In Rhode Island Brookhant Manor and estate and Brookhants School for Girls, both have extremely tragic and potentially cursed pasts.  This story is a little complicated at times, as it is a story about a story involving a story about a book that caused a lot of trouble in 1902.  This book mainly centers on two timelines, 1902 at Brookhants and a more present day time, again at Brookhants and also in Hollywood because a movie is about to be made about the infamous school and the strange red book that seems to have been the cause of so much tragedy.  This is an engrossing read with great atmosphere and well drawn characters but for me the book was rather overlong, and I wasn't a fan of all the footnotes that interrupted the story and didn't seem to add very much for me.  Still a really good read with a very clever premise and some lovely illustrations dotted throughout.

I’ve been looking forward to this for ages - a queer, gothic horror set in an all-girls boarding school across two separate timelines? Yes, please!

While it’s definitely an engrossing novel, it just didn’t deliver, especially at the end. It felt almost unfinished, like neither of the plot lines was properly wrapped up.

That said, the book is beautifully written and highly entertaining - you just have to get over the missing links!

With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher.

I was really looking forward to reading this book - a gothic horror story set in a boarding school, with hints of miss Jean Brodie and some mysterious deaths - what's not to like?
However, for me, the reality didn't live up to the promise. It was a really long book, and irritatingly waffly at times with the footnotes adding nothing more than something else to read. I preferred the sections in the past, but felt parts of the book really dragged.
Not one I could recommend but I'm sure other readers will love it.
thank you to netgalley and Harper collins for an advance copy of this book

Full of devotion, obsession, and murder. Beginning in 1902, the reader is brought right back to the original story, and how many years later the story and people are brought back to feature in another story. It feels like you are in the layers of an onion reading this book.

Oh boy. This is the toughest review I've written in a long time. I apologise in advance for this, it's likely to be at least a little incoherent.

First of all; this is a HUGE book. Physically massive. It's six hundred and odd pages. Although the writing flows beautifully, it still takes some effort to get through it.

Now, the writing. As I said, it does flow very well. The tone is chatty and friendly. It's lyrical and easy to follow any particular section. Sadly, as a whole, the story doesn't make a lot of sense. At least, not to me.

The story jumps back and forth between two major points in time - 1902 and forward, and a few months sometime relatively recently, within the last couple of years. It also covers many other minor points in time, often without any warning. I know that a lot of readers enjoy this style of storytelling, where something set in the past but revealed after something set in the present sheds new light on it. For me, it's just confusing. I had a lot of trouble keeping track of what was happening when, who knew what, who didn't know what...I tried taking notes at one point, but since I hadn't been taking them from the start, they didn't help much. Again, I know a lot of readers will love this and really enjoy it, this is just my opinion.

The ending didn't make much sense to me either, and from reviews I've since read online, I think this is a common complaint. The school itself, heavily mentioned in the blurb and information, barely featured; the important thing is the ground the school sits on, not the actual school itself.

I did notice one of the characters using a verbal tic that I've been catching in myself lately, since before I started reading. I wonder where we both picked it up?

















SPOILER

















I didn't much like the suggestion that the girls in the school liked to fool around with each other, just because there were no other options for them at the time. I know that a lot of people are flexible, and they probably took advantage of being out from under disapproving adult eyes, but a lot *aren't* and didn't, and categorizing a whole age group as 'eeeh, it was just what happened' sat badly with me.


















END OF SPOILERS



















I did really like the writing style, even though it took me a long time to get through the book. I think a lot of people will enjoy this book. It wasn't for me, but maybe Emily's next one will be.

Plain Bad Heroines has a very different feel to it, I'm not sure I can describe the writing well but it has a rhythm and rhyme to it that is hypnotic and immersive, a novel you feel as much as you read.

The gothic tone and old school styling is really excellent, the tale itself utterly compelling, creepy on occasion and absolutely dripping with atmosphere.

Strange goings on at a school lead to a future movie being made - the author creates a group dynamic of layered and unique characters, weaves in an imaginative mythology set around a novel that affects its readers in strange ways then offers a gripping narrative that you find hard to put down.

The ending may divide opinion on whether it offers enough closure but for me it was perfect and the illustrations popping up throughout really added to the overall ambiance of this excellent read.

Recommended.

1902, Brookhants School for Girls: students Flo and Clara are madly in love with each other, as well as completely obsessed with The Story of Mary MacLane, the scandalous debut memoir by 19 year old MacLane. A few months later they are found dead in the woods, after a horrific wasp, the book lying next to their intertwined bodies. Within five years The Brookhants School for Girls is closed. But not before three more people died on the property, each in a troubling way.

Over a hundred years later, Brookhants opens its doors once more, when a crew of young actresses arrive to film a high-profile movie about the rumoured Brookhants curse. And as past and present become grimly entangled, it’s soon impossible to tell quite where the curse leaves off and Hollywood begins…


I appreciate Emily M. Danforth’s first book, I believe and when I saw that she was releasing another, I knew I had to request it as she always has an incredible way to storytelling and Plain Bad Heroines is certainly further proof of her talent. Told with different perspectives and throwing back between old and modern, this book transports you through a very good story.

The different perspectives throughout the book are really good and really allow for each of the characters to really flourish and develop as the story continues I do feel however this book I found quite hard to get through - hence the time it has taken me to write this review. The first half book for our characters in the modern day can be quite slow, the story really picking up in the second half and was far more engrossing to read.

The storytelling here is excellent and Danforth has an incredible way way with words and this book certainly continues to prove that, however the plot is somewhat confusing in moments and I am still left to wonder sometimes what the purpose was? What is the ending? I am confused - I both enjoyed and was left confused by this book and I don’t know how to feel about it. The original story from when the school was open between Alex and Libbie is great and I feel like I need that story more.

An enjoyable read, but I do kinda wish it had been two books.

(I received an ARC from Netgalley for honest review).

This is an unusual and quirky book - which I think suffered from being a bit too long personally. However I liked the setting of the old school and the mysterious happenings, and I think the sections set in the past worked particularly well.

The addition of the footnotes was also interesting but might divide readers!

A tangled and thorny tale indeed, this book is a bit bonkers. It's made up of stories within stories all revolving around Brookhants School for Girls and those damned yellow jacket wasps. "Plain Bad Heroines" is gothic, queer and much of it revolves around a real person (one Mary MacLane) and a book she wrote which I expect will see a big resurgence next year.

I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this book or what rating to assign. For starters, it's huge at over 600 pages. I have both the ebook and audiobook and I think that's probably the best way to approach it. The ebook is beautifully laid out with a map and gorgeous illustrations throughout. The audiobook is narrated by Xe Sands in a languid, unhurried drawl which hints at a life well lived and wraps around you as the tale unfolds. I spent a great deal of time with these stories within stories, spanning more than a century. Now that it's finished I feel a bit confused (this is not a book which ends neatly), bereft and certain that I will go back to it at some point. I'm going to miss it, despite neither loving nor hating it. One thing is for sure - I am very much not looking forward to wasp season next year.

I was really excited about this book but it just didn't work for me. It was really slow and i just couldn't get invested in the story and i also struggled with the writing style.

I know this is usually the part where I give you a little summary of the book but with Plain Bad Heroines that is virtually impossible. A story within a story, within a film, within a story. This book spans generations, is told from multiple POV's, is wondrously feminist, Sapphic and chilling and it had me gripped from page one.

This is one of those rare books that you love, you get completely dragged into, and when you've finished you can help but struggle to put it into words. The main story follows two different timelines that of Brookhants in 1902 where the mysterious death of multiple girls at the school is linked to a little red book: The Story of Mary Maclane. And a modern story where three girls become entwined in the making of a film based on the deaths of Flo and Clara at Brookhants over 100 years ago. How are the two linked you may ask. Are they linked by the deaths? Are they linked by the strange happening at the school, by the buzzing and random appearance of Yellow Jackets... or is it something older? This book is genuinely impossible to talk about without leaving little spoilers everywhere so you might have to bear with me.

Told through an Omniscient third person perspective. The narrator is always one step ahead of us as the reader and as well as the main storyline they give us little tit bits of information, sometimes funny, sometimes important and sometimes scathing, empathetic, defensive. And we get these bits of information through footnotes (think Nevernight for the amount and the content.) Because of this, the narration chops between timelines, perspectives and even deviates from the two main story lines when they feel they have some prudent information. In any other book, this style of storytelling simply would not have worked, it would have seemed too jumpy and erratic. But with Plain Bad Heroines, the author manages to weave it together seamlessly, no matter how abrupt the change in perspective may be, it makes perfect sense to the story and makes for a smooth if not quirky plot.

Is there a straight character in this book? If there is I didn't find them? Kidding, kidding, there is of course the token straight character. One's who have small parts to play in the story, I would say with little impact but every single character in this book, every single person we are introduced to is important... and there are ALOT of people. But the MC's all 5 of them, are brilliantly Sapphic. In fact this whole book is completely and unabashedly Sapphic. From Libbie and Alex, and Flo and Clara in 1902 to Harper, Audrey and Merritt who are our modern Plain Bad Heroines, the author takes feminism and queerness and absolutely rolls with it. This book is both character and plot driven, another rarity and it works.

As well as being super Sapphic, Plain Bad Heroines is seriously creepy. Like read with the lights on creepy. You never quite know who you can trust, whether what the characters are experiencing is actually happening, and through that whether what you are reading is actually happening. We are also kept in the dark as to what is causing the deaths in 1902, and the strange things that are happening on set in the modern day. Is it Mary Maclanes book, is it a curse, is it something much darker. Because of this, and the open ending the author leaves us with, it is easy to find yourself questioning every interaction you have read, every character you have been introduced too, and instead of leaving you with everything in a nice neat bow, she manages to leave you with more unanswered questions.

Plain Bad Heroines is one of those books that I know will get better every time I re-read it, I will pick up new things, little bits of information I missed the first time around. It it not a book you can power through, not just because at over 600 pages it's a bit of a chonk, but because if you do try and read it in one sitting I can almost guarantee you will miss way too much. I can't tell you how much I loved this book, everything from the characters, the writing style and the general plot. I can easily see this becoming a cult classic, having the same sway over readers as Mary Maclanes had in this except, you know... with less deaths.

Plain Bad Heroines is a well-written gothic tale about a school with a history of troubling deaths and an apparent curse. The story is told through dual timelines - one set in 1902 when students obsess over a scandalous memoir only to be found dead a few months later, the other set over a hundred years later when the school opens it's doors to a film crew telling the story of the school's supposed curse. It doesn't take long for everyone to wonder if the curse lives on. The story is very atmospheric with layers of horror throughout. I look forward to reading more from Danforth in the future. Highly recommended to those who enjoy gothic horror.

When I was younger and being annoying (probably a common occurrence), my mum would often ask if I’d like a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. At which point, younger me, being sensible and in possession of a decent sense of self-preservation, would shut up and let be. (To be clear, there were no actual sharp sticks involved.)

Having finished this book, I can now say that there is something I would prefer a poke in the eye with a sharp stick to. Plain Bad Heroines is the perfect storm of things I hate: a confluence of a narrative voice I can’t stand, character voices I can barely enjoy more, a general sense that it sounds like reading the most irritating of Twitter threads for six hundred plus pages, a continuous stream of pop culture references (the true horror of this book was, in fact, the repeated references to Tumblr) — this book was basically destined to piss me off.

In case this all seems like hyperbole, let me assure you, it is not. I have read a great number of books this year that have bored me to tears of frustration. I had not, until now, read a book that quite so spectacularly filled me with pure irritation.

But it’s not a bad book, as much as my rating may bely that fact. I can tell you that it’s a perfectly polished and accomplished piece. It’s just also a piece that annoyed me like no book has annoyed me before.

Let’s start from the top with why this book and I did not get along. Firstly, the blurb set up some wildly different expectations of what this book was about for me. I was expecting a lot more gothic haunted house mystery, perhaps some modern day deaths, perhaps some ghost sightings. Instead, for the first part of the book (which took up some 300+ pages), it’s about Hollywood, with the occasional flip back into the past to set the scene for when they eventually made it to the school.

And the thing is, not only did that bore me, but it also hardly built a sense of horror. In fact, there was very little truly horrifying about the book (barring the aforementioned pop culture references). And even when the curse came to light later on, even when everything that had happened in the past was explained, there was never that true feeling of horror. No creeping sense of the unknown. Nothing. All in all, it was a little nebulous a storyline, a bit unresolved at the end. It connected together, but only in the vaguest sense, and there were never answers to anything.

In that regard, the plotline that followed the beginning of the 20th century kept my attention a little longer, but it all dragged. There was a lot of flip-flopping between current storyline (1902) and past, to explain motivations, to give background, a lot of exposition — all of this served to kill any chance I had at enjoying this book. And the same happened in the present storyline. For 300+ pages, just to set up the second part, where they actually go to the school.

Honestly, it just felt poorly paced.

And then we come to the voices. The whole omniscient narrator could have been good but for the fact that they had the most irritating voice. I don’t necessarily mind having the fourth wall broken, but it got to the point where I just wanted the plot to get a move on. The voice too had a certain kind of smugness to it, a nudge-nudge look at this feeling, a smirking knowingness. In a way, I’m glad the formatting of the mobi file meant that the footnotes all appeared at the end of the book because I am sure that would only have worsened my experience.

Moving onto the characters, what I found was that they all felt somewhat one-dimensional. That is, you could probably sum them each up in a word or two. They weren’t caricaturish, but they did lean in the direction of being just sort of larger-than-life and not in a good way. The way they spoke at times felt ripped straight out of some Twitter or Tumblr discourse, or straight from the worst of reality television. It was, to put it lightly, not fun.

Really, then, the last straw for me was the repeated use of the q-slur, particularly its use as a noun. Reclaiming a slur is a thorny thing anyway, and I can just about deal with it being used maybe once or twice in the entire book, as an adjective. Having to see it in noun form, having to see it four or five times on a page, was about as nice as a slap in the face. And yes, this is a massively personal point, more so than the rest, but it’s a key reason I couldn’t enjoy this book.

But hey! It wasn’t the book for me, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be for you.

This is a clever book, almost a book within a book. It weaves backwards and forwards in time, from a series of tragic deaths at an all girls school a hundred years ago, to the present day, when the same school is used as the subject of a horror movie. But is the place cursed?
This novel was quirkily told by an omniscient narrator, the unique voice pulling me in to its twisty, queer labyrinth of a plot. With elements of humour, and mystery, and bizarre curses, I really enjoyed Emily Danforth''s novel and look forward to reading more from her.

Two girls die at an exclusive boarding school, clutching a controversial book that has mesmerized the students. The deaths spark a series of bizarre incidents that leave the school reeling. In particular its unconventional Headmistress Mrs Libbie Brookhants and her partner Miss Alex Trill. Long after the school closes its doors, a new film by a hipster horror director depends on three young women, the precocious but blocked author of the book "The Happenings at Brookhants", a trendy megastar actress and "celesbian" and the daughter of a cult horror actress. But the filming of the movie version is plagued by unsettling incidents and soon there are rumours of an Omen-like curse haunting the sets...

It's impossible to tell which bits are "true" and fictional in the world Danforth had created and it is brilliant. She delights in dread, building and releasing tension with great aplomb and style, keeping you guessing and on the edge of your seat throughout. The characters are cleverly drawn, providing a cast of many (mostly queer) women, all original and complex and I found myself rooting for them all, and dreading (in the best way) what might become of them. The structure is complex as it develops different strands in the two timelines and moving back and forth between and within the two eras. One particular thread didn't feel quite a fleshed out, perhaps because it was so minor compared to the others. The fact that it was there simply to reveal the fate of one major character meant that it felt a little off-kilter with the rest of the narrative. And lets talk about that narrator because it it so difficult to get an intrusive one right without ruining the flow of the story. Danforth manages it admirably, her mysterious narrator is sly and playful and teases the reader brilliantly, evoking horror and humour often in the same breath. This is the strongest, most memorable part of the writing (and Danforth is no slouch in the rest).and made this novel a blast to read. For a minute I thought I was going to be disappointed by the resolution (or lack thereof) but it played out beautifully. A brilliant, brash, bonkers novel full of gothic horror, feminist fire, queer power bucketloads of character. I loved it.

I really enjoyed the way the two time lines interacted and the growing sense of unease. I also really liked the narrator and their asides.

I'd give this book a 2.5 out of stars. The storyline had lots of promise but unfortunately didn't always deliver. It plodded along at times and could have done with shorter buildups to the action. Things also got a bit murky with the dual narrative and I struggled to follow parts of it. It felt like there were two separate books in there trying to get out. However, it was atmospheric and felt dark which I liked.

The characters were well developed and you either loved or hated them. The ending was a bit weird because the modern narrative didn't really have any conclusion.

‘Plain Bad Heroines’ is a complex novel set across two timelines – the early 20th century, where both students and staff at Brookhants School for Girls are captivated by a new, audacious book by Mary Maclane, and the present day, where a film is being made about the events at Brookhants over a hundred years ago. Told by a mysterious narrator, it switches back and forth between the timelines, emphasising the parallels between the past and modern day events. I enjoyed the comparisons and clever interspersing of gothic elements, but the exceptionally ambiguous ending wasn’t as satisfying as I wanted it to be.

Brookhants, an exclusive school in Massachusetts, was set up by Libbie Brookhants after her husband’s death. With the help of her close friend – and lover – Alex, it became a huge success – until the death of two students, Clara and Flo. Thus began a series of events ending in the school’s permanent closure, passing into legend – until a precocious young writer, Merritt, decided to write a book about the tragedies at Brookhants. The book was subsequently optioned, and two actresses at very different stages of their careers – Harper Harper and Audrey Wells – were signed on to star. These characters make up our plain bad heroines – in the past timeline, Clara, Flo, and their classmate Eleanor, along with Principal Brookhants and Alex; in the present timeline, Harper Harper, Audrey, and Merritt.

Each character is complex, and the relationships between them are highlights. I especially liked Libbie Brookhants – a bold and independent woman never given the freedom to be as independent as she’d like – and Audrey Wells, a child star struggling to grow out of the shadow of her infamous mother and show off any talent of her own. The relationship between Libbie and Alex in a time when such things were not accepted is brilliantly portrayed, and it’s fascinating seeing how each of them viewed it – even when those views didn’t align. The interplay between Harper Harper, Audrey, and Merritt is also excellent, although I did feel that the changes in Audrey and Merritt’s weren’t always written with the subtlety of the others.

Unusually for a book with multiple timelines, both the past and present stories are equally strong. Jumping between them never feels unnatural or out of place, and there are some truly beautiful moments of mirroring. The only weakness in either timeline is the pacing. This is a long book, with a great deal of build-up before each new event happens, and I feel like it could be edited down without losing any of the gorgeous atmosphere and tension.

My main issue with this book, however, is the ending. The past timeline is more-or-less wrapped up – not everything is answered, but then some mystery adds to the atmosphere – but the present just ends with no resolution. The reader is left to decide for themselves what happens to the plain bad heroines – which will suit some readers well, but I want a few more answers. The ending also leaves the reader knowing a lot more than the protagonists, which is interesting, but definitely a situation more could be done with.

Overall, this is a clever piece of fiction that straddles the boundary between literary and gothic. It’s filled with sapphic relationships and intriguing characters, and the writing is gorgeous, evoking beautiful imagery across its multiple timelines. Recommended for fans of gothic literature, dark academia, and stories with real atmosphere.

Deliciously dark, darkly comic. Who knew I needed a queer ghost story this much? I thought it lost its way slightly in the last 20% but it was still such an enjoyable read.

Brookhants School for Girls has a troubled past littered with myriad unfortunate ends that befall the females who dwell there. Over one-hundred years later and both the horror and allure of this eerie spot still holds it sway. This is especially true for Merritt, who has penned a fictional account of all that historically transpired, and the actresses, Harper and Audrey, who are to star in her movie adaptation, both set and filmed upon this doomed spot.

Whilst the initial story-line was intriguing enough alone, I can only stand back in awe and applaud all the divergent narratives and side-plots that Danforth managed to pack into these 500 pages. Not one single character knew the whole truth of what was occurring and the reader too was forever kept just short of pulling together the threads for the abundant mysteries featured here. This convoluted style of storytelling became even further muddled with the ever shifting character focus and chronological order. I had a tricky time obtaining and then keeping the few facts Danforth reluctantly allowed the reader, and so have no idea how she managed to so cleverly construct and link them all!

Asides from remaining mesmerised by the complexities for all that occurred, I also adored how diverse this cast of characters was. I had no idea who to root for when every single female was so fierce, independent, and just an all-round good, plain bad heroine. Sapphic, wonderful, brilliance!

The horrifying elements and eerie atmosphere remained light (which was the aim but not what I had anticipated from not looking into the genre tags thoroughly enough) and there was a point, around the central portion of the novel, where I longed for an increase in the pacing. These were minor shortfalls and, for the rest of this chunky tome, I remained enamoured, intrigued, mystified, and delighted.