Book: Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth
Read From: 14th June - 25th June 2021
Rating: 3/5 stars
Summary: Brookhants School is haunted by a dark past. In 1902, young lovers Flo and Clara are found dead in the woods after a horrific wasp attack with Mary MacLane's scandalous memoir intertwined between their bodies. Over 100 years later Brookhants opens its doors again to young actresses prepared to film a high-profile movie about the 'Brookhants curse'. As past and present become entangled, it's soon impossible to tell where the curse leaves off and Hollywood begins.
This book is such a little work of genius (although at 600+ pages, I suppose 'little' isn't the right word to use)! Danforth clearly has a natural flair for story-telling because this was just incredible. There were so many side-plots and characters over the course of the dual timelines yet everything was linked in a way that keeps you captured yet intrigued at the same time. This is massively helped by the way the story is told - we experience the tales of Brookhants through the voice of an anonymous narrator who speaks to us first-hand through the both the text and footnotes. I have a hit-or-miss relationship with footnotes, however I think that it was done extremely well in this instance - particularly as they were quite witty and funny rather than being treated as a space to info-dump.
Whilst this is a horror book, I would say to not go into this expecting to be scared. A lot of the mysterious gothic vibes are created in the atmosphere - it’s more unsettling than anything else and I particularly noticed this in the 1902 timeline. I personally found that the characters in the ‘past’ narrative were a lot more fascinating, whilst I did enjoy the modern storyline I felt like the plot became easily convoluted and I wasn’t as drawn to Merritt, Audrey and Harper like I was with the older characters - Libbie and Alex in particular.
There were times I thought the pacing felt a little off, but being a longer book that is more character driven than plot driven, I suppose this is to be expected. When reading, I found that I could either read 100 pages in a single sitting or on the other hand, struggle to finish a chapter in one go. I think the way I read this also meant that I found it more difficult to connect to the characters.
I’ve seen a couple of reviews saying they were a little disappointed with the ending and personally, I neither agree nor disagree. I was satisfied with where things were left, but it still would have been nice for the book to come full circle at the end. I would definitely recommend this book, especially if you have the time to really take in this story and feel a connection towards these characters in order to truly enrich your reading experience.