Scan barcode
A review by birdieblue
Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth
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.)
it also has exactly what you would expect from the backstory of said ghosts… so keep that in mind.
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.)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Child death and Death of parent
Minor: Mental illness, Sexual assault, Addiction, and Alcoholism