Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M Danforth is a book I tried to pick up via audio. You’ll notice the word tried. Unfortunately this was a DNF for me, the second in a row. Let’s have a chat about why.
This is the first book I’ve ever DNFd before hitting the 100 page mark. I was just plain… confused. We were introduced to multiple different time periods, so many different characters, and how they interweave? I couldn’t even begin to guess. There is a chance that if I’d read it at a different time I may have pushed through further, but when it hit the end of June I had to ask myself if I wanted to keep reading this in July. I just couldn’t be arsed. To be quite honest.
We have some lesbians making trouble in the woods of a boarding school, with multiple deaths because of wasps? And then we have a child author who’s book is being adapted into a film (but they’re an adult now) and we’re following both the big star who has one of the roles and a relatively unknown actor who has another role. And that’s pretty much all I gathered from this book. The concept does sound interesting, but I just… didn’t care.
On CAWPILE I rated this: Characters: 6, Atmosphere: 4, Writing: 5, Plot: 4, Intrigue: 3, Logic: 4, and Enjoyment: 3 with a score of 4.14 and a 2.5* rating.
Highlight here for trigger warnings: .
This was a super short review, but I read a super short amount of the book! I’ve been having a lot of bad luck when it comes to books lately so wish me luck for a 4 star read or two!
Have you read Plain Bad Heroines? Did you like it? Let me know!
After how hectic the end of May was, I thought I’d be a little more down low for June and only put 10 books onto my tbr (yes… I’m aware that’s still a lot. This was as low as I could get it!) A couple audiobooks, one non-fiction, and a load of fantasy. Perfect!
My tbr video is already up if you’d rather consume this in video form!
Not included in the 10 is The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas, which I’m reading one chapter a day of. I’m carrying on with it in June and I’m actually hoping to finish it this month! We’ll have to wait and see.
Then, the TBR jar returned this month! And from that I’m picking up The Muse by Jessie Burton. This is a historical fiction set between the 1960s and 1930s that follows art, or more accurately, one painting. This was gifted to me by my little sister back in 2016 and I really do need to get around to it!
Because I’m one of the co-hosts for MiddleEarthAThon I really should have read the Lord of the Rings… and I haven’t. So I’m wanting to listen to the audiobook of The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkein! One of the most well known high fantasy books, and it’s a wee bit shameful I’ve not read it yet 😂
And for my second audiobook, Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth. This is an LGBTQ+ gothic historical fiction, and I really know basically nothing else. But my friend Lizzie enjoyed it (from LizzieIsElf) so why not! It’s a long audiobook, just under 20 hours, so I’ll most likely start this one after reading LotR.
Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch is a longstanding fantasy series that I’ve seen around for a few years now, it follows a detective around a magical version of our London. I love a good mystery, as well as a fantasy, so I’m hoping this combination really works for me.
Vox by Christina Dalcher is a dystopian where women can only speak 100 words a day. Any more and they get hit with 1000 volts of electricity. I enjoy concepts like these, but I am wary of it being “women” who are impacted by this. How does this then impact trans women, or non-binary folk, or trans men? I’m not expecting this book to be aware enough to cover this topic but I’ll be super pleasantly surprised if it does.
Another social commentary kind of book, 84k by Claire North. This is set in a world where each life has a monetary value, and if you can afford the price you can do whatever you like. Including murder. Our main character doesn’t care, until someone they love has their life bought.
Hannah from LadetteM sent me The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake when she was unhauling it. She really didn’t vibe with it, but I also enjoyed Addie LaRue, which Hannah hated sooooo I thought it was worth giving a shot to a fantasy world where only 5 people will get a place in this society each year.
For my non-fiction of the month I’m going for Minnesota’s Geologist by Sue Leaf, which was a present from Kari from Kar-ing for Books who lives in the state and knows I’m always down to learn about geology! I’m super excited for this one and have been for a while.
The Goldsboro GSFF box for May gave us The Collarbound by Rebecca Zahabi, this is advertised as a magical, brink-of-war setting and I really do enjoy political fantasy and have had fantastic success with previous GSFF books so I’m excited for this one!
And finally is the Illumicrate book from the May box which is Book of Night by Holly Black. I’ve never been interested in Black’s books before, but this one has a woman who is fantastic with explosives and I am totally here for that. I just hope it’s a good one!
And that’s my June TBR! Let me know if you’ve read any of these books and what you thought of them. And let me know one book that’s on your TBR, I’m always here to add more books to the list!
Abi of Pellinor 