The dress is merely an early, inexperienced prequel to The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants jeans. It's all there - everlasting sisterhood - between the clinically insane and the elderly vague, anyway; travel - granted, via bus, but it's there - a spiritual connection of sorts through an article of clothing (largely a haunting by YMMV) and, of course, the outfit that fits everyone from grown women in the workforce to random teens with dancer's bodies, to academic decathlon chicks, and soon, the whole town.
Now the whole plot makes sense, no?
I'm a little grossed out that Lael is projecting such a very specific"... image of a beautiful young woman, not a teenage girl" female... Despite the varied hair color, she's clearly a waif-thin white girl - and she'd have to be, since a major plot point is casual theft, and Butter Wouldn't Melt Innocence, which traditionally in 80's lit doesn't seem to be something girls of color could pull off in any genre.
I do find it interesting what The Cursed Dress gives, and what it takes - first beauty and sanity, in Rowena's case, then beauty and ability/health in Robin's case. Breath/health and sanity, in Felicia's case (and honestly, I am wondering if it's not going to take her career, because correct me if I'm wrong, but stealing from patients would be considered a firing offense in other medical settings? And I'm still low-key worried about blackmail attempts and Someone Finding Out - but I also think I may be reading too much into a plot which is happy to commit Drive By Dress crimes and never tell us the end of the story for each Thief/Victim)...
I'm a little afraid to even ask what the dress is going to do with a smart girl who isn't pretty. Is it going to take her smarts (though she's currently being really, really dumb)? I'm both afraid of how that would work, and also fairly confident that ANYTHING I think is utterly wrong. That kind of scattershot plotting is The Littke Gift that keeps on giving.
And yes, I'm still rooting for the dress. These girls are working my nerves.
Oh, yeah, this one—and for that matter, most of the similar stuff from this era that I've read—uses the white default big-time. I have no doubt that Lael was like "LOOK HOW DIVERSE, they have DIFFERENT HAIR COLORS and DIFFERENT... er... jobs?" (And that's truly about it, because they all want the dress to Impress A Guy, at least two of them have exactly the same shoe size, they're all strapped for cash, and they're all very good at justifying doing a thing they know is wrong because, you know, they want to?)
I, like you, keep trying to understand the magic system here—did the dress kick Robin's ass so hard because she was the first person to steal it since The Inciting Incident and now is it losing power?—even though I'm 99.999% sure that there IS NO SYSTEM. I do not get the impression that our Intrepid Author is super-invested in systems of magic, LOL. (And yet my brain keeps trying to make it make sense!)
I am ALSO concerned about the smarts thing—is the Einstein bust going to fall on her head and smoosh her brains? Are we even going to find out in the next chapter, or will we be catapulted back to Robin and Tyler? Did Lael Littke outline this book, or did she just wing it? Will someone write an UNOFFICIAL SEQUEL???? OMG YES. I am putting it out into the universe: Please, someone, write Prom Dress II: Rowena's Rise. (Rise of Rowena? Robin's Revenge??)
The dress is merely an early, inexperienced prequel to The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants jeans. It's all there - everlasting sisterhood - between the clinically insane and the elderly vague, anyway; travel - granted, via bus, but it's there - a spiritual connection of sorts through an article of clothing (largely a haunting by YMMV) and, of course, the outfit that fits everyone from grown women in the workforce to random teens with dancer's bodies, to academic decathlon chicks, and soon, the whole town.
Now the whole plot makes sense, no?
I'm a little grossed out that Lael is projecting such a very specific"... image of a beautiful young woman, not a teenage girl" female... Despite the varied hair color, she's clearly a waif-thin white girl - and she'd have to be, since a major plot point is casual theft, and Butter Wouldn't Melt Innocence, which traditionally in 80's lit doesn't seem to be something girls of color could pull off in any genre.
I do find it interesting what The Cursed Dress gives, and what it takes - first beauty and sanity, in Rowena's case, then beauty and ability/health in Robin's case. Breath/health and sanity, in Felicia's case (and honestly, I am wondering if it's not going to take her career, because correct me if I'm wrong, but stealing from patients would be considered a firing offense in other medical settings? And I'm still low-key worried about blackmail attempts and Someone Finding Out - but I also think I may be reading too much into a plot which is happy to commit Drive By Dress crimes and never tell us the end of the story for each Thief/Victim)...
I'm a little afraid to even ask what the dress is going to do with a smart girl who isn't pretty. Is it going to take her smarts (though she's currently being really, really dumb)? I'm both afraid of how that would work, and also fairly confident that ANYTHING I think is utterly wrong. That kind of scattershot plotting is The Littke Gift that keeps on giving.
And yes, I'm still rooting for the dress. These girls are working my nerves.
Oh, yeah, this one—and for that matter, most of the similar stuff from this era that I've read—uses the white default big-time. I have no doubt that Lael was like "LOOK HOW DIVERSE, they have DIFFERENT HAIR COLORS and DIFFERENT... er... jobs?" (And that's truly about it, because they all want the dress to Impress A Guy, at least two of them have exactly the same shoe size, they're all strapped for cash, and they're all very good at justifying doing a thing they know is wrong because, you know, they want to?)
I, like you, keep trying to understand the magic system here—did the dress kick Robin's ass so hard because she was the first person to steal it since The Inciting Incident and now is it losing power?—even though I'm 99.999% sure that there IS NO SYSTEM. I do not get the impression that our Intrepid Author is super-invested in systems of magic, LOL. (And yet my brain keeps trying to make it make sense!)
I am ALSO concerned about the smarts thing—is the Einstein bust going to fall on her head and smoosh her brains? Are we even going to find out in the next chapter, or will we be catapulted back to Robin and Tyler? Did Lael Littke outline this book, or did she just wing it? Will someone write an UNOFFICIAL SEQUEL???? OMG YES. I am putting it out into the universe: Please, someone, write Prom Dress II: Rowena's Rise. (Rise of Rowena? Robin's Revenge??)
OH MY GOSH, that Sabotage scene! The suspense was horrible -- and then he went through with it!
AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! I'm so glad someone else has seen it, I was crawling OUT OF MY SKIN during the whole thing!!!!!!!