AMoRaR Book Review: A Dress To Save Me

A Month of Rain and Reads Reviews5 months ago4 min readAdd comment

Welcome to A Month of Rain and Reads, a celebration of self-published and indie SFF throughout the entire month of November. To find out how you can take part and view the whole list of content, visit our introduction post.

This is a guest review for A Dress To Save Me by Tessa Hastjarjanto as written by Jamedi.

You’re cordially invited to the wedding of Lady Sophie Linsberg and the Duke of Falbry.

For years, her father had moved Sophie through society as his pawn, forging alliances to expand his empire. Now, he was ready to sell her off for the deal of a lifetime. Her lifetime.

Trapped in a marriage she never wanted, Sophie clings to one final hope: a future she chooses for herself. But before she can claim her freedom, she must first find the courage to save herself.

A Dress To Save Me is a Victorian dark fantasy short story for fans of Jane Eyre and Crimson Peak.

With A Dress To Save Me, Tessa Hastjarjanto returns to the stories woven around the clients of the mysterious figure of the Dressmaker; a short story that still explores some elements that appeared in the previous short story (A Dress To Kill For), such as the historical exploitation of women as a way to climb in society, but with a different approach, taking more time to build up the situation, creating a tension that leads towards a cathartic climax and well-thought aftermath.

Sophie has been used as a pawn by her father during all her life, as the means to continue his social promotion and the growth of his empire. His last act is to sell her in marriage to the Duke of Falbry; an unwanted marriage for Sophie that puts her life at risk, taking into account the Duke’s previous wives’ record. Only if she musters the courage to save herself, she will claim her freedom.

Hastjarjanto takes a bit of a different approach in this short story, as we have a more personal tale that, while still reflecting the horrors of the society our characters are part of, draws more from the own fears and the direct threat that the Duke is to Sophie. Not only she has to forget the expectations that she could have of marriage, but we can also see how the horror takes a corporeal form while the inevitable moment is coming; the climax acts as the answer to all the previous build-up, the explosion after the pressure has been rising inside the pot.

The aftermath is smartly handled, putting a bit of the weight on the mysterious Dressmaker (the common figure between stories), but creating some questions that might not be answered.

A Dress To Save Me is an excellent short story, perfect if you want a taste of how good Hastjarjanto’s writing is; a touch of Victorian horror mixed with a critic to women’s position in society. I hope we continue returning to this world in successive stories.

About the Guest Reviewer

Hi, I’m Jamedi (also known as Javier), former videogames streamer and long time reader. I loved fantasy and sci-fi since I was a child. Horror came after, and books are my best escape. Residing in Spain, I’m fluent on both, Spanish and English, which allows me to wide my reading horizons.