Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth

34 reviews

adisiki's review against another edition

4.0

Loved this! It was so funny and sapphic and the artwork was interesting. I love the storytelling narrative where the narrator acts like the reader is living in the same world and understands references and things and the footnotes were so funny. I’m just still confused on who the narrator is supposed to be, I probably need to reread more to catch what I missed, and it seemed a little long and dragged out at times.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Suicide, Murder, and Sexual harassment

nadia's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.0

I really liked this book! I was worried that it wouldn't be suitable as an audiobook but I think it worked really well. I was engaged the whole way through and enjoyed both of the main storylines/time periods. Also, loved the creepy vibes! It just had a bunch of things I love in a novel.

I'd heard that this book had a lot of footnotes and that that, combined with the different timelines, might be confusing on audio, but it flowed well. Maybe even better than if I'd been reading it in print! Also, pretty impressed with how I hardly got lost amongst what was a large cast of characters.

I'm only sad that I missed out on the illustrations. I took a little peek in a bookstore when I was about 60% through and was hoping to find them all online in the PDF attachment that came with the audiobook, but it only had the map of the school!  Will have to go back to another bookstore and see! (This disappointment had no impact on my rating, mind.)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Vomit, and Murder

Moderate: Pregnancy

beccaand's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Drug use, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Suicide, Vomit, and Lesbophobia

Minor: Fatphobia, Forced institutionalization, and Pregnancy

clarkg's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Reading this book felt like being under a spell. There were so many delicious threads to unravel that I could not stop picking at it until I reached the end. My two main critiques are that 1.) The present-day narrative is noticeably less captivating than the historical narrative and 2.) I feel like there were missed opportunities to subvert established tropes. That said, it avoided being predictable and had some genuinely unsettling moments. Reader, I loved it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Sexual content, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Homophobia, Sexual violence, Suicide, Murder, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Cursing

celery's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny lighthearted mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

sauvageloup's review

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

glad to have read this, because the concept is fresh and interesting, and I need to read more wholly sapphic books. but it tried to do too much and didnt pull it off.
this review on tumblr by flying-elliska has all my thoughts well said:
https://www.tumblr.com/flying-elliska/672822130083233792/and-now-for-sapphic-reads-time-the-sequel-tm?source=share

pros:
- the setting was a fleshed out character in itself and I loved that. the orchard apples, the tower, the orangerie, the beach, etc.
- I liked the story of the original woman, simone, who lived on the land.
- some imagery was definitely creepy and disturbing, especially eating wasps.
- the main characters were interesting, and I liked that they became a poly triad rather than a love triangle.

cons:
- too many characters, too much rambling, too meta, too plotty and just too long.
- I never really got truly creeped out. it just didnt sink deep enough into that and there wasnt enough real danger. the deaths were distant and over fast. didnt feel that sad at any of them.
- more interesting to see more flo and Clara for sure.

a different read for sure and I'm glad I read it, but disappointing and a bit slow too.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Cursing, Death, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Alcohol

Moderate: Addiction, Body shaming, Drug abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Vomit, Suicide attempt, Lesbophobia, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

brookey8888's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This is such a hard book for me to rate and review. There’s so much I loved about it, but it was just so long and drawn out that I would find myself not caring or interested. It also was hardly spooky except like one part. I really liked all the character interactions and the plot when it happened, but there was just to much explaining. I did really like the queer relationships in this and that was one of my favorite parts. I do like how the author would talk to you at times as well as the footnotes. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Biphobia, Child death, Death, Drug use, Misogyny, Sexism, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, Car accident, Murder, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

heather_harrison's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

⭐️ 3.5 stars ⭐️ 

I loved the gothic vibe, cursed school, sapphic rep and creepy wasps. But my god this could have been shorter. 

I found that while I enjoyed the two story lines, the 1900s was definitely stronger than the present day Hollywood. The ending looked like it was all going to interconnect, but it just fizzled out and was so disappointing. 

+ 0.5 because the trifle scene made my physically cringe and internally scream. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Homophobia, Misogyny, Suicide, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Sexual assault, Forced institutionalization, and Stalking

bookycnidaria's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Sexual assault, and Murder

Moderate: Forced institutionalization

thekatreturns's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I adored this book. I won’t say too much so as not to spoil it, but it was my favorite read of the year. It feels like a rebuttal to the way that horror stories are often told, but beyond being a statement about the world, it is frightening, engaging, and deeply, darkly funny in its own right. The main cast is almost entirely lesbian and bisexual women who are distinct and flawed and real and so interesting to watch interact. That said, unless I missed something, the main cast is all white Americans with some degree of class privilege. The class aspect is intentional and absolutely commented upon, for what that’s worth, and the supporting cast is racially diverse, so that’s why I marked “it’s complicated” for diversity. I knocked a half point off because I wanted more worldbuilding out of the ending, for what was revealed then to be discussed as it relates to the previous events of the book, but the very last chapters were immensely satisfying nonetheless. I would highly recommend this to horror fans of all kinds, metafiction fans, those who like stories interweaving the past and present, anyone into Fraught Female Friendships, and those who just love really wonderful-in-all-their-flaws queer woman characters. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Mental illness, Suicide, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cursing, Drug use, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, and Classism

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Racism, Violence, Car accident, Murder, and Pregnancy

Insects, specifically yellowjackets, feature heavily in this book. They are included in nearly all of the horror elements. For me, graphic=extremely unavoidable, long, plot crucial elements. moderate= plot or thematically relevant, but don’t stand out as particularly graphic. Minor=not described in detail.