1902, Brookhants School for Girls: students Flo and Clara are madly in love with each other, as well as completely obsessed with The Story of Mary MacLane, the scandalous debut memoir by 19 year old MacLane. A few months later they are found dead in the woods, after a horrific wasp attack, the book lying next to their intertwined bodies. Within five years the school is closed. But not before three more people die on the property, each in a troubling way.
Over a hundred years later, Brookhants opens its doors once more, when a crew of young actresses arrive to film a high-profile movie about the rumoured Brookhants curse. And as past and present become grimly entangled, it’s soon impossible to tell quite where the curse leaves off and Hollywood begins…
Oh boy. This is the toughest review I've written in a long time. I apologise in advance for this, it's likely to be at least a little incoherent.
First of all; this is a HUGE book. Physically massive. It's six hundred and odd pages. Pictured below, with nail varnish for scale. Although the writing flows beautifully, it still takes some effort to get through it.
Now, the writing. As I said, it does flow very well. The tone is chatty and friendly. It's lyrical and easy to follow any particular section. Sadly, as a whole, the story doesn't make a lot of sense. At least, not to me.
The story jumps back and forth between two major points in time - 1902 and forward, and a few months sometime relatively recently, within the last couple of years. It also covers many other minor points in time, often without any warning. I know that a lot of readers enjoy this style of storytelling, where something set in the past but revealed after something set in the present sheds new light on it. For me, it's just confusing. I had a lot of trouble keeping track of what was happening when, who knew what, who didn't know what...I tried taking notes at one point, but since I hadn't been taking them from the start, they didn't help much. Again, I know a lot of readers will love this and really enjoy it, this is just my opinion.
The ending didn't make much sense to me either, and from reviews I've since read online, I think this is a common complaint. The school itself, heavily mentioned in the blurb and information, barely featured; the important thing is the ground the school sits on, not the actual school itself.
I did notice one of the characters using a verbal tic that I've been catching in myself lately, since before I started reading. I wonder where we both picked it up?
SPOILER
I didn't much like the suggestion that the girls in the school liked to fool around with each other, just because there were no other options for them at the time. I know that a lot of people are flexible, and they probably took advantage of being out from under disapproving adult eyes, but a lot *aren't* and didn't, and categorizing a whole age group as 'eeeh, it was just what happened' sat badly with me.
END OF SPOILERS
I did really like the writing style, even though it took me a long time to get through the book. I think a lot of people will enjoy this book. It wasn't for me, but maybe Emily's next one will be.
Plain Bad Heroines publishes on the 4th February, 2021.
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