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Nov. 21st, 2014 08:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsLast catch-up Gothic post! I forgot to write up Barbara Michaels' Shattered Silk when I read it because it got overshadowed by Someone in the House and the MYSTERY OF KEVIN'S INVISIBLE SEX, but Shattered Silk is ALSO great, even though it's like the least Gothic Gothic ever to Gothic.
It is however deeply relevant to my interests because the protagonist is a woman who decides to restart her life after an emotionally stifling marriage ... by teaming up with her love interest's sister to open a vintage clothes shop in DC!
I mean this is a plot I would read with or without the Gothic thriller elements, which is good because for the first 3/4 of the book is not so interested in the art of suspense and SIGNIFICANTLY MORE interested in the art of restoring and reselling historical fashions.
EMILY: This dress I found has some weird marks on it! Almost like it was ... ripped with a knife!
KAREN: Ah yes! Interesting factoid: that's just what happens to silk when it ages! No knives were involved at all, but here are some tips for how to prevent it happening again! :)
EMILY: I think this wedding dress has a bloodstain on it!
KAREN: Huh! Well I think I found some techniques for getting blood out of dresses, it'll be fun to experiment with them! We can still make a profit! :)
EMILY: Do we think that mysterious and cranky old woman might have murdered her husband in her youth?
KAREN: I'm more concerned about the fact that she keeps trying to sell us boxes of damaged items with no resale value. >:(
Eventually people start to sinisterly break into Karen's house, making Karen's love interest and his friend Tony the Hot Mustachioed Cop quite concerned, and Those Mean Girls From College turn up to be Mean to Karen in a way that ends up significant, and I think someone gets murdered? And one dress actually does turn out to have a significant bloodstain after all, OK, fine. But mostly: Vintage clothes! Auction sales! Growing self-esteem through productivity and competence in a chosen field! Sleepovers with your new bestie! HISTORICAL FASHIONS, AREN'T THEY AWESOME, LET'S JUST ALL NERD OUT, please don't let the dog put his muddy paws on the antique white nightgown, NO STOP.
It is however deeply relevant to my interests because the protagonist is a woman who decides to restart her life after an emotionally stifling marriage ... by teaming up with her love interest's sister to open a vintage clothes shop in DC!
I mean this is a plot I would read with or without the Gothic thriller elements, which is good because for the first 3/4 of the book is not so interested in the art of suspense and SIGNIFICANTLY MORE interested in the art of restoring and reselling historical fashions.
EMILY: This dress I found has some weird marks on it! Almost like it was ... ripped with a knife!
KAREN: Ah yes! Interesting factoid: that's just what happens to silk when it ages! No knives were involved at all, but here are some tips for how to prevent it happening again! :)
EMILY: I think this wedding dress has a bloodstain on it!
KAREN: Huh! Well I think I found some techniques for getting blood out of dresses, it'll be fun to experiment with them! We can still make a profit! :)
EMILY: Do we think that mysterious and cranky old woman might have murdered her husband in her youth?
KAREN: I'm more concerned about the fact that she keeps trying to sell us boxes of damaged items with no resale value. >:(
Eventually people start to sinisterly break into Karen's house, making Karen's love interest and his friend Tony the Hot Mustachioed Cop quite concerned, and Those Mean Girls From College turn up to be Mean to Karen in a way that ends up significant, and I think someone gets murdered? And one dress actually does turn out to have a significant bloodstain after all, OK, fine. But mostly: Vintage clothes! Auction sales! Growing self-esteem through productivity and competence in a chosen field! Sleepovers with your new bestie! HISTORICAL FASHIONS, AREN'T THEY AWESOME, LET'S JUST ALL NERD OUT, please don't let the dog put his muddy paws on the antique white nightgown, NO STOP.
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Date: 2014-11-21 03:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-11-21 05:36 pm (UTC)Also: YET. Maybe you just haven't found the right significantly bloodstained dress!
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Date: 2014-11-21 03:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-11-21 05:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-11-21 06:01 pm (UTC)I know, I wish-listed them all, but now I have a priority!