Reviews with content warning for Car accident - Plain Bad Heroines

Reviews tagging 'Car accident'

Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth

28 reviews

bethsreading's review against another edition

dark funny tense 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

2.25

I had high hopes for this book but sadly it was ultimately really disappointing. It was a great concept, I loved the queer rep, the spooky cursed girls school, and the experimental haunted film set. However, in the end, this book was just a mess.

My main issue with it is that it needed some serious, brutal editing. It was far too long and the pacing was completely off. As a result, some parts really dragged, others felt completely irrelevant, and worst of all it was then impossible to built any proper tension. This is meant to be a horror novel and any scenes with scary content got lost in a surrounding sea of boring filler. The first 50% of this book was just set up and I think over half of it could easily be cut and you could still understand the characters’ motivations and the background for the shooting of the film. By the time we got to the ‘main’ part of the story where they’re filming at Brookhants, there wasn’t enough time to give many spooky specifics. There had been so much set up and it just fell flat. At one point they said: ‘Things kept happening all the time now at Brookhants. Who could even keep up to write them all down?’ You could?? Is this not a horror novel?? Is this not what I’ve read 400 pages of build up to witness?? It was so frustrating! Squeezing so many storylines into one super long book just didn’t work and none of them had enough breathing room. I think it would’ve worked much better as two books; the first one could be about the girls who died at Brookhants and the film being made, and then the second book could be about the origins of the curse and Libbie/Alex. Then we could get the depth that the author clearly wanted to give to each aspect of the story but the pacing and tension would’ve been so much better.

Sadly, I found the narrator to be particularly annoying. They use ‘Readers’ to address us and while this is a personal gripe, I don’t mind it being used when done well but in this context it felt out of place and awkward. The tone of the narrative voice was conflicting. It seemed as though they were both ‘above’ social media and gen z culture but also a part of it. There was a large focus on social media which I find is always hard to do well and in this case it was not great. The references felt a bit out of touch and a times cringey (they even used an emoji mid sentence at one point, which I hope was meant to be ironic but it did not land at all). It is important for it to be in there in the modern day storyline and some elements of it worked but many did not in my opinion.

My next problem is very small but I found it so unbelievably frustrating. Because this book was so long, the font was really small and that meant that the astrixs indicating footnotes were teeny tiny that I could never see them! I would get to the bottom of a page and see an unread footnote and have to go back playing Where’s Wally to try and find it, which completely ruined the flow of reading.

Overall, I was sad that this book wasn’t what I wanted it to be and what I thought it could have been. On paper it was exactly my sort of thing and could’ve been a new favourite. The issues with the book that I have focused on in my review overshadowed the good parts of the novel and I think that is in part out of frustration that it did not live up to my expectations. If you felt similarly about this book and you want a fantastic mystery thriller (with some genuinely scary parts too) that is also set in a secluded school, then please read the Truly Devious series by Maureen Johnson, I promise it will not disappoint.

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snowydaze's review

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dark funny mysterious tense 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? Yes

5.0

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lisa_m's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.75

This book was unlike anything I have read before. I was bored sometimes and sometimes I didn't know what exactly the author was trying to do but all in all I did really enjoy it. I think if you want to read this book you have to like the creepy vibes it has. It is not a horror of creepy book at all but it does have a few creepy aspects throughout the book. It is creepy but also just a lot of talking and descriptions of film production, meetings and just day to day activities..

I think the only way to enjoy this book is to just take the time and not expect anything to happen. It will take you on a ride through different times, perspectives, stories and deaths.

This book was definitely weird. In a good way but still quite strange..

And also suuuper queer! Like pretty much every important character was a queer woman. I enjoyed that but it got to a point where it was a bit ridiculous (but also it fitted into the story perfectly and made total sense)

My favourite thing about this book is the formatting. I love the different fonts and especially the footnotes! (I love to see footnotes in books)
Also the illustrations are amazing! The yellow jackets were so cool and gave the book that extra something.

The narration was interesting but I did really enjoy it. It felt like a weird friend writing down a story for you and also like some Jane Austen esc writing.

My biggest problem was the length of the book. Especially in the middle it got quite boring and I wanted to quit a couple of times. Also the ending confused me. I mean it is a kind of open end and you can keep thinking about it which is cool..?
I don't think the book could have been shorter and still be the same. The whole feeling came from the whole mixture of it all. Still I get that this is definitely not for everyone.

There are also so many different perspectives. There are quite a lot of jumps between time and people. Also it's kind of about a movie about a book about a legend about a book.

I would say reading this is definitely an experience - and one you have to want. If you want to read a very sapphic book that is also a bit spooky and has some great illustrations: this is the book for you. Be warned though as it is very slow paced and it has a LOT of unanswered questions at the end.

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kathleencoughlin's review

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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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lucyrosemack's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

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

5.0

this book was so fun to read! i looked forward to picking it up every day and i would give play by plays to friends about what was going on in the story. i love the characters, was genuinely creeped out several times, and i wish i could go back and read it all again right now for the first time. im glad i had a pen to take notes as i read because there were so many moments i would have to turn back to, adjust my point of view, etc., and my book is full of (mostly false) predictions for the plot.

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wordwilderness's review against another edition

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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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mallory10100's review

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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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panthalassa's review

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dark mysterious tense slow-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

4.0

best described as "absorbing." I wanted more from the ending, so taking off a star for that.

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thetinytrashcan's review

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adventurous dark emotional sad tense 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? Yes

5.0

This book was beautifully written, I felt so drawn into both timelines and the characters involved in each of them. They were balanced perfectly and I never felt like one was taking away from the other. I loved so many of the characters, how human and flawed they were, how they made mistakes and felt like people. The writing of the book was amazing and I’ve annotated so many lines that I’ve gone through multiple packs of post it flags. The horror and thriller element was there but it didn’t feel like it was trying To scare you so much as share a story that could scare you at points. Overall everything about this book made me extremely happy and I’ll definitely be rereading and looking for new things now that I know the ending.

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my_forest_library's review

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dark mysterious medium-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? It's complicated

4.5

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