Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth

28 reviews

somelibrarychick's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide, Child death, Drug use, and Death

Minor: Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Death of parent, and Grief

birdieblue's review

dark mysterious reflective slow-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

4.75

as far as ghost stories goes, plain bad heroines certainly has the intensity you would expect.

it also has exactly what you would expect from the backstory of said ghosts… so keep that in mind.

if you’re over gays dying in literature, maybe don’t read a book about a haunted girls boarding school. it’s sapphic. and haunted. there’s ghosts. at one point, they had to die. at least some of them, anyways.

now that that’s out of the way— i enjoyed this book. i am personally not a fan of slow paced books, which this certainly is, but i still couldn’t put it down. i needed to know the truth. and i certainly did find it.

the blending and constant shifting from past to present, the slow unveiling of the truth, made for an elaborate narrative that at once made you sure you knew exactly what was going to happen— and then left you speechless when your feet were knocked completely out from under you.

truthfully, i’m of the opinion it could have been accomplished in a shorter time, i don’t believe it needed to be quite so drawn out. but perhaps we would have lost something if it hadn’t been. i didn’t much care for the ending, but i also can’t deny it isn’t realistic. especially for the genre. it is.

but i would much rather know what became of our plain bad heroines than have been left guessing. i’ve grown rather fond of them.

(edit: i came back and changed the star rating on this to 4.75 and to say i literally CANNOT stop thinking of this book. if we had gotten a bit more for the heroines ending? it’d be a 5.)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Child death and Death of parent

Minor: Mental illness, Sexual assault, Addiction, and Alcoholism

kathleencoughlin's review

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

2.0

This books is very long snd yet it feels like not much happened. I thought the different narrative threads were hard to follow and the ending was unclear. The second-person narration ended up being kind of confusing and condescending at times. Of course I appreciate sapphic MCs buy that just wasn't enough for me here

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Lesbophobia, and Biphobia

Moderate: Sexual assault, Death, Murder, Alcohol, and Drug use

Minor: Alcoholism, Forced institutionalization, and Car accident

graciffer's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious slow-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? No

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Grief

Moderate: Alcoholism

wordwilderness's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use and Death

Moderate: Sexual assault and Suicide

Minor: Alcoholism, Blood, Murder, Vomit, Addiction, Car accident, Forced institutionalization, Grief, and Lesbophobia

mallory10100's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-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? No

5.0

oh my god i loved this book so much, what a creative story. i LOVED how gay it was 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Gore, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Homophobia, Child death, Cursing, Death, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Lesbophobia, Medical content, Sexual content, and Violence

Moderate: Drug use, Murder, Death of parent, Dementia, Chronic illness, Bullying, Car accident, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Sexual violence, and Vomit

i highly recommend reading this :) at the start i was overwhelmed at the size of it, but it’s very much necessary for this story

bookishlychelle's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

Moderate: Suicide and Alcoholism

bluberrybooks'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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail and Death

Moderate: Sexual assault, Drug use, Suicide, Death of parent, and Drug abuse

Minor: Alcoholism

twoddlecat's review

dark emotional funny tense medium-paced

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

5.0

this book was a dream, literally this book made me feel like I was a kid again in the best possible way. I love the format, I love the illustrations, I love the characters, I love the story, I love the vibe. So good and everyone is gay it's beautiful. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Vomit

Minor: Alcoholism

banrions's review

dark emotional 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

5.0

COOL OKAY I HAVE A LOT OF FEELINGS AND EMOTIONS IN MY BODY AND I’M GONNA NEED AT LEAST A WEEK TO FIGURE THEM ALL OUT.

I think this book was written directly for me to hit like, most of my buttons, and I’m FURIOUS about it and I need to own this book immediately.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death and Grief

Minor: Alcoholism, Body horror, Death of parent, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Lesbophobia, Pregnancy, Sexism, Suicide, and Vomit