend it if more time was spent on the older timeline.

This was a gothic, haunting and atmospheric story that I couldn’t put down. It was gripping and engaging the whole way through with a level of suspense and unpredictability that added an extra layer to the storytelling. It was a chilling read that has stayed with me since I read it. This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

Wow! Big fan of horror gothic stories with female protagonists and a mystery to undercover. and this one ticked all my boxes!

*I received an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks for the free book.*

I loved and hated this book. I especially loved the part that was taking place in the present, with Harper Harper, the film industry, and queer love. I really did not enjoy the part of the book that played in the past, I thought it was boring and useless and I skim-read it. I know I am not being very fair but I was so bored, I did not continue reading this book for months even though I love Gothic novels and I love queer novels. Overall enjoyable, but the book is way too long, the footnotes get a bit annoying after a while (especially when reading an ebook) and I just did not care for Libby. At all. I loved the "Blair Witch Project" vibes the modern part gave me, I loved the tentative take on non-monogamous relationships and all the references to movies.

Overall enjoyable, but I wouldn't read it again.

3.5 stars

This book was a masterpiece,
It took me so long to read but it was so good.
The cigarettes after sex mention was my favorite!!

Queer, ambitious, and bursting at the seams with black humour - just the right three ingredients you'd need to concoct this kind of entertaining read :)

It took me a little while to get into the swing of PLAIN BAD HEROINES. The first chapters, especially are loaded with a very strong voice -- snarky and full of asides -- not to mention the footnotes.
I really WANTED to love this book, and I think I would have if it had been trimmed down.
The 'modern day' sections are just to dull and meandering. The 'historcal' parts are fabulous, and I would have devoured a book that was solely focused on that.
Not a disaster, but a bit of a let down.

This is a really weird book with an appeal that is very niche, but it worked for me. The characters all flirted with being unlikeable in a way that felt like it was made for me - and of course, they were almost all sapphic. Would definitely reccommend if you like creepy reads set in single-sex environments.

Dual timeline told in alternating chapters. Half is set in 1902 where Libbie is running a girls school with her partner Alex when a diary of a girl named Mary MacLane starts making its rounds. What follows is tragedy and creepiness. And a lot of yellow jacket wasps 😬

The other half is set in the present day where a horror movie is being made about Brookhants School's tragic past. It girl Harper Harper is one of the co-leads and is also co-producing. Aubrey is a former child star whose role in the film has suddenly changed. Merritt is the writer of the book about the original tragedy that is now the basis for this film.

So firstly this book is super queer. Like 99% of the female characters have a same sex leaning. Harper is named lesbian, Aubrey is bi, not sure what Merritt is and the historical sections introduced me to the term "Boston Marriage" wherein two women (whether romantically inclined or not) would live together in order to achieve careers and independence uncommon for the time.

I thought that it was interesting and creepy but the novel was too long (over 600 pages) and too slowly paced. A lot could have been cut in my opinion. Also the ending was very abrupt. I've seen reviews saying it could have been a duology: the historical story and then the modern one. That would allow for the detail without being overlong.

Plain Bad Heroines is the sapphic historical thriller we all needed and a surprising but welcome change from the author’s debut novel (a contemporary drama/slice of life).

Plain bad heroines had me captured from the get go. I absolutely adored the Gothic, dark and queer story and loved the unique narration. However, it did take a while to fully immerse me and it could have been slightly shorter.
All that aside, it was super whimsical and weird and just keeps it's deliciously dark claws trapped in your mind. I can't stop thinking about this book.

I was very excited to read Emily M. Danforth after loving The Miseducation of Cameron Post, but found this one to be too wordy and long-winding to get into. Which is not to say I hated it. It was weirdly enjoyable but I did wish she would get a move on!

(Review copy from NetGalley)