Plain Bad Heroines

This gothic novel tells two stories a century apart, both dealing with queerness, hauntings and the way women are treated by society. The characters are flawed and human, and it’s fascinating to see how a century has changed everything.

I’d been desperate for a good lesbian ghost story then, and this hit the spot far more than I’d expected. 

Novels about horror movies appeal to two of my interests. This book, ostensibly about the making of a film inspired by a series of mysterious deaths surrounding a forbidden and possibly corrupting book (cursed/forbidden materials– another of my favorite tropes!), proved to be so much more than that.

Danforth glides between past and present, maintaining a subtle, eerie, threatening atmosphere that I prefer to in-your-face supernatural shenanigans. She also develops nuanced characters whose flaws I can appreciate as well their virtues. I wished this 600+ page book were longer still because I was enjoying it so much. 

If it's possible for a 600-page doorstopper to be a romp, this is a romp—a Gothic confection with layers of story held together by the delicious buttercream of dangerous secrets.

There's a creaky haunted house (with a turret library!), portentous (possibly sentient!) yellow jackets, and sexy frenemies—plus, much of the action takes place on the windswept cliffs of Rhode Island overlooking the thrashing Atlantic. What's not to love?

The prose is sharp and entertaining; the (melo)dramatic revelations made it impossible for me to put this book down. So many sapphic love triangles and delicious drama! Plus, it's embellished with charmingly… show more.

I’m cheating a tad here because this novel is not labeled YA, but it features teenagers and young adults, significant queer representation, and a plot that teen-me would have devoured as quickly as adult-me did. In the past timeline, two students at the Brookhants School for Girls fall in love, create a secret club based on Mary MacLane’s memoir, and are stung to death by yellow jackets. The present timeline follows actresses, Harper Harper and Audrey Wells, as they film a movie based on the story of the girls—as well as the deaths that came after—at the site of the… show more.

Another secret society lies at the heart of Plain Bad Heroines, a novel I love for its mix of moody darkness and incisive wit. Picture Brookhants, a long-abandoned boarding school for girls in Little Compton, Rhode Island, haunted by the legends of obsessions and secret rites and yes, death. The book weaves together two narratives: one tracing the development of deep friendships, jealousies, and love triangles at Brookharts in the early 1900s, the other picking up a century later as a Hollywood film crew travels to the school to make a movie inspired by its macabre history.

New England… show more.