Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth

Title: Plain Bad Heroines

Author: Emily M. Danforth

Pages:  617

Finished: December 26, 2020

First Sentence: 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.

Summary: In 1902, two students at Brookhants School, Flo and Clara die in a swarm of yellow jackets. Over the next year, three more people mysteriously die in strange, almost supernatural ways. Cut to the current day, Merritt Emmons publishes a book about these events. A book that is now being made into a movie starring celebrity actor Harper Harper and Audrey Wells in the roles of Flora and Clara. But strange, unnatural things keep cropping up on set to the movie. 

Thoughts: First and foremost, this is the latest in a long list of surreal novels I've read this year. The is a book where you have no idea where it's going until you get to the end. This is a book that should be enjoyed leisurely rather than read straight through. Unfortunately, it's written in a way that makes you want to read it straight through. 

The story jumps back and forth between the Happenings at Brookhants in 1902 vs the movie making business in 2020. And and forth, it definitely take advantage of the stylistic choice of cliff hangers. Just as you are about to learn something on 2020, it's back to 1902 and Libbe Brookhants. Finally you get somewhere with her and it's forward to 2020 learning about Audrey. Oh good. We finally have something there and now it's late 1800s learning how Alex and Libbe ended up together.

If you read the flyleaf of the book, you might think that Flo and Clara are going to be main characters in this novel. They're not. They're the catalyst to the story. Them and Mary MacLane.

One thing that was really cool, this book had more queer representation than I've seen in any mainstream novel I've ever read. All the main characters are either bi or gay. Many of the side characters as well. There's one transgender person whose pronouns are them which is the first time I've actually seen that in a fiction book. No asexual representation, but I suspect that's due to the subject matter of the story. 

The book surprised me. I had inklings of things that were coming, but the actual reveal in it all blindsided me. 

This is one of those novels where I don't think a single character is perfect. Everyone is flawed in some way. Everyone is their own unique person. But then this is what people have been saying in media all the time about diversity. So yes, it was really wonderful to see actual characters rather than diversity points. 

Also, it turns out Mary MacLane was a real person who did publish three books, the first of which took America by storm largely due to how open she was about herself and her feelings in a time when most people weren't. Particularly when those thoughts were the opposite of "good breeding."

This is definitely an experience though. I don't know that one can walk out saying they have a favorite part or a favorite character. At least I don't. I did, however, really enjoy the tone and atmosphere of the novel. I'm glad to have finished out my year with this novel. (I just started another, but there is no way I'll finish it between now and Thursday.)