Plain Bad Heroines: A Novel

“Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth follows several young women whose characters are woven in layers of stories from the early 1900s to the present day. The story begins at Brookhants, a Rhode Island school for girls, where strange things are happening, involving apples, yellow jackets, flowers, a mysterious red-covered book… and some dead girls. Libbie, owner and principal of the school, must figure out what is happening.

When we reach the 2020s, we find that the story of Brookhants has been made into a book, which is now being turned into a horror movie. The book’s author and the movie stars (Merritt, Harper, and Ashley) have to navigate working with an eccentric director, dealing with their own relationships, and coping with the strange things that keep happening on set. Are they imagining things? Are they being set up? Or is Brookhants really haunted?

The characters are cleverly written, the narrator makes me laugh, and I love the representation of LGBTQ+ themes throughout the book. Plain Bad Heroines was a quick, fun read, even though it is over 600 pages long.”