Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth

31 reviews

sparklefarm's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Well, that was a weird one. Very very gay. I didn't not like it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual violence

Minor: Sexual content

fin_pilot's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Vomit, Gore, Death, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual assault, Lesbophobia, and Homophobia

flamesocks's review against another edition

dark funny slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Homophobia, Car accident, Drug use, Gaslighting, Lesbophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Pregnancy, Grief, Toxic relationship, Biphobia, and Mental illness

thekatreturns's review

adventurous dark funny mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I adored this book. I won’t say too much so as not to spoil it, but it was my favorite read of the year. It feels like a rebuttal to the way that horror stories are often told, but beyond being a statement about the world, it is frightening, engaging, and deeply, darkly funny in its own right. The main cast is almost entirely lesbian and bisexual women who are distinct and flawed and real and so interesting to watch interact. That said, unless I missed something, the main cast is all white Americans with some degree of class privilege. The class aspect is intentional and absolutely commented upon, for what that’s worth, and the supporting cast is racially diverse, so that’s why I marked “it’s complicated” for diversity. I knocked a half point off because I wanted more worldbuilding out of the ending, for what was revealed then to be discussed as it relates to the previous events of the book, but the very last chapters were immensely satisfying nonetheless. I would highly recommend this to horror fans of all kinds, metafiction fans, those who like stories interweaving the past and present, anyone into Fraught Female Friendships, and those who just love really wonderful-in-all-their-flaws queer woman characters. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Body horror, Death, Suicide, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Drug use, Homophobia, Cursing, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexism, Sexual content, Misogyny, Outing, Classism, Fire/Fire injury, and Lesbophobia

Minor: Violence, Racism, Biphobia, Car accident, Pregnancy, Murder, Addiction, and Alcoholism

Insects, specifically yellowjackets, feature heavily in this book. They are included in nearly all of the horror elements. For me, graphic=extremely unavoidable, long, plot crucial elements. moderate= plot or thematically relevant, but don’t stand out as particularly graphic. Minor=not described in detail.

matcha_cat's review

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Grief, and Sexual content

Minor: Homophobia, Infidelity, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Body shaming

ksgoetz's review

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Body horror, Homophobia, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Pregnancy, Grief, Lesbophobia, Sexual assault, Abandonment, Blood, Fatphobia, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Vomit, Death, Misogyny, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Suicide attempt

bedtimesandbooks's review

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Suicide, Child death, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Murder, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Sexism, and Sexual assault

aseel_reads's review

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I absolutely adored the narrative style, having it break the fourth wall was super engaging. I liked the switch between the two time periods and having a mix of horror and the occult in it. I really enjoyed the rawness of the characters, especially merit and I liked how queer the book was. I think the ending could have had a more shocking event, which would have tied the story more holistically.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Child death, Infidelity, Murder, Pregnancy, Suicide, and Violence

wlwlibrary's review

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

This book was wonderful, but, despite the many pages, I was left feeling as if the story was incomplete. However, I loved the story, and the illustrations were beautiful. I feel like there are very few books that I can follow this one up with, partially because of the feeling of incompleteness, but also the uniqueness of this novel. I’ve seen very few books where sapphic characters took centerstage consistently, not just through one or two main characters. 
Plain Bad Heroines is a beautiful exploration of queer friendships, sapphic love, and the sometimes-blurry space in between. This book made me laugh out loud one moment and be terrified the next. It’s a complex journey, but a fun one to take. The author does a very good job of not allowing characters’ identities become lost due to the length, and casually renews the reader’s memory of them. 
Overall, I enjoyed this book. I would have liked a little more closure, but it’s a good one nonetheless.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Homophobia

The d-slur is reclaimed in this book, and that could be triggering to some readers. I wasn’t super vigilant about keeping track of TWs.

jacemchale's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I really didn't expect to enjoy this book so much when I started it but now I think a piece of me will hold onto the story and all of it's characters.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Death, Sexual content, and Drug use

Minor: Cursing, Dementia, Sexism, Suicide, Violence, Alcoholism, Vomit, Forced institutionalization, Sexual violence, Car accident, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, and Murder