An exquisitely plotted, winkingly crafted romp . . . a supersized Slurpee that will satiate you and leave behind a sugar high. . . . [Danforth’s] gifted at braiding characterization, suspenseful plotting and frequent injections of flat-out terror . . . exhilarating.” — Hillary Kelly, Los Angeles Times
“A multi-faceted novel, equal parts gothic, sharply funny, sapphic romance, historical, and, of course, spooky.” — Entertainment Weekly
“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 ,
“A delicious Gothic tale . . . a tasty brew of creepy shuttered prep school, creepy reopened prep school, queer feminist legacy and modern adaptation of said legacy . . . will make you crave more of Danforth’s smart, funny prose.” — Bethanne Patrick, Washington Post
“A layered, farcical take on the sins of woman . . . [danforth] uses vivid language to capture each time and place, in a narrative that is rare even among lesbian fiction . . . clever quips and striking imagery.” — New York Times Book Review
“Brimming from start to finish with sly humor and gothic mischief, Plain Bad Heroines is a brilliant piece of exuberant storytelling by a terrifically talented author.” — Sarah Waters, New York Times bestselling author of The Little Stranger and Fingersmith
"Emily Danforth's ingenious, jaw-dropping novel is a time-hopping epic about the history of a cursed New England girls' school, doomed lovers, and an equally cursed modern-day retelling via film, plus yellow jackets. Hell, those yellow jackets! The expertly rendered characters are as heartbreaking as they are written with an integrity of vision that saturates every page. Plain Bad Heroines is a queer roar and it's terrifying and it's a goddamned triumph." — Paul Tremblay, author of A Head Full of Ghosts and The Cabin at the End of the World
“Plain Bad Heroines wears its brilliance lightly and like the Black Oxford apples described in these pages, it's dark, sweet, and addictive. Emily Danforth displays all the gothic wit of Edward Gorey and all the soaring metafictional ambitions of David Mitchell, alongside a generosity and humanity that is uniquely her own. Simply one of the best books I've read in the last decade.” — Joe Hill, New York Times bestselling author of The Fireman
“Stuffed with footnotes, and stories inside stories inside stories, Emily M. Danforth’s follow-up to The Miseducation of Cameron Post is a queer gothic coming-of-age story set at a cursed New England boarding school for girls. There are just a few sequences of words that fire up my pleasure centers the way that description does.” — Vulture, 19 Books We’re Excited to Read This Fall
“A short list of things you’ll find in this novel: curses, lesbians, gilded-age society scandals, yellow jackets, a heaping dose of snark, and the nagging sense that the line between what’s real and what isn’t has been blurred. . . . It’s the perfect autumn read for you and your best friend that you’re secretly in love with, trust me.” — Buzzfeed, 38 Great Books to Read This Fall, Recommended by Our Favorite Indie Booksellers
“[A] freewheeling, ambitious novel . . . The heroines of this story are neither plain nor bad, but human: rebellious, insecure, funny, deep with longing and scars still healing. And, yes, we do feel sympathy for them. Recommended for fans of queer kissing, Victorian romance, ghost stories and Hollywood high jinks.” — The San Francisco Chronicle
“ A masterfully woven and totally captivating story . . . Full of fascinating queer characters and twisty storylines, this book is a must-read not only for the many who loved Cameron Post , but for anyone looking for an immersive, haunting, wild story.” — Sarah Neilson, Seattle Times
“Plain Bad Heroines is spellbinding. . . . [a] tangled tale of history, desire and intrigue.” — Barbara Theroux, The Missoulian (Montana)
“Plain Bad Heroines is a horror novel, a proper one: a big fat doorstep of super-queer terror that never runs out of ways to keep you deliciously disturbed. . . . Danforth braids the layers of narrative together with expertise. She’s clearly a horror buff . . . Another writer might have let the metatext choke the dread, but Danforth uses it to thrillingly corrode the reader’s own sense of reality . . . Her novel is beguilingly clever, very sexy and seriously frightening.” — Guardian (UK)
Brimming from start to finish with sly humor and gothic mischief, Plain Bad Heroines is a brilliant piece of exuberant storytelling by a terrifically talented author.
Stuffed with footnotes, and stories inside stories inside stories, Emily M. Danforth’s follow-up to The Miseducation of Cameron Post is a queer gothic coming-of-age story set at a cursed New England boarding school for girls. There are just a few sequences of words that fire up my pleasure centers the way that description does.
19 Books We’re Excited to Read This Fall Vulture
A layered, farcical take on the sins of woman . . . [danforth] uses vivid language to capture each time and place, in a narrative that is rare even among lesbian fiction . . . clever quips and striking imagery.
New York Times Book Review
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.
A delicious Gothic tale . . . a tasty brew of creepy shuttered prep school, creepy reopened prep school, queer feminist legacy and modern adaptation of said legacy . . . will make you crave more of Danforth’s smart, funny prose.
“ A short list of things you’ll find in this novel: curses, lesbians, gilded-age society scandals, yellow jackets, a heaping dose of snark, and the nagging sense that the line between what’s real and what isn’t has been blurred. . . . It’s the perfect autumn read for you and your best friend that you’re secretly in love with, trust me.
38 Great Books to Read This Fall Buzzfeed
"Emily Danforth's ingenious, jaw-dropping novel is a time-hopping epic about the history of a cursed New England girls' school, doomed lovers, and an equally cursed modern-day retelling via film, plus yellow jackets. Hell, those yellow jackets! The expertly rendered characters are as heartbreaking as they are written with an integrity of vision that saturates every page. Plain Bad Heroines is a queer roar and it's terrifying and it's a goddamned triumph."
Plain Bad Heroines wears its brilliance lightly and like the Black Oxford apples described in these pages, it's dark, sweet, and addictive. Emily Danforth displays all the gothic wit of Edward Gorey and all the soaring metafictional ambitions of David Mitchell, alongside a generosity and humanity that is uniquely her own. Simply one of the best books I've read in the last decade.
A multi-faceted novel, equal parts gothic, sharply funny, sapphic romance, historical, and, of course, spooky.
“ Plain Bad Heroines is a horror novel, a proper one: a big fat doorstep of super-queer terror that never runs out of ways to keep you deliciously disturbed. . . . Danforth braids the layers of narrative together with expertise. She’s clearly a horror buff . . . Another writer might have let the metatext choke the dread, but Danforth uses it to thrillingly corrode the reader’s own sense of reality . . . Her novel is beguilingly clever, very sexy and seriously frightening.
A layered, farcical take on the sins of woman . . . [danforth] uses vivid language to capture each time and place, in a narrative that is rare even among lesbian fiction . . . clever quips and striking imagery.
New York Times Book Review
A layered, farcical take on the sins of woman . . . [danforth] uses vivid language to capture each time and place, in a narrative that is rare even among lesbian fiction . . . clever quips and striking imagery.
[A] freewheeling, ambitious novel . . . The heroines of this story are neither plain nor bad, but human: rebellious, insecure, funny, deep with longing and scars still healing. And, yes, we do feel sympathy for them. Recommended for fans of queer kissing, Victorian romance, ghost stories and Hollywood high jinks.
The San Francisco Chronicle
A masterfully woven and totally captivating story . . . Full of fascinating queer characters and twisty storylines, this book is a must-read not only for the many who loved Cameron Post , but for anyone looking for an immersive, haunting, wild story.
Plain Bad Heroines is spellbinding. . . . [a] tangled tale of history, desire and intrigue.
Sapphic love! A cursed New England girls’ boarding school! A story within a story within a story! Behind the scenes Hollywood! Spooky black and white illustrations! Does this not sound amazing?
65 Queer and Feminist Books Coming Your Way in Fal Autostraddle
A delicious horror comedy with enough stories within stories to make even Inception seem straightforward. . . . Add in some stunning illustrations, and this book becomes the year's must-read horror novel.
Our 35 Picks for the Fall's Most Exciting New Boo Popsugar
This novel is a joy—one of the best and most honest portraits of a young lesbian I’ve read in years. Cameron Post is a bright, brash, funny main character who leaps off the page and into your heart! This is a story that keeps you reading way into the night—an absorbing, suspenseful, and important book.
This finely crafted, sophisticated coming-of-age debut novel is multilayered, finessing such issues as loss, first love, and friendship. An excellent read for both teens and adults.
School Library Review (Starred Review) on The Miseducation of Cameron Post
[An] ambitious literary novel, a multidimensional coming-of-age.
Booklist (starred review) on The Miseducation of Cameron Post
A beautifully told story that is at once engaging and thoughtful. THE MISEDUCATION OF CAMERON POST is an important book—one that can change lives.
If Holden Caulfield had been a gay girl from Montana, this is the story he might have told—it’s funny, heartbreaking, and beautifully rendered. Emily Danforth remembers exactly what it’s like to be a teenager, and she has written a new classic.
Cameron is a memorable heroine with an unforgettable and important story to tell, and she does so with wit, emotion, and depth.
Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
[An] ambitious literary novel, a multidimensional coming-of-age.
Booklist on The Miseducation of Cameron Post
[An] ambitious literary novel, a multidimensional coming-of-age.
Booklist (starred review)
★ “[An] ambitious literary novel, a multidimensional coming-of-age.
Booklist (starred review)
★ 10/01/2020
To say that the Brookhaunts School for Girls has a cursed history would be an understatement of outrageous proportions, but watching that history unfold in Danforth's (The Miseducation of Cameron Post ) immersive novel is a creepy pleasure from start to finish. Framed by its fictional place and by the real 1902 memoir of Mary MacLean, a controversial best seller that laid bare her bisexulaity, the novel crafts a tale that follows three linked story lines: the 1902 death of two young lovers at the school, the making of a horror movie about said students in the present, and the backstory of the women who founded the school. While intricately plotted in theory, in practice it is an effortlessly compelling read, anchored by the engaging, unnamed narrator, who speaks directly and conspiratorially to readers. At its heart, this is a novel that asks audiences to contemplate how all stories are told. Which horrors are real, which are imagined, and which are consciously constructed? VERDICT With a pointed female focus, an unease constantly seeping in from the perimeter, spilling fear all over the page at key moments, and characters who leap off the page, this volume will be sure to inspire many fans. Comparisons to Marisha Pessl's Night Film or Sarah Waters's The Little Stranger are spot on, but this will also appeal to fans of dark speculative tales such as Mira Grant's Into the Drowning Deep and Tamsyn Muir's Gideon the Ninth .
Xe Sands gives a rich performance that accentuates the suspense of this modern gothic filled with wicked possibilities. The nonlinear story is told through the eyes of multiple generations of women associated with the Brookhants School for Girls. Sands’s vocal style is well suited to this tale, which never blinks at breaking the fourth wall. Sands’s matter-of-fact tone is wonderful as she weaves through generations of female romances with no mincing about the complete normalcy of such relationships. With a slight burr in her voice and nuanced changes in pacing and pitch, she smoothly shifts between eras and characters, creating an aura of mystery that lingers long after the last word. E.M.U. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine
DECEMBER 2020 - AudioFile
Xe Sands gives a rich performance that accentuates the suspense of this modern gothic filled with wicked possibilities. The nonlinear story is told through the eyes of multiple generations of women associated with the Brookhants School for Girls. Sands’s vocal style is well suited to this tale, which never blinks at breaking the fourth wall. Sands’s matter-of-fact tone is wonderful as she weaves through generations of female romances with no mincing about the complete normalcy of such relationships. With a slight burr in her voice and nuanced changes in pacing and pitch, she smoothly shifts between eras and characters, creating an aura of mystery that lingers long after the last word. E.M.U. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine
DECEMBER 2020 - AudioFile
2020-11-18
"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." Unusual things happen at Brookhants School for Girls, a boarding school situated along the wild, rocky Rhode Island coastline. In 1902, Brookhants pupils become obsessed with Mary MacLane's salacious memoir, I Await the Devil's Coming . Detailing MacLane's lust for "the anemone lady" and her refusal of traditional gender norms, the book gives rise to the Plain Bad Heroine Society. When the club's leaders, Florence Hartshorn and Clara Broward, are found dead in one another's arms, the school's founders struggle to move beyond the tragedy only to be swept up in it themselves. The long, winding story of Brookhants' rise and fall is only one thread that danforth unravels throughout her adult debut. The novel's other major timeline takes place in contemporary Hollywood, where Harper Harper, the "indie-film-darling turned celesbian-megastar-influencer," sets out to produce her first film, a horror flick about Brookhants and its doomed teen lovers. Joining Harper on set are ingenue Audrey Wells, daughter of slasher film royalty, and Merritt Emmons, a wunderkind novelist whose first book inspired the film. The novel switchbacks between past and present, examining the sophisticated subculture of upper-crust Victorian-era lesbians and the Insta-fueled fame of queer icons in contemporary Hollywood. The novel's strength lies in its quiet insistence that queer women have always existed, that their lives deserve bigger, messier containers—even metafictional ones about a horror flick based on a novel based on a true story. Although danforth doggedly pursues the novel's structure over more than 600 pages, the pacing occasionally drags heavy as layers of Victorian silk. Even so, the novel manages to feel like a confection—surprising and honey-sweet on the tongue, to be savored even as it spooks.
Creepy, meta, and a whole lot of fun.
