Danforth, E: Plain Bad Heroines A Novel

"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

"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

"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,

"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

"Danforth's new novel moves briskly along, She manages to breathe new life into Gothic clichés . . . Danforth throws in one twist after another, and the surprises keep coming even in the final chapters. . . . Plain Bad Heroines in a Gothic horror novel, but it's also concerned with the power of stories and who gets to tell them. . . . Dramatic, surprising, and pleasantly outrageous." - The Gay & Lesbian Review

"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 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)

"A multi-faceted novel, equal parts gothic, sharply funny, sapphic romance, historical, and, of course, spooky." - Entertainment Weekly

"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] 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 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 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

"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