Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth

If you are searching for a novel with strong female protagonists, stories within stories, and appreciate longer novels - then you will enjoy Plain Bad Heroines.

Plain Bad Heroines may be skipped if you appreciate novels with clear-cut endings, good plot progression and flow, and are looking for a true horror fiction novel. Coming from someone who is terrified by bumps in the night (as you should be...), this is not a scary novel so if you are looking to wet your pants in fear, I recommend reaching for something else like NOS4A2 by Joe Hill or Home Before Dark by Riley Sager.

I rate Plain Bad Heroines as a hit or miss because it depends as a reader what you are looking for. This novel may be worth your time but I think there are more captivating reads.

I did not vibe with the plot and rate this as the weakest aspect of the novel. I recommend moving away from this novel if you are searching for a cohesive plot line. There is so much back and forth between the era's that as a reader you become disconnected with the story.

You spend more time remembering what happened in the past and then going back to remembering what is happening in the present, that it really felt like two, sometimes five separate stories and I wasn't able to connect them together. Plain Bad Heroines definitely had me hooked during the middle; the plot progression is strong at the beginning as the stories blend together better and make you eager as a reader to discover what happens but then... it fell flat.

The best part of the plot and why you should read the novel if you are intrigued by the blurb is that it contains character developments worth reading. The characters make this novel and is a great read for anyone looking for female friendship, female love, true love, and what one woman would do for another.

Plain Bad Heroines has great characters. In present day, the storyline is dominated by Audrey the B-List actor, Harper the infamous actor, and Meredith the author of the book their new movie is based on. Unique women with different goals and backgrounds - the only thing they have in common is that they all like women. You will enjoy these characters, even if at times you may become frustrated with them.

In the past, the story revolves around Libbie the owner of Brookhants and Alex a teacher and secret lover of Libbie. The name Mary Maclane is bound to come up during the past and it is her novel and infamy that drives the past and subsequently the murders at Brookhants starting with Clara and Flo.

What I was personally frustrated by with the characters is that the past and present never intertwined. I felt that I was reading two separate novels and left me craving more character intertwinement. 

Eh, you may like it you may not. It leaves a lot of questions. In My Thoughts, I have a lot to say about the ending including a potential theory but as it is based on spoilers, that's a read for later. If my theory is true, the ending wraps the story up more nicely but otherwise, for the length of this novel you may be leaving empty handed upon finishing Plain Bad Heroines.

To sum Plain Bad Heroines up in three words: lesbians being haunted. Okay, lesbians and bisexuals being haunted but that doesn't have as nice of a ring to it as "lesbians being haunted." Seriously, this novel is straight up about women who like women that either end up dead, traumatized, or haunted.

What I'm still struggling with, is why? How did Brookhants cause this to happen? Plain Bad Heroines is long, like really long and I ended up not caring for the novel. I felt it lacked a specific plot and what frustrated me most was that why these hauntings were happening were never answered. The conclusion I arrived at is, witchcraft? Adelaide was actually Simone who had cursed Brookhants and the women in it? But, wouldn't it make more sense for the men to be cursed because the gender that murdered her was male? Am I missing something?

I felt there was never a connection from the past to the present and Elaine Brookhants wasn't blood related to Libbie Brookhants and that was the only link to the past via the characters. I wanted the stories to intertwine more via the characters and on the topic of characters - what the heck! For Audrey to be so torn up by her secret and then for the climax of them all figuring out they all knew to be so insignificant, it left a bad taste in my mouth. A quick conversation made me realize these girls are shaaaadddyy.

Seriously, I am still not sure what to think about this novel. Maybe Plain Bad Heroines boils down to a story being about love and friendship. I did enjoy the ending insinuating that Audrey and Meredith could be dating, or at least much closer than the first day they met.

My hypothesis is that Plain Bad Heroines is potentially the second book written by Meredith to portray the story of them filming at Brookhants. That is the only reason I will accept the "Reader - Reader" aspect and the included footnotes of the narrator/writer. Otherwise, I did not like the footnotes. Some were interesting but the asterisks were SO SMALL that every time I saw a footnote, I had to go back and find the asterisk throwing of the flow of the novel multiple times.

Which leads me to say, Plain Bad Heroines, did not flow well. The drawings, although awesome, did not connect for me with the story and it was so frustrating having an image be a page later than the quote underneath. I wish there had been more flow and for a big book like Plain Bad Heroines, flow is important.

I casually browsed this book - average and okay. A fun but not enticing read and sadly one I will not recommend to others. It is up to you though to decide whether or not to tackle this novel.