Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth Published by HarperCollins on October 20, 2020
Genres: Fiction / Gothic, Fiction / LGBTQ+ / General, Fiction / Literary, Fiction / Women
Pages: 656
Format: Hardcover
Source: Amazon
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
“A delectable brew of gothic horror and Hollywood satire . . . [and] what makes all this so much fun is Danforth’s deliciously ghoulish voice . . . exquisite." —Ron Charles, THE WASHINGTON POST
"A multi-faceted novel, equal parts gothic, sharply funny, sapphic romance, historical, and, of course, spooky.” —ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
Named a Most Anticipated Book by Entertainment Weekly • Washington Post • USA Today • Time • O, The Oprah Magazine • Buzzfeed • Harper's Bazaar • Vulture • Parade • HuffPost • Refinery29 • Popsugar • E! News • Bustle • The Millions • GoodReads • Autostraddle • Lambda Literary • Literary Hub • and more!
The award-winning author of The Miseducation of Cameron Post makes her adult debut with this highly imaginative and original horror-comedy centered around a cursed New England boarding school for girls—a wickedly whimsical celebration of the art of storytelling, sapphic love, and the rebellious female spirit
Our story begins in 1902, at the Brookhants School for Girls. Flo and Clara, two impressionable students, are obsessed with each other and with a daring young writer named Mary MacLane, the author of a scandalous bestselling memoir. To show their devotion to Mary, the girls establish their own private club and call it the Plain Bad Heroine Society. They meet in secret in a nearby apple orchard, the setting of their wildest happiness and, ultimately, of their macabre deaths. This is where their bodies are later discovered with a copy of Mary’s book splayed beside them, the victims of a swarm of stinging, angry yellow jackets. Less than five years later, the Brookhants School for Girls closes its doors forever—but not before three more people mysteriously die on the property, each in a most troubling way.
Over a century later, the now abandoned and crumbling Brookhants is back in the news when wunderkind writer Merritt Emmons publishes a breakout book celebrating the queer, feminist history surrounding the “haunted and cursed” Gilded Age institution. Her bestselling book inspires a controversial horror film adaptation starring celebrity actor and lesbian it girl Harper Harper playing the ill-fated heroine Flo, opposite B-list actress and former child star Audrey Wells as Clara. But as Brookhants opens its gates once again, and our three modern heroines arrive on set to begin filming, past and present become grimly entangled—or perhaps just grimly exploited—and soon it’s impossible to tell where the curse leaves off and Hollywood begins.
A story within a story within a story and featuring black-and-white period-inspired illustrations, Plain Bad Heroines is a devilishly haunting, modern masterwork of metafiction that manages to combine the ghostly sensibility of Sarah Waters with the dark imagination of Marisha Pessl and the sharp humor and incisive social commentary of Curtis Sittenfeld into one laugh-out-loud funny, spellbinding, and wonderfully luxuriant read.
“Full of Victorian sapphic romance, metafictional horror, biting misandrist humor, Hollywood intrigue, and multiple timeliness—all replete with evocative illustrations that are icing on a deviously delicious cake.” –O, THE OPRAH MAGAZINE
My Review
I am sitting here trying to figure out the best way to explain this book to you. I have never read anything like it. Sarah Waters describes it as “Brimming from start to finish with sly humor and gothic mischief. Brilliant.” I think that she nails it perfectly on the head in that description.
I picked this book up because the book club that I participate in decided that this would be our July read. I had also seen it all over booktube so my interest was perked before we even decided on it as a book club pick. Yes, this book is long but in my opinion, it read rather quickly and was worth every word that was written. This story is not written in just plain text but it also includes illustrations, scripts, and text messages so basically it is a mixed media read. Plain Bad Heroines is also written through the viewpoint of the narrator who directly speaks to the reader throughout the story. I have never experienced anything like that in a book and frankly, I loved it. It made me feel very involved in what was happening to these characters throughout the story. I also really appreciated the fact that Emily Danforth included footnotes throughout the book to go deeper into certain topics being discussed.
I should really get to the point of what this book is about, shouldn’t I? The story bounces between 1902 and the present day. You follow three main female characters from each timeline. The story revolves around a cursed New England school for girls, doomed lovers, wasps, and a movie in the making. Really it is a story within a story and in my opinion it is very imaginative and brilliant.
I would absolutely recommend this book especially now with the spooky season upon us. I finished it back in July and even now I find myself thinking about it. This book will be one that I come back to time and again. I have not had such a great reading experience in a long time. I loved everything about it. Oh, and it definitely would make a great book club pick with loads of discussion potential. I give this book all the stars for a rating and hope it one day becomes a movie.