Review: Dictatorship of the Dress by Jessica Topper - a romance with geekery and cancer
This has been on my review queue for a while. Like, since the summer for a while. It's not like it took me that long to read it - I finished it months ago. It's just that just about everything else always seems to take priority. But there is only so many times I can review a book even with the Chicago Public Library's generous renewal terms, so I decided to make time.
I heard about this book through smartbitches, and I admit that the big reason why it caught my eye was the not quite ordinary premise.
Former comic book artist Laney Hudson is trying to work her way through grief for her fiance, who died of cancer two years earlier. When her controlling, emotionally manipulative mother decides to get married for a third time, she is charged with personally delivering the wedding dress. While at the airport, Laney gets mistaken for a bride, which gets her bumped up to first-class - and a seat next to software designer turned executive Noah Ridgewood, who just happened to be flying to Las Vegas for a bachelor party (even while he starts having second thoughts about marrying his bride to be, who happens to be his boss' daughter). Because of some bad first impressions and miscommunications, Noah assumes Laney is a spoiled bridezilla, while Laney sees Noah as a self-absorbed corporate drone.
But Laney's and Noah's plans get disrupted when a snowstorm leaves them stranded in Chicago. They get mistaken for a newlywed couple, and, because it gets them the only available room at a hotel, they decided to go with it. At first, neither is entirely happy with the situation, but, as misunderstandings fall away, they discover that they have more in common than they thought. Yet both Noah and Laney have their emotional issues that threaten to undermine a relationship before it has a chance to get off the ground.
The Smart Bitches review that brought this book to my attention wasn't completely positive, but I was intrigued enough to want to read it for myself. I don't think this is the first romance novel to feature a comic book artist, but it's rare enough to stand out. Given my own experience with the Dreaded C Word, I was interested to see how the book would handle it. Plus,the cover model was a redhead, and I've been feeling awfully warm and fuzzy about geeky redheads.
There are many things the book pulled off pretty well. Laney and Noah both come across as real people, with complicated motivations and (mostly) perfectly understandable hang-ups and insecurities. You may be frustrated with them at time, but (for the most part), it feels like a natural outcome rather than something done in a service of the plot. (Which is what makes the few instances where you feel the heavy hands of the plot pulling on the strings all the more jarring). And you get why they managed to bond after only a few days of getting to know each other. I've seen plenty of instances in books, movies and TV shows where a couple gets together a bit too quickly, and you wonder if there's anything there in a long-term, but you feel like, while Laney and Noah may not necessarily last forever, there is enough of a solid foundation to give it a good shot.
[Ending spoiler (click to open)]Which is why I liked that the novel didn't end with the wedding - that might have caused me to cry foul
Speaking of getting to know each other... A lot of time time, in romance stories like this, the couple has A Misunderstanding that puts them off each other. And, in many cases, this sort of thing feels contrived. Here, you actually understand why Laney and Noah read each other wrong at first, and why they arrived at the conclusions they did. It's refreshing.
There were some good secondary characters. Laney's best friend, Dani, don't get that much much screen time per se, and neither does Warren Butler, Noah's mentor/father figure, but we get enough of both of them through flashbacks and e-mails that they come across as more complicated than the simple stereotypes they could've easily been reduced to. Laney's mother had some shades of complexity, in her own way (more on that later).
And then, there's Allen, Laney's deceased fiance. He is only seen through flashbacks, and he comes across as a complex character. Too often, the former love interests are either non-entities or awful, but Allen comes across as simply a man, someone who is capable of good and bad things, someone who be selfless and selfish, someone who can screw up and try to make amends. His and Laney had a turbulent, will-they-or-won't-they relationship, complete with break-ups and make-ups. Like real life, it was messy, and that, too, is refreshing. And it gives Laney's grief some weight. It's one thing to mourn a Tragically Dead Fiance. It's quite another to mourn a person.
I also liked that Jessica Topper had done some homework. The introduction mentioned that she got help with the particulars of Chicago, and it shows. The few issues I had with her depictions of the city are minor, and I'm willing to overlook things like Noah calling an alderman a "city council member," or the part where our heroes being about to go from O'Hare to downtown on Kennedy Expressway within 40 minutes in the middle of a snow storm. Hopper got most of Chicago right, if not in details, then in general spirit. If nothing else, I appreciate that a portion of the story takes place in Andersonville - not an obscure neighborhood, but one that isn't necessarily known outside Chicago - and she gets it right.
If only all of those things were true across the board.
While some secondary characters get enough definition not to come across as walking role-fillers, some characters aren't really developed beyond general outlines. Most importantly, Noah's fiance, Sloane... Well, it isn't that she comes across as nothing more then a shallow heiress stereotype. We do get some hints that there's more to her than that - but those hints are never really developed. If Noah was merely staying with her because he was trying to stay in his boss' good graces, it wouldn't be a problem, but I get a sense that Topper was trying to show that Noah did care about her on some level, that there was actually something that bound them together, beyond the fact that a hot girl noticed his attractive but awkward self. And, based on how Sloan is actually depicted on the page, I don't see why he ever would.
We know that Topper could write more complex secondary characters/alternative love interests than that - she showed it with Allen. Leaving Sloane as barely more than a caricature feels like a wasted opportunity.
There is also the matter of Laney's interest in comic books.
I've long been weary of the nerd litmus tests, the idea that you can't be true fan of [x] unless you know so and so about such and such setting and/or such and such characters. If you like the most recent version of Ms Marvel but don't know that much about, say, the She-Thing version, you're still a fan. People should be allowed to enjoy things, even if they don't enjoy it quite as deeply as you do, or as thoroughly as you do.
I don't want to write that Laney doesn't sound like a comic book fan. Yet the way Topper depicts it seems...off. I can look past the fact that Laney's description of Marvel Comics, where she works, sounds more like the way the company was set up during the 60s, with artists working in the offices, rather the way it is now, with writers mostly working in their own studios and e-mailing scans to editors. I can even look past that the comic book Laney described as working on in the flashback feels kind of retro.
But what really seemed off to me was some of the way she referenced the comic book characters. Like the part where Laney described DC Comics' Zatanna as a superhero with the power to erase memories... which is something she can do. But it's not really her power.
Zatanna's power is that she could do pretty much anything she wants, so long as she says the word for item/action backwards. She can use this ability to remove memories - as she infamously did in the the controversial Identity Crisis mini-series - but saying that her power is to remove memories is kind of like saying that Superman's power is to catch a bus. It's certainly a thing he can do, but it's not a power.
I would buy if Laney had no idea who Zatanna was - the character is second-tier at best - but I don't buy that, if she knew who it was, she would misunderstand what her powers are.
I can't help but wonder if Topper wrote that sentence, did some research on superheroes that removed memories and search-replaced the blank space with one of the first things that came up.
The scene where Laney and Noah bonded over their love of kaiju films felt more natural. But then, I know way less about that genre than I do about American superhero comics. For all I know, the kaiju fans found all sorts of things wrong with it.
But that's a minor quibble compared to what I believe is a more serious problem.
I mentioned earlier that Laney's mother is controlling and emotionally manipulative. She discourages her daughter's artistic pursuits, she pushes her in directions she thinks are right, and she belittles her daughter... well, maybe not constantly, but a quite a lot. And then, towards the final third of the book
[Spoiler (click to open)]we got told that it was all a big misunderstanding and she was just trying to do what really was best for Laney all along. Which I don't really buy. Granted, I'm coming into this with some personal baggage - for those who don't follow this blog regularly, let's just say that I have experience with relatives who are passive-aggressive and manipulative. But the Smart Bitches review raised the same issue, so I'm not the only one who thought that the reveal doesn't really work. If it was presented as the mother saying that she tried to do what's best for her but acknoweledging that she wound up hurting her daugher in the process, I wouldn't have minded as much, but I get an impression that Topper wants us to think that the mother was right and Laney is the one who is wrong for misunderstanding her.
Which ties into another major issue. Without giving too much away, I think Topper tried a bit too hard to make sure that all the characters get not just good endings, but a happy endings. Dani is the major exception - her ending is more open-ended than anything - but that's because she stars in the next book. Even Sloane gets an out-of-left-field happy ending that only seems to be there because, otherwise, Noah would probably still feel kind of bad about how things turned out. It feels a bit too neat. A bit too nicely wrapped up. When you read a romance, a certain level of contrivance is to be expected, but in this case, you can practically see the hands of the author moving the pieces, and it's jarring.
But in spite of all that... I think I would recommend it. Dictatorship of the Dress is a pleasant read overall. The narrative is clever and often humorous, but it also gives (most of) the serious aspects of the plot the weight they deserve. Cancer is a fraught subject, but Topper handles it well, avoiding the all-to-tempting trap of milking it for melodrama. The leads are likable, and I found myself getting invested in their relationship. Heck, the book includes the preview of the next novel in the series, and I kind of want to read it just because Laney appears as a secondary character, and I want to read more about her.
So if anything I wrote makes the novel sound like your kind of thing, I would encourage you to check it out and judge for yourself. Just be ready to cringe at the heavy-handed plotting.
----
Dictatorship of the Dress is available on Amazon, at Barnes & Noble, and chances are pretty good it's available at the bookstores (and libraries) near you. For more information about Jessica Topper's books, check out her website.
I heard about this book through smartbitches, and I admit that the big reason why it caught my eye was the not quite ordinary premise.
Former comic book artist Laney Hudson is trying to work her way through grief for her fiance, who died of cancer two years earlier. When her controlling, emotionally manipulative mother decides to get married for a third time, she is charged with personally delivering the wedding dress. While at the airport, Laney gets mistaken for a bride, which gets her bumped up to first-class - and a seat next to software designer turned executive Noah Ridgewood, who just happened to be flying to Las Vegas for a bachelor party (even while he starts having second thoughts about marrying his bride to be, who happens to be his boss' daughter). Because of some bad first impressions and miscommunications, Noah assumes Laney is a spoiled bridezilla, while Laney sees Noah as a self-absorbed corporate drone.
But Laney's and Noah's plans get disrupted when a snowstorm leaves them stranded in Chicago. They get mistaken for a newlywed couple, and, because it gets them the only available room at a hotel, they decided to go with it. At first, neither is entirely happy with the situation, but, as misunderstandings fall away, they discover that they have more in common than they thought. Yet both Noah and Laney have their emotional issues that threaten to undermine a relationship before it has a chance to get off the ground.
The Smart Bitches review that brought this book to my attention wasn't completely positive, but I was intrigued enough to want to read it for myself. I don't think this is the first romance novel to feature a comic book artist, but it's rare enough to stand out. Given my own experience with the Dreaded C Word, I was interested to see how the book would handle it. Plus,the cover model was a redhead, and I've been feeling awfully warm and fuzzy about geeky redheads.
There are many things the book pulled off pretty well. Laney and Noah both come across as real people, with complicated motivations and (mostly) perfectly understandable hang-ups and insecurities. You may be frustrated with them at time, but (for the most part), it feels like a natural outcome rather than something done in a service of the plot. (Which is what makes the few instances where you feel the heavy hands of the plot pulling on the strings all the more jarring). And you get why they managed to bond after only a few days of getting to know each other. I've seen plenty of instances in books, movies and TV shows where a couple gets together a bit too quickly, and you wonder if there's anything there in a long-term, but you feel like, while Laney and Noah may not necessarily last forever, there is enough of a solid foundation to give it a good shot.
[Ending spoiler (click to open)]Which is why I liked that the novel didn't end with the wedding - that might have caused me to cry foul
Speaking of getting to know each other... A lot of time time, in romance stories like this, the couple has A Misunderstanding that puts them off each other. And, in many cases, this sort of thing feels contrived. Here, you actually understand why Laney and Noah read each other wrong at first, and why they arrived at the conclusions they did. It's refreshing.
There were some good secondary characters. Laney's best friend, Dani, don't get that much much screen time per se, and neither does Warren Butler, Noah's mentor/father figure, but we get enough of both of them through flashbacks and e-mails that they come across as more complicated than the simple stereotypes they could've easily been reduced to. Laney's mother had some shades of complexity, in her own way (more on that later).
And then, there's Allen, Laney's deceased fiance. He is only seen through flashbacks, and he comes across as a complex character. Too often, the former love interests are either non-entities or awful, but Allen comes across as simply a man, someone who is capable of good and bad things, someone who be selfless and selfish, someone who can screw up and try to make amends. His and Laney had a turbulent, will-they-or-won't-they relationship, complete with break-ups and make-ups. Like real life, it was messy, and that, too, is refreshing. And it gives Laney's grief some weight. It's one thing to mourn a Tragically Dead Fiance. It's quite another to mourn a person.
I also liked that Jessica Topper had done some homework. The introduction mentioned that she got help with the particulars of Chicago, and it shows. The few issues I had with her depictions of the city are minor, and I'm willing to overlook things like Noah calling an alderman a "city council member," or the part where our heroes being about to go from O'Hare to downtown on Kennedy Expressway within 40 minutes in the middle of a snow storm. Hopper got most of Chicago right, if not in details, then in general spirit. If nothing else, I appreciate that a portion of the story takes place in Andersonville - not an obscure neighborhood, but one that isn't necessarily known outside Chicago - and she gets it right.
If only all of those things were true across the board.
While some secondary characters get enough definition not to come across as walking role-fillers, some characters aren't really developed beyond general outlines. Most importantly, Noah's fiance, Sloane... Well, it isn't that she comes across as nothing more then a shallow heiress stereotype. We do get some hints that there's more to her than that - but those hints are never really developed. If Noah was merely staying with her because he was trying to stay in his boss' good graces, it wouldn't be a problem, but I get a sense that Topper was trying to show that Noah did care about her on some level, that there was actually something that bound them together, beyond the fact that a hot girl noticed his attractive but awkward self. And, based on how Sloan is actually depicted on the page, I don't see why he ever would.
We know that Topper could write more complex secondary characters/alternative love interests than that - she showed it with Allen. Leaving Sloane as barely more than a caricature feels like a wasted opportunity.
There is also the matter of Laney's interest in comic books.
I've long been weary of the nerd litmus tests, the idea that you can't be true fan of [x] unless you know so and so about such and such setting and/or such and such characters. If you like the most recent version of Ms Marvel but don't know that much about, say, the She-Thing version, you're still a fan. People should be allowed to enjoy things, even if they don't enjoy it quite as deeply as you do, or as thoroughly as you do.
I don't want to write that Laney doesn't sound like a comic book fan. Yet the way Topper depicts it seems...off. I can look past the fact that Laney's description of Marvel Comics, where she works, sounds more like the way the company was set up during the 60s, with artists working in the offices, rather the way it is now, with writers mostly working in their own studios and e-mailing scans to editors. I can even look past that the comic book Laney described as working on in the flashback feels kind of retro.
But what really seemed off to me was some of the way she referenced the comic book characters. Like the part where Laney described DC Comics' Zatanna as a superhero with the power to erase memories... which is something she can do. But it's not really her power.
Zatanna's power is that she could do pretty much anything she wants, so long as she says the word for item/action backwards. She can use this ability to remove memories - as she infamously did in the the controversial Identity Crisis mini-series - but saying that her power is to remove memories is kind of like saying that Superman's power is to catch a bus. It's certainly a thing he can do, but it's not a power.
I would buy if Laney had no idea who Zatanna was - the character is second-tier at best - but I don't buy that, if she knew who it was, she would misunderstand what her powers are.
I can't help but wonder if Topper wrote that sentence, did some research on superheroes that removed memories and search-replaced the blank space with one of the first things that came up.
The scene where Laney and Noah bonded over their love of kaiju films felt more natural. But then, I know way less about that genre than I do about American superhero comics. For all I know, the kaiju fans found all sorts of things wrong with it.
But that's a minor quibble compared to what I believe is a more serious problem.
I mentioned earlier that Laney's mother is controlling and emotionally manipulative. She discourages her daughter's artistic pursuits, she pushes her in directions she thinks are right, and she belittles her daughter... well, maybe not constantly, but a quite a lot. And then, towards the final third of the book
[Spoiler (click to open)]we got told that it was all a big misunderstanding and she was just trying to do what really was best for Laney all along. Which I don't really buy. Granted, I'm coming into this with some personal baggage - for those who don't follow this blog regularly, let's just say that I have experience with relatives who are passive-aggressive and manipulative. But the Smart Bitches review raised the same issue, so I'm not the only one who thought that the reveal doesn't really work. If it was presented as the mother saying that she tried to do what's best for her but acknoweledging that she wound up hurting her daugher in the process, I wouldn't have minded as much, but I get an impression that Topper wants us to think that the mother was right and Laney is the one who is wrong for misunderstanding her.
Which ties into another major issue. Without giving too much away, I think Topper tried a bit too hard to make sure that all the characters get not just good endings, but a happy endings. Dani is the major exception - her ending is more open-ended than anything - but that's because she stars in the next book. Even Sloane gets an out-of-left-field happy ending that only seems to be there because, otherwise, Noah would probably still feel kind of bad about how things turned out. It feels a bit too neat. A bit too nicely wrapped up. When you read a romance, a certain level of contrivance is to be expected, but in this case, you can practically see the hands of the author moving the pieces, and it's jarring.
But in spite of all that... I think I would recommend it. Dictatorship of the Dress is a pleasant read overall. The narrative is clever and often humorous, but it also gives (most of) the serious aspects of the plot the weight they deserve. Cancer is a fraught subject, but Topper handles it well, avoiding the all-to-tempting trap of milking it for melodrama. The leads are likable, and I found myself getting invested in their relationship. Heck, the book includes the preview of the next novel in the series, and I kind of want to read it just because Laney appears as a secondary character, and I want to read more about her.
So if anything I wrote makes the novel sound like your kind of thing, I would encourage you to check it out and judge for yourself. Just be ready to cringe at the heavy-handed plotting.
----
Dictatorship of the Dress is available on Amazon, at Barnes & Noble, and chances are pretty good it's available at the bookstores (and libraries) near you. For more information about Jessica Topper's books, check out her website.