Plain Bad Heroines

Thank you to William Morrow Books for the #gifted finished copy of emily m. danforth's PLAIN BAD HEROINES! This has not influenced my review, which is honest. I was not compensated to read or review.

It's rare to finish a 600+ page book and feel disappointed that there's not more left to read.

Okay. This book... it is genius. It's a plotty onion, with layers of Gothic, sapphic, meta, all laced with a great sense of humor. It's also, at various points, unpredictable and eerie in wholly satisfying ways. PBH features a darkly funny narrator commenting on both past and present, with footnotes and illustrations that amp up the experience.

The pacing in this book is perfect, and it builds slowly over time but in a captivating way. Then there's a series of events that had me flipping back and forth and rereading more closely.

I'd highly suggest this one as a print book; personally, I struggle with audio a lot, and I feel like it would be confusing to keep track of the plot and time shifts. And for the ebook, I heard that the footnotes actually become endnotes in the digital version, which is tough because I think they lend a lot of context and enjoyment.

I loved this book, especially as a buddy read.