Emily M. Danforth

‘Brimming from start to finish with sly humour and gothic mischief’ SARAH WATERS ‘Beguilingly clever, very sexy and seriously frightening’ GUARDIAN ‘Atmospheric, sexy, creepy...totally addictive’ KATE DAVIES, author of In At The Deep End ‘A gloriously over-the-top queer romp’ I PAPER

Plain Bad Heroines

“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

“Brimming from start to finish with sly humor and gothic mischief. Brilliant.” — Sarah Waters

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 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.” — Joe Hill, New York Times bestselling author of The Fireman

A Novel

Beatrix

“Don’t find yourself regretting this. You’re much too young to haunt your own life.”

[She] had a decent imagination for personal tragedy that blooms from a chaos of random events

It’s true, of course, that all death is troubling to those of us left alive to bear witness, but certainly among the most troubling of all are the ugly, unexpected deaths of young people just starting to understand who and how they might be in the world.

“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 “Brimming from start to finish with sly humor and gothic mischief. Brilliant.” — SARAH WATERS Named a Most Anticipated Book by O, The Oprah Magazine • Vulture • Parade • Popsugar • Bustle • GoodReads • Autostraddle • 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.

Hannah Jumer

It's a terrible story and one way to tell it is this: two girls in love and a fog of wasps cursed the place forever after.

Moxie Minion

I have never read a book that made me want to read a book, and see a movie... both of which are fictional. I seriously need to know more.

Leticia Leal

As much as I wanted to like this book, I unfortunately did not. At over 600 pages, it really dragged and I can't say that any of the characters were particularly likeable. Was it beautifully Sapphic, yes. Was it a horror book? NO. There were a few moments of foreboding but it all fizzled out at the end. I am proud of myself for pushing through this slog of a novel.

Kimberly Burgess 

DNF. The premise for the book was SO GOOD but it absolutely did not deliver.

Lara Engle

I loved this book. It's gothic, playful, spooky, grim, and bratty. And yes, it's long, but it didn't seem overly long. The way it weaves multiple stories together across a hundred-plus years requires a lot of pages to get it right. I liked how real and flawed the characters were and how the narrator felt like another character. Beware, don't read this if you have a debilitating fear of yellow jackets or other buzzing insects, black mold, or LGBTQ content. (Okay, if you have a debilitating fear of LGBTQ content, I think you should read it and get over yourself and/or get some therapy.) This one was fun and I could see myself rereading in the future.

Alex Cessford

no way this needed to be 6 HUNDRED PAGES !!!! it’s just so odd because i feel like if we shaved off half the book i’d be sky rocketing this rating upwards. take the historical sections out and you’ve got the bones for a really good book in there. 

also we just don’t need notes at the end of pages sorry

Krystyna 

DNF at 18%. Why does such a gorgeous book have to be so boring? Why is it so long? What’s even the point of this book? Horribly categorized as horror when it is in fact not. I can’t stand reading any more of this.

Megan Leprich

Alexa M

"It's a terrible story and one way to tell it is this: two girls in love and a fog of wasps cursed the place forever after." 

wow i really really liked this ! i loved the characters, and thought the flashing back and forth between timelines really helped to keep the book so fast paced. i'm literally obsessed with the story's narrator and the way the story is told (with all the little 'asides' and such). my biggest issue with this is length; while i had a genuinely good time with this the entire way through, in retrospect the first 200 pages are almost obsolete and could've been highly condensed. otherwise i had a really fun time with this and am so glad i picked it up. plus, literally every character is queer which we love to see.

Addie 🌻

*3.5. Review could change I’m so indecisive

grace richards

i really enjoyed this book and i wish i’d taken it off my shelf sooner. 

the only issues i have with it are i’m still confused about the curse and for such a long book that is over 600 pages long the ending feels so rushed. everything comes to a head in the last two chapters of the book and i was so confused. 

the positives are this is truly a sapphic book through and through. there’s hardly a heterosexual relationship in sight. also the concept of this book is incredible. 

i do wish we’d spent more time with flo and clara, and harper, audrey and merritt though

overall, this is an enjoyable read 

harper harper 🫶🏼

tina

3.5 

i really loved how sapphic this book was and how atmospheric it was !! but the ending was so underwhelming ,, and im just left so confused as to how the timelines all tie together in the end. also, i just found myself being more engaged in the past characters’ storyline compared to the present one. there were quite a few parts that were a slog to read and also a bit unnecessary, which is why i couldn’t bring myself to give this a 4 star rating eventhough i did really enjoy reading this book. idk i really like ambiguous endings for mystery/horror books but i think the execution in this one was unsatisfactory. i kinda wish we had focused more on the past storyline than the present.

‘Brimming from start to finish with sly humour and gothic mischief’ SARAH WATERS ‘Atmospheric, sexy, creepy...totally addictive’ KATE DAVIES, author of In At The Deep End ‘A gloriously over-the-top queer romp’ I PAPER, top picks for 2021

A fantastic dual timeline of doomed girls haunted by a curse.

The creativity put into this book is incredible! It's gothic, it's haunting and sapphic, with plenty of reoccurring themes to discuss for hours!

The selling point for this novel for me was that dry sarcastic humour throughout, reminiscent of the narrative in Nevernight by Jay Kristoff.

This is a chunky book, and the authors ability to keep that suspense and intrigue going throughout the whole 600 pages is impeccable.

Victoria Justice

A fantastic dual timeline of doomed girls haunted by a curse.

The creativity put into this book is incredible! It's gothic, it's haunting and sapphic, with plenty of reoccurring themes to discuss for hours!

The selling point for this novel for me was that dry sarcastic humour throughout, reminiscent of the narrative in Nevernight by Jay Kristoff.

This is a chunky book, and the authors ability to keep that suspense and intrigue going throughout the whole 600 pages is impeccable.

The book was slow, and (not being much of a horror person to start with) the yellow jacket motif grated on me, not in a scary way but a "okay I get it, yellow jackets" kind of way. It seemed to drag on forever, but the prose is beautiful, and I love a good "Dear Reader" type of narration. The last 150 pages flew by, though, and I thought the end was the exact perfect balance of resolution and lack that the novel needed. Overall, wouldn't read again, but if horror, schools for girls, and Hollywood drama is your weirdly specific niche thing--then 11/10, go for it.

Rachel Wingler

Lyra Perez

Josefina

all i'm gonna say is that i finally found my favorite genre and it's called: queer, gothic dark academia.
brb, gonna get a shirt that just says Planet Lady Love

Arden Kowalski

I have so many thoughts! I have so many feelings! I feel like I've been stabbed in the most gorgeous and violent way possible. I devoured this book today, gorging myself on the pages and words they held. A full review is coming soon, mostly because I know I won't be able to keep my mouth shut. God, the impulse to read this was the best one I have ever followed through on.

_______

"You're much too young to haunt your own life."

Plain Bad Heroines is a gorgeous sapphic fantasy that spans generations, going from Spite Manor to Hollywood and back again, dealing with a core cast of haunted women. I feel compelled—as I so often am—to make reference to the television show Russian Doll. "Places aren't haunted," says the rabbi, "people are." There is no book that follows through on this sentiment more than this one. Here are some of my favourite things about it.

1) The storytelling. Emily M. Danforth is a master storyteller, switching between timelines with ease and giving adequate growth and development to each character. The story is indeed like a matryoshka doll in that it is one story concealed in another (so on, so forth) but each chapter and narrative feels absolutely indispensable. I do wish we'd gotten some more information on Clara and Florence, but I think it says enough that my main wish of a 600 page book was give me more.

2) The characters. Our primary characters: Audrey (my personal favourite), Harper, and Merritt. Others: Libbie, Alex, Sara, a host of women who I fell in love with the moment they stepped on the page. Practically everyone in this novel is queer and it is fantastic. Danforth's prose gives gorgeous, sweeping description and development to each character. Each of them feels distinct and interesting within it, even the more minor characters like Audrey's best friend Noel and Eleanor. 

3) Horror elements. I wouldn't call this a strict horror book, more fantasy with horror elements, but the ones that were included was superb. There was an aura of darkness, of mystery, and I loved it beyond all due explanation. The most horrific parts are the ones that stay in my memory the most, as does the quiet buzz of yellow jackets....

4) The setting. This story both gives credence to the dark academia dreams that doubtless spawned it and the superficiality of Hollywood. I couldn't help but be enamoured by it, completely swept into the descriptions of Los Angeles and the woods in equal tandem. Like all good horror novels: Spite Manor has a character as important as any of the heroines.

5) Again, the storytelling. Danforth crafted a brilliant story, lore, a world that spanned generations and broke into my heart. I feel like if you could walk into this book, perhaps by going through the looking glass, if you could walk into this book you could find it wholly livable. She blurs the real and the fiction in a way that feels believable. That is brilliant, and that is perhaps one of the best successes of the narrative.

6) The narration. I love the narrator we don't know, I love the framing device, and I love how it feels almost like Lemony Snicket (for older audiences). But my absolute favourite part of the way Danforth chose to tell the story were the footnotes at the back of the book, which suckered me into the story. I felt like I was sitting by a fire, being told a secret.

In short, Plain Bad Heroines is a masterpiece of a novel. My only quarrel with it is certain words (please, God instead of 'gawd'), but this is not so present as to seem cloying. I highly recommend this book to... well, anyone. It is six hundred pages of captivating story, character, and plot. I began reading on a whim yesterday morning and spent six hours of my day immersed until I had finished, and even then the world seemed to stick with me. 

Yes. An enthusiastic yes from me. Plain Bad Heroines is everything I want from a book.

“Eleanor Faderman knew many books. But never before had she read a book that seemed to know her.”

Maria Luiza

Imie Kent-Muller

If you’re looking for a unique, queer, gothic masterpiece then look no further #PlainBadHeroines by Emily M Danforth is the book for you. Quick thank you to Borough Press for sending this beautiful book my way.

Looking at a school with a horrific past, the story follows what happens in the 1900s and also in the present where a horror film is being made based on the past events. It’s written so beautifully and filled with atmosphere. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever read, and I’ve read quite a bit 😂 the imagination of this story is amazing. It was a slow developing story but in this case it really built the plot and atmosphere. I loved how it kept doing the unexpected, and how all the relationships grew throughout. It was filled with some great characters as well which is always good, I particularly loved the three girls and their relationship in the ‘present day’ timeline. The school itself also sometimes felt like it’s own character through the atmosphere surrounding it. It had Du Maurier vibes in location, which is definitely a bonus.

The story didn’t necessarily help with my fear of wasps/insects but the use of them was really clever. I also love the book that is linked to the events, and how she used it. There is definitely a theme of stories in this book which is something I love in a book. It did take time getting used to the two timelines, but overall they played off each other wonderfully and dripped creepiness into each other. The story is so thought out and clever - it really shows the imagination and skill of the author.

Overall I gave this story 5 stars and highly recommend grabbing it. It’s out now in the US (I believe), but comes out in February here in the UK. It’s a gorgeous, atmospheric, creepy read.

Priscilla

What an amazing read. Creepy and captivating. I really enjoyed the author's writing style. The characters were very well developed and the switch between timelines was fantastic.

Ren Christina

I don’t think I’ve ever read a book FILLED with so many gloriously messy, complex sapphics!!! Mix that with some stomach churning body horror, mysteries and two timelines and you’ve got the fascinating Plain Bad Heroines. 

While it took me a while to get into the groove of the modern timeline, and I do still wish I’d gotten more of Alex and Libbie being domestic before shit hit the proverbial fan, once I was settled? It was brilliant. A book about a book that may or may not be the cause of several deaths, that is being turned into a movie that carries its own troubles. A private school, a nearby manor, an apple orchard and YELLOW JACKETS. I hate insects so you can imagine how uncomfortable the thought of that many wasps makes me.

This book was so unapologetically sapphic, I cannot put into words HOW SAPPHIC IT WAS. I was beyond elated to go from an intimate scene between characters to a horrifying scene set in the other timeline. I swear those last 50 pages had me gobsmacked.

If you love gothic horror, sapphics, private school shenanigans, Hollywood drama and the mortifying ordeal of being Known? Pick this up, I’m so glad I did.

4.5/5

Moray Lyle McIntosh

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.

Nikki K

3.75 

First of all, this book is just too long. The pacing was very janky and it made the whole thing a bit of a slog to get through. Which is a shame, because there was a really interesting idea under all of that.

The atmosphere of Brookhants was amazing and I loved the symbolism used throughout the story, linking the two timelines through yellow jackets and apples and flowers. 
I think there was space to explore a little more joy back in the 1900s timeline and see the world of Flo and Clara and the Plain Bad Heroines before it all went wrong. We never saw enough of these characters and I think they could have been really fun to follow!

Of course the best part of this was just how sapphic it was!! Almost every character in this book was a female, and they were almost all sapphic. There were sapphic mothers with children, couples, throuples, big groups of sapphic women all sharing their love for women - we love to see it!!! 
I think overall that is the part of this book that meant the most to me and what will stay with me in the future. 

Lastly, I really want to applaud the decision to include footnotes and illustrations. They helped bring humour and fun to the book!

Cheryl Hedlund

Maybe 4.5. So much gothic atmosphere. Dark academia and tragedy in a New England girl's school in the beginning of the 20th century. Also a modern day Hollywood story about making a movie about the girls and the curse. Everything elevated by stylish prose and a bit of humor. Lots of historical details. The title says it all about the characters. Intricate weaving of the modern and historical stories together.

Abby Hoggatt

2.5... I liked the writing a lot, but by the end, it still feels like nothing happened? 630 pages should have brought me some kind of plot!

Plain Bad Heroines

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