Review: Plain Bad Heroines

Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

At the Brookhants School for Girls two young and impressionable girls, Flo and Clara, read a book by one Mary McLane and set foot on the road to disaster and ruin in 1902. A century later, Merritt (ah, that name choice...) pens a novel based on the Gilded Age institution and the sapphic love that ended in the deaths of five people. Her breakout novel is to be adapted for a film starring the popular and ever flirtatious queer "it girl," Harper Harper and a former child star named Audrey. The intersection of modern and historical Brookhants is full of ghosts and very alive yellow jackets.

Taking metafiction to new levels, Emily Danforth's sophomore outing, Plain Bad Heroines is a sly and clever psychological horror novel filled with wasps and references to Truman Capote. I am still wondering why I didn't warm more to this story but don't want to belabor it. Lots of people have loved it and while it wasn't in any way bad, aspects of it just didn't engage me as much as I'd have wanted. It felt a little too aware of its cleverness at times. Of course, I'm also not much of a horror fan (though psychological horror might be more my thing) so it might be me, Reader, not this novel.

I listened to the audiobook, which is nicely narrated by Xe Sands, who offers rich voicing to her characters.

I received a digital audio review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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