Plain Bad Heroines | 
pickI‘m going against the grain here and giving this one a pick. It has it all. Gothic vibe (sub genre I‘m currently loving) satirical take on Hollywood, dual timelines and characters you love to love and hate. Bonus all of the characters are part of the LGBTQ community but not done so in a pandering way. It is a chunkster but worth reading #bookspin @TheAromaofBooks
bailedI tried to read it but just couldn't get into it. I think the whole jumping round as much as it did within the 1st 80 pages is what did it for me. I really want to try this book again. Idk when that will be but I wanna try damn it!
My new in private read. And omg is this boi thicc! o.o when books are Harry Potter book 7 type of thick, I have to read them at home due to not being able to read it while plasma is getting drawn due to the weight.
panI tried to read this digitally, physically and then listened to the audiobook, it‘s just sooooo boring and long. Had to just skip the end to see if it was worth it and …. it wasn‘t 🤪
Not a DNF, as I got to 60% but gah this book was not for me 👎🏻 I‘m disappointed as the premise sounded amazing 😭
3.5/5
Read for prompts for:
#PopSugarReadingChallenge2022
#52BookClubReadingChallenge2022
pickI first tried listening to this one, and didn‘t care for it. One of my friends absolutely loved it, so I tried again with the paper version. It is fantastic! There are footnotes scattered throughout, and I think that really threw me off while listening to it. The book does not disappoint!
bailedI gave this a try for Fountain Bookstores Sci-Fi Book Club, but it‘s really just not for me. DNF @ 28%
I‘m having issues concentrating today so I‘ve been switching back and forth between Plain Bad Heroines, Plaid and Plagiarism, Real Queer America, Rage Becomes Her, Dear Mrs. Bird, and The Fruit of the Tree. Rage Becomes Her was, frankly, enraging me, so I had to put it down. I was off today and did nothing but read.
pickIt‘s like a haunted tale meets Hollywood meets your favorite story. A total page turner with an ending that will leave you wanting more.
pickI had a slow start w this one, but once you get to know the characters it takes off. Rly good atmospheric horror moments, altho not enough imo. Lots of flirtatious scenes which I loved. it gives you all the right feels when you‘ve grown up queer and kinda confused - but the story is not abt being queer or coming out or whatever. Rly rly good. Coulda been two books- or could have a sequel (tho this is wishful thinking). I‘ll prob re-read it ❤️🔥
pickI finished one more title yesterday for #NewYearWhoDis. This was a deliciously slow build Gothic, with just the right amount of creepy horror. I found it difficult at first to get used to the rhythm of the multiple storylines, but the narrative voice was so much fun that it was always enjoyable. And once the Hollywood storyline came to Brookhants, I couldn't put it down.
Thanks again @monalyisha for such a great #NYWD22
My kids have Covid. The oldest had a bit of a cough for half a day, the middle has a nasty cough that takes his breath away but no fever, and my littlest is miserable with a fever but no cough. So I've got a warm toddler basically attached to me and five days of isolation ahead. Thankful for my Kobo for easy one handed reading!
I'm currently reading the tagged, and when I went to shelve books in the juvenile section at my library on Thursday, the first book I pulled out was about Yellow-jackets. Cue me being creeped out for the rest of the night. 😧😨😧😨😧😨 If you've read it, you know.
#NewYearWhoDis #NYWD22 @monalyisha
pickBook 1 of 2022☑️
I truly don‘t know if I actually understand what happened in this book but I kind of like that the ending seems up to each reader‘s interpretation. The dynamic between Merritt, Audrey, and Harper is a bit confusing but overall fun to watch unfold.
Great Christmas for books. I love all my gifts.
#jolabokaflodswap #creepychristmas #manpanion
pickPixel decided to jump in the photo at the last minute. This book was my December #bookspin. A queer story within a story within a story, illustrations, footnotes, and a broken fourth wall - this was 5 stars for me! @TheAromaofBooks
“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.”
Halfway through and fully creeped out. I heard a buzzing in my kitchen last night thanks to a random beetle but my first thought was a wasp.
@ShyBookOwl
so-soThis book was just entirely to long. Set in multiple time lines in 1902 and today about a school for girls and the tragedy that happened there with girls who love girls. The characters from the past are really the only ones I was interested in. Today's set with a famous actress and an author who wants to finish Capote's unfinished novel just bored me. It was also about a famous memoir that didn't add a lot to the story. Overall I was bored.
bailedI‘m almost at the halfway point and I‘m all done. There‘s only one storyline (of too many) that I‘m finding interesting and there‘s just too many winks at the reader. I suspected this might be my reaction to this one, so I‘m glad I went with the library for it.
so-soThis is a novel that doesn't quite live up to its promise. The dialogue never quite gels, the foundation of the scary story feels unstable to me, and the pacing seems unnecessarily slow and bogged down with parenthetical asides and footnotes. I read the whole book (combo of audio and hardcover) but was never able to get into the story enough to get scared. I wish the audiobook narrator had sung the school songs to the tune described in the book.
I know authors like this image, but do they really mean to imply that the character is smoking an unfiltered cigarette? Because this doesn't happen with a cigarette that has a filter. I mean, maybe it's one the character rolled herself, but based on other descriptions, if this was the case, the author totally would have pointed it out. And yes, I realize that I'm acting like Merritt.
A story set in 1902 with a character using a term that wasn't coined until 1908. Small thing, but it's nice to be able to point to a specific thing to support my feeling that the people in the 1902 storyline are acting a little too modern.
so-soA decent psychological thriller. Lots of twists, with nothing being what you thought it was. A little jumpy, going back and forth between different characters and time periods.
pickI had so much fun reading this. It was filled with so much wit, humor, heart and hella queer characters. Plus with the story within a story within a story, illustrations and FOOTNOTES I was just blissfully happy the whole time.
Until the end. The ending just wasn‘t as satisfying as the journey. It just felt kind of abrupt and left some things hanging.
This was my #BookSpin for August
This chunkster clocks in at just over 600 pages. I‘m ready for some big books now that I‘ve met my GoodReads goal. Also on my list are: The Splendid and the Vile and The Heart‘s Invisible Furies. #FallTreasures #Over500Pages
I‘m really loving this so far. There‘s so many layers to this and stories within stories. I love the pictures and FOOTNOTES I‘m a sucker for footnotes 😍 I‘m truly having a blast with this one ♥️
I am posting one book per day from my to-be-read collection. No description and providing no reason for wanting to read it, I just do. Some will be old, some will be new - don‘t judge me I have a lot of books.
Join the fun if you want. This is day 223.
#bookstoread
#tbrpile
#bookstagram
Needing something different. I'm not really a horror girl but hoping I like this. Reading and 🎧 tonight.
so-soI finished Plain Bad Heroines last night and was left feeling unsatisfied. The wrap up didn't make a whole lot of sense and I never felt I had a grasp of the characters' feelings, motivations or personalities.
This was certainly a fun and frolicsome romp, with a gothic feel to it, but for me, it didn't go any deeper than that.
⭐⭐⭐ Rounding up to 3 stars for enjoyment.
pickI'm not exaggerating when I say this is one of my all-time favorite books. This was perfection. The narrator's tone was perfect for the story. The different storylines managed to be complex and intricate without ever getting confusing. The gothic atmosphere was absolutely on point. And though there were a lot of characters, each one was so uniquely defined that I never struggled to understand who was who.
Current reads: Plain, Bad Heroines is super intriguing. Not sure where it's heading, but at the halfway mark I'm still wanting to turn the pages.
Muse of Nightmares is taking me a while to get back into. At the end of Strange the Dreamer, things built to dramatic climax and the dust is still settling. I'm hoping that there's more story or action to come.
As for Oathbringer, I'm pretty naffed off with Dalinar so we'll have to see how it goes 🤨🤨
so-soDisclaimer: I don‘t really read gothic horror so it might be a genre thing.
I really wanted to like this book but my feelings are lukewarm at best. The gothic horror parts were fantastic, lots things that my own imagination uses to scare me, but many of the characters were difficult to care about and the ending didn‘t feel complete, like a lot of things were left hanging that I wanted wrapped up.
I did appreciate all the lgbtq characters in it.
I wanted to read something featuring lgbtq+ characters for Pride not realizing the next on my TBR list fit the bill. This is the first book I‘ve read with a nonbinary character with they/them pronouns. I was surprised and delighted to come across them. 🏳️🌈
pickA centuries-old curse, generations of queer women, and a haunted Hollywood set are the branches upon which hangs this slow and swarming, menacing and mesmerizing yellow jacket nest of a novel. Some pacing issues near the end and a somewhat less than satisfying reveal knock this down from 5 stars for me, but I still savored every page I spent in the deliciously fleshed-out world of this queer gothic novel.
so-soNone of the heroines in this book are particularly plain or bad, and although all 5 of the main heroines aren‘t straight (yay), the author is extremely shy about lesbian interactions, leaving much to be desired. The plot continually builds and then never reaches a climax, a very ambiguous ending.
so-soHm. I don't think this worked for me, in the end. I'm not sure whether anything could have quite paid off all those vague hints, but it felt pretty prosaic in the end.
My local library‘s summer reading program starts tomorrow and I‘ve got my stack ready! My goal is to get through the whole thing by the end and then some. Happy reading!!
Had my first haircut since the pandemic and went to my local coffee shop to read and enjoy the sun. Long weekend off to a strong start!
so-soThis didn‘t grab me the way I had hoped it would. I found it hard to follow the story, different time lines and characters, and I don‘t if that is because I listened to it or because of the book itself. It might just be me, too. 🤷♀️
My hubs got me the hardback of Plain Bad Heroines for Xmas and omg is it just a freaking gorgeous book. I also have it on audio so I'm trying out reading and listening as well (not simultaneously) but I'm so glad I have this one in hardcopy, the illustrations and footnotes make it such an experience.
pickI finished this one a while ago. I loved the story up until the end, where it just kinda... stopped? A wild, wonderful ride until then, but I wish there was more of a finale.
#quaranreads #lgbt
It's reading weather today ☔🌧
I use Beeminder (full disclosure: not only do I work for them, I'm their head of support) to track my reading and today this graph jumped! I think I've caught on to what they're doing but I feel bad for Audrey being so awfully off-balance, and for how they're manipulating Merritt...
I have high hopes for this one. Love a book that starts with a map 😍
😍😍😍
pickEveryone went to bed over an hour ago and I stayed up to finish this! I loved it, funny, creepy, sarcy and a few too many wasps (insect kind 🐝) but completely loved the story and the two timelines.
@Reggie I think you‘ll like this one!
