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A review by owlsreads
Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth
4.75
August 10 2024:
I take back what I said: this delivered and I had an absolute blast with my reread!
The 1902 Brookhants timeline was still my favorite with its eerie atmosphere and all of the conflict surrounding the curse. It had so many elements that caught my attention and it was a pleasure to go back to those lands throughout the book.
I do maintain that the ending jumped from one thing to the next a bit too abruptly, but that didn't strike me as a negative aspect this time around. I appreciate what Danforth did with the plot and how she decided to wrap it up. I believe I was too caught up in other points during my first read and, upon coming back to the story, I think this was a good way to finish the novel--though I do wish we had gotten a tiny bit more on Ava and the rest of the shooting.
Anyways, I'm going to up my rating from a 4 to a 4.75 since this has lived in my head for a year :D
**
August 04 2023:
I think Plain Bad Heroines was one of those books where it was all about the vibes and the friends we made along the way? I can't exactly say it delivered at the end, but I... think that might have been the point.
The writing here captured my attention right away. Emily M. Danforth was excellent at establishing the setting with Brookhants at the center of it. The ghost and curse stories surrounding it were so intriguing and the first few chapters did a fantastic job at introducing that.
The split narrative also didn't bother me here, as it usually does! I think because the eerie vibes were so strong? I didn't mind learning about Brookhants history in bits and pieces and I very much enjoyed all of the different perspectives.
The one issue I had throughout was the jumps in the timelines? It felt like some plot points got dropped so we could go directly to the aftermath of it and not get to the nitty gritty of what exactly happened. That affected the pace, personally, and made me wish the story focused a bit more on that and a little less on other things considering how long the book was.
The ending was also a bit disappointing--and related to the point above. I expected to get more about the movie than I did and it seemed like the present timeline and its conflicts fizzled out a bit when that didn't happen. Even more so because it was the end of the story. I do think that was intentional on Danforth's part, though, considering all the uncertainty and unexplained situations throughout the book and surrounding Brookhants.
My reading experience here was very much a positive one, however, since I couldn't put the book down! I definitely recommend it to people who enjoy non-linear narratives that are mostly about vibes and character-driven and less about giving answers to questions raised during the story.
I take back what I said: this delivered and I had an absolute blast with my reread!
The 1902 Brookhants timeline was still my favorite with its eerie atmosphere and all of the conflict surrounding the curse. It had so many elements that caught my attention and it was a pleasure to go back to those lands throughout the book.
I do maintain that the ending jumped from one thing to the next a bit too abruptly, but that didn't strike me as a negative aspect this time around. I appreciate what Danforth did with the plot and how she decided to wrap it up. I believe I was too caught up in other points during my first read and, upon coming back to the story, I think this was a good way to finish the novel--though I do wish we had gotten a tiny bit more on Ava and the rest of the shooting.
Anyways, I'm going to up my rating from a 4 to a 4.75 since this has lived in my head for a year :D
**
August 04 2023:
I think Plain Bad Heroines was one of those books where it was all about the vibes and the friends we made along the way? I can't exactly say it delivered at the end, but I... think that might have been the point.
The writing here captured my attention right away. Emily M. Danforth was excellent at establishing the setting with Brookhants at the center of it. The ghost and curse stories surrounding it were so intriguing and the first few chapters did a fantastic job at introducing that.
The split narrative also didn't bother me here, as it usually does! I think because the eerie vibes were so strong? I didn't mind learning about Brookhants history in bits and pieces and I very much enjoyed all of the different perspectives.
The one issue I had throughout was the jumps in the timelines? It felt like some plot points got dropped so we could go directly to the aftermath of it and not get to the nitty gritty of what exactly happened. That affected the pace, personally, and made me wish the story focused a bit more on that and a little less on other things considering how long the book was.
The ending was also a bit disappointing--and related to the point above. I expected to get more about the movie than I did and it seemed like the present timeline and its conflicts fizzled out a bit when that didn't happen. Even more so because it was the end of the story. I do think that was intentional on Danforth's part, though, considering all the uncertainty and unexplained situations throughout the book and surrounding Brookhants.
My reading experience here was very much a positive one, however, since I couldn't put the book down! I definitely recommend it to people who enjoy non-linear narratives that are mostly about vibes and character-driven and less about giving answers to questions raised during the story.