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Aug. 29th, 2019 09:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsThe Dancing Floor is a relatively late Barbara Michaels Gothic, and not really top-tier, but despite some qualms I sincerely enjoyed it for just how many of the heroine's actions were undertaken out of sheer irritability and pointless spite.
Or Heroine, Heather Tradescant, is on a Sadness Tour of fancy British houses with gardens designed by a famous seventeenth-century landscape designer who may or may not have been her ancestor, originally planned with her now-sadly-dead father. When the last manor house on the list refuses to let her in, Heather decides to wander sulkily round the back ... then 'accidentally' breaks her way in through a mysterious bramble hedge maze ....
.... and of course stumbles right at the feet of the quirky owner, Frank Karim, a vaguely Muslim millionaire who dreams of restoring the gardens, and his sullen grad student son Jordan.
As happens to trespassing young women in Gothic novels, Frank hears her last name and tragic backstory and almost immediately offers her a summer job assisting with historical landscape architecture reconstruction! Despite some qualms about the entire very weird setup, Heather decides FUCK IT, WHY NOT and accepts the position, which comes with full room and board in the fancy manor house, a full bevy of love interests, a lot of ominous foreshadowing about the Pendle witches and Ye Olde Goddess Paganism, and only very occasional murder attempts.
Love interests include:
FRANK THE ECCENTRIC MILLIONAIRE - not really ever a love interest, but Heather's relationship with Frank probably ends up being the most significant in the book and was actually pretty charming; Heather and Frank are both deeply rude people with weird landscape garden obsessions who really enjoy the opportunity to be rude to each other and talk about landscape gardening! a surrogate father-daughter match made in heaven
JORDAN - the aforementioned sullen grad student son of Frank the eccentric millionaire; does not do anything particularly endearing throughout the entire book, but nonetheless I was rooting for him on account of the fact that a.) non-exoticized Muslim love interests are rare in Gothics and b.) his absolute disinterest in the Gothic plot except insofar as it vaguely tangented into his dissertation topic rang incredibly true to life, and was also hilarious and c.) honestly, Heather is equally sullen and irritable if not moreso
GILES, I THINK - honestly I don't remember his name because I found him very boring. The Nice Love Interest, which meant I spent the whole book firmly convinced he was evil; also, he really should not have been flirting with Heather when he already possessed of a Mean Girl wife (verge of separation is not actual separation!), an incredibly demonic son, and a nonentity daughter
SEAN - the muscly handyman/chauffeur who gets away with all kinds of nonsense on account of his mysteriously close (subtext: gay) relationship with Jordan's tragically dead older brother; his dynamic with Heather is best summed up by the fact that he tells her that the alarm goes on after 9 so she can't leave the house without setting it off, and Heather's like WATCH ME and promptly climbs out the window at three in the morning. There's no reason for this, she doesn't have to do anything out of the house at three in the morning, she just wants to stick it to Sean and his stupid face and his stupid alarm! Probably this actually says more about Heather than about Sean.
JENNET - Frank's pal who runs the fancy pagan shop downtown and also the local witch museum; Heather thinks she is Beautiful and Very Shady and is constantly taking the excuse to, like, go shopping with her, and out to lunch with her, JUST SO SHE CAN INVESTIGATE HOW SHADY SHE IS, OBVIOUSLY!
I'll be honest, I was hoping for more focus on the historical landscape architecture reconstruction than we ended up getting; Girl Meets Career Barbara Michaels books are the best Barbara Michaels books. Also, though I appreciated that Heather was a heroine of size, I thought we had rather too much emphasis on Heather's size, but I did really enjoy this cycle of scenes:
A LOVE INTEREST AND/OR VILLAIN: I'm taking you out to lunch to deliver some ominous information, not because I like you or anything
HEATHER: whatever
A LOVE INTEREST AND/OR VILLAIN: HERE IS SOME OMINOUS INFORMATION! BE ALARMED!
HEATHER: great. thanks for the monologue. can I have dessert?
A LOVE INTEREST AND/OR VILLAIN: um ... well ... I was planning to mic drop and go at this point ... but I guess .... if you must have dessert ....
HEATHER: sure must!
[an awkward silence of twenty minutes while the love interest/villain fidgets and Heather placidly eats her spite dessert]
Or Heroine, Heather Tradescant, is on a Sadness Tour of fancy British houses with gardens designed by a famous seventeenth-century landscape designer who may or may not have been her ancestor, originally planned with her now-sadly-dead father. When the last manor house on the list refuses to let her in, Heather decides to wander sulkily round the back ... then 'accidentally' breaks her way in through a mysterious bramble hedge maze ....
.... and of course stumbles right at the feet of the quirky owner, Frank Karim, a vaguely Muslim millionaire who dreams of restoring the gardens, and his sullen grad student son Jordan.
As happens to trespassing young women in Gothic novels, Frank hears her last name and tragic backstory and almost immediately offers her a summer job assisting with historical landscape architecture reconstruction! Despite some qualms about the entire very weird setup, Heather decides FUCK IT, WHY NOT and accepts the position, which comes with full room and board in the fancy manor house, a full bevy of love interests, a lot of ominous foreshadowing about the Pendle witches and Ye Olde Goddess Paganism, and only very occasional murder attempts.
Love interests include:
FRANK THE ECCENTRIC MILLIONAIRE - not really ever a love interest, but Heather's relationship with Frank probably ends up being the most significant in the book and was actually pretty charming; Heather and Frank are both deeply rude people with weird landscape garden obsessions who really enjoy the opportunity to be rude to each other and talk about landscape gardening! a surrogate father-daughter match made in heaven
JORDAN - the aforementioned sullen grad student son of Frank the eccentric millionaire; does not do anything particularly endearing throughout the entire book, but nonetheless I was rooting for him on account of the fact that a.) non-exoticized Muslim love interests are rare in Gothics and b.) his absolute disinterest in the Gothic plot except insofar as it vaguely tangented into his dissertation topic rang incredibly true to life, and was also hilarious and c.) honestly, Heather is equally sullen and irritable if not moreso
GILES, I THINK - honestly I don't remember his name because I found him very boring. The Nice Love Interest, which meant I spent the whole book firmly convinced he was evil; also, he really should not have been flirting with Heather when he already possessed of a Mean Girl wife (verge of separation is not actual separation!), an incredibly demonic son, and a nonentity daughter
SEAN - the muscly handyman/chauffeur who gets away with all kinds of nonsense on account of his mysteriously close (subtext: gay) relationship with Jordan's tragically dead older brother; his dynamic with Heather is best summed up by the fact that he tells her that the alarm goes on after 9 so she can't leave the house without setting it off, and Heather's like WATCH ME and promptly climbs out the window at three in the morning. There's no reason for this, she doesn't have to do anything out of the house at three in the morning, she just wants to stick it to Sean and his stupid face and his stupid alarm! Probably this actually says more about Heather than about Sean.
JENNET - Frank's pal who runs the fancy pagan shop downtown and also the local witch museum; Heather thinks she is Beautiful and Very Shady and is constantly taking the excuse to, like, go shopping with her, and out to lunch with her, JUST SO SHE CAN INVESTIGATE HOW SHADY SHE IS, OBVIOUSLY!
I'll be honest, I was hoping for more focus on the historical landscape architecture reconstruction than we ended up getting; Girl Meets Career Barbara Michaels books are the best Barbara Michaels books. Also, though I appreciated that Heather was a heroine of size, I thought we had rather too much emphasis on Heather's size, but I did really enjoy this cycle of scenes:
A LOVE INTEREST AND/OR VILLAIN: I'm taking you out to lunch to deliver some ominous information, not because I like you or anything
HEATHER: whatever
A LOVE INTEREST AND/OR VILLAIN: HERE IS SOME OMINOUS INFORMATION! BE ALARMED!
HEATHER: great. thanks for the monologue. can I have dessert?
A LOVE INTEREST AND/OR VILLAIN: um ... well ... I was planning to mic drop and go at this point ... but I guess .... if you must have dessert ....
HEATHER: sure must!
[an awkward silence of twenty minutes while the love interest/villain fidgets and Heather placidly eats her spite dessert]
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Date: 2019-08-30 02:30 am (UTC)Once I finish the Orwell essays I should snag another Barbara Michaels to read during the slow moments at work. Possibly not this one, despite the joys of spite dessert? Probably it's better to read the good ones first.
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Date: 2019-08-30 02:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-08-30 09:14 am (UTC)If a Tradescant happens to fall through your hedge, it seems the obvious thing to do.
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Date: 2019-08-30 12:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-08-30 08:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-08-31 03:26 am (UTC)