Danforth’s prose is sharp, entertaining, and unputdownable. There are strange happenings afoot: Is the set haunted? Are they hallucinating? Are pranksters merely making up supernatural happenings? Read on to find out!Ī bit snarky and self-aware, Emily M. The threads of the 1902 story and the modern story continue to intertwine as we follow the three women and their experiences making the film. All of them have issues with a capital I. We meet the ridiculously named Harper Harper, famous actress and lesbian it-girl… another actress who’s the daughter of a former Scream Queen and is herself a former child star, trying to make an adult comeback and the author of the book on which the film is based. And three modern young women get caught up in a delightfully sexy, messy relationship. So far, so Gothic.įast forward to our modern times: The school has become the set for a movie based on the Brookhant’s story. Over the next few years, there are a few more deaths, and the school gets a reputation for being both cursed and haunted. One afternoon, whilst enjoying a romantic tryst in the orchard, dear Clara and Flo are attached and killed by swarming yellowjackets. So taken with this book, our girls create a secret club: The Plain Bad Heroine Society. (In real life, MacLane’s memoir sold 100,000 copies in its first month in print.) Or, more specifically, her book The Story of Mary MacLane, a sensual, self-aware memoir that highlights Mary’s attraction to women. They are completely infatuated with each other and with the author Mary MacLane.

The story begins in 1902 when we meet Clara and Flo, students at Brookhants School for Girls. Here’s the pitch: A sapphic Gothic haunted house novel featuring a story within a story within a story, black-and-white illustrations done in Gilded Age-style, and portentous yellowjackets that emerge as recurring characters in the story.

Plain bad heroines emily danforth