Lael Littke - Prom Dress

[dem]

Lael Littke - Prom Dress (Scholastic, 1989)

Blurb:
Robin is too poor to buy a new dress for the prom. Then she finds a perfect, beautiful dress in the attic of her mysterious employer’s house. She “borrows” it to wear to the prom…and dances into her worst nightmare.

Then Felicia finds the dress. The price she pays for wearing it is more than any girl should pay…

But Nicole is too smart to be caught by the dress. Isn’t she? Poor Nicole!

And then there’s Gabrielle, Robin’s little sister. Did she find the dress? Or did the dress find Gabrielle?

Can anyone stop the fatal attraction of the…Prom Dress?

Mrs Whitford and daughters Robin, 17, and Gabrielle, 14, are recently moved in at their late aunt's gloomy old Victorian house on Hartwell Street, Forest Dale. Robin has taken to life at Carlyle High like a fish to water. Not only has Miss Feldstrom recommended her for a dance scholarship but she's dating son of a millionaire Tyler Atkins, official dreamy school hunk, who drives a red sports car.

Tyler's dad may be absolutely minted but money is tight in the Whitford household. Robin takes a part-time job, reading to and light dusting for next door neighbour Miss Catherine MacFarlane, a sweet, if capricious, elderly recluse. Miss MacFarlane's once beautiful face was hideously disfigured in an acid attack on Prom Night, an incident which saw her twin sister, Rowena, incarcerated in a mental institution for the criminally insane. Rowena, self-conscious of her birthmark and jealous of Catherine's success with boys, figured it was time to level the playing field.

With Robin's own Prom Night approaching, Miss Macfarlane offers her the choice of two elegant retro ball gowns stored in the attic, but under no circumstances must she disturb the cream lace number. Designed by the late Rowena, it is the dress Catherine wore on that terrible night back in 'twenties.

Robin just has to have it.

This year's theme being "Stairway to the Stars," the prop department get busy on a lethally dangerous structure fit for a King and Queen to ascend.

Small mercy. At least Robin - what's left of her - doesn't fall flat on her face.


To be continued ....

[dem]

Nurse Felicia is dating Mark, a church minister. Their dinner date with Dean Gourdy and wife is imminent and it's imperative for the sake of her fiancée's career that she make a good impression. What to wear? Everything in her wardrobe looks tacky and tarty, unlike the gorgeous gown the Whitford girl was wearing when they wheeled her in on a gurney. It's hanging in the locker now. Felicia knows, because she stored it there for safe keeping. What if she were to liberate it for an evening? No-one need know, it's not as if dancing girl will be requiring it any time soon. State of her legs, she'll be lucky if she every walks again.

So to the Dean's residence. So far, so rosy ... but the dress seems to be getting tighter by the minute. Tighter, until Felicia's petrified the seams will give. Tighter, until she believes it's trying to suffocate her. Tighter, .... if she doesn't remove it right this minute it will kill her!

Am getting a strong moral vibe from this story.

[helrunar]

This one sounds like a bit of slick, camp fun. Thanks, Kev!

Steve

[helrunar]

Presumably, since it was published by Scholastic, the violence is strictly PG.

H.

[dem]

Right on both counts, Steve. So much potential for gore, bad sex, transvestitesploitation and sick chuckles, but it's not like anyone buys a Point Horror expecting Michael Slade.



On the surface, Felicia gets off relatively lightly, but no matter, her dreams are shattered all the same. The next victim, Nicole 'Girl Computer' Eckhart, the smartest student in Tullidge High, has a terrible time of it. Travelling by bus to compete against other schools in an "academic decathlon," Miss Eckhart finds a holdall beneath her seat. She can't help but take a peek inside.

Nicole has the hots for the mature team coach, Steve Waring, a straight up guy, robbed of his wife and daughter by some rotten catastrophe or other (can't remember). Trouble is, like her peers, he's oblivious to the real Nicole Eckhart. She's a hot blooded young woman, Godammit, not some frigid brain-box! Ah, but were to she to wear the found gown to tonight's opening gala .....

As a comatose Nicole arrives at the hospital, Felicia confesses all to Robin, who agrees there is something evil about Miss MacFarlane's prom dress. The young nurse is all for disposing of the wretched rag on a bonfire but Robin won't hear of it. The gown must be returned to the attic where it came from! Who can they rely upon to store it in Robin's room until she's discharged from the Hospital in four day's time? Gabrielle, of course. Robin's kid sister is eminently trustworthy, devoted to her piano, and far too sensible to be bothering with boys.

But Gabby has a crush on Tyler ...

We finally get to meet the infamous 'Rowena.' "I hate all beautiful young girls who have no trouble attracting beaux," raves the fiend who sewed a curse into every stitch of the Prom Gown and would later burn alive her own flesh and blood. "Let the dress take care of her. It knows the proper punishment."

Loved this one. Ending is straight out of a Hamlyn nasty/ "when animals attack," too ....

[helrunar]

Thanks for that great review, Kev. I'm sure your writing is much more entertaining than anything in the actual book.

This one does sound surprisingly pulpy for something bearing the Scholastic imprint. 

cheers, Steve

[cauldronbrewer]

I enjoyed this review, too. To me, the novel sounds like a Scholastic-friendly version of “I’m Dangerous Tonight,” Cornell Woolrich’s pulp masterpiece about a demonic dress (collected in Vampire’s Honeymoon).

I’ll admit I’m no fashion expert, but is it fair to say that the style of the dress on the cover has aged rather poorly?

[helrunar]

Interesting, Cauldronbrewer. I have never read anything by Cornell Woolrich, aka William Irish, aka George Hopley and maybe some other akas as well. The list of films adapted from his work, as provided on his resume, is impressive.

"His life was as twisted and compelling as his work"--because everybody loves the spectacle of a tormented homosexual devising a vicious film noir Universe that's frighteningly plausible as some cold comfort for a life unpleasantly lived. Misery loves company.

I don't know if this link will work in the UK


web.archive.org/web/20100811185250/http://www.time.com/time/columnist/corliss/article/0,9565,557218,00.html

My failure to read Woolrich was sheer ignorance--have seen the name of course, and the book covers. I don't read much crime fiction as a rule; there has to be some kind of peculiar twist, as in the novels of Sarah Caudwell or Julian Symons.

This passage would appear to be characteristic:  His voice seemed to come from his stomach, through rolling drums of smothered agony — that were the weeping of a grown man.
“I want her back. I want her back. I’ll never rest until I find her.”
“What do you want her back again for?” she demanded.
He turned slowly.
“To kill her,” he said through his clenched teeth.
—“Waltz into Darkness,” 1947

H.

[dem]

Oct 27, 2018 12:43:21 GMT cauldronbrewer said:

I enjoyed this review, too. To me, the novel sounds like a Scholastic-friendly version of “I’m Dangerous Tonight,” Cornell Woolrich’s pulp masterpiece about a demonic dress (collected in Vampire’s Honeymoon).

I’ll admit I’m no fashion expert, but is it fair to say that the style of the dress on the cover has aged rather poorly?

Terrific. Tell me when I've just splashed out on a knock off to wear to the Pulp Fair, why don't you?

Thanks for mentioning I'm Dangerous Tonight. Am almost certain I read it (and the were-leopard story) when Sev kindly gifted me a copy of Vampire Honeymoon, just never got around to providing any comment. Will try put that right next week.

Prom Dress is a joy!

[andydecker]

Oct 27, 2018 13:15:05 GMT helrunar said:

Interesting, Cauldronbrewer. I have never read anything by Cornell Woolrich, aka William Irish, aka George Hopley and maybe some other akas as well. The list of films adapted from his work, as provided on his resume, is impressive.

"His life was as twisted and compelling as his work"--because everybody loves the spectacle of a tormented homosexual devising a vicious film noir Universe that's frighteningly plausible as some cold comfort for a life unpleasantly lived. Misery loves company.

My failure to read Woolrich was sheer ignorance--have seen the name of course, and the book covers. I don't read much crime fiction as a rule; there has to be some kind of peculiar twist, as in the novels of Sarah Caudwell or Julian Symons.

.

I read Woolrich many years ago after watching a documentary about his strange and sad life. I had watched some of his movies beforehand, two or three classics. Phantom Lady etc. I made the mistake of reading too much too fast. The seemingly sameness of the plots was wearing me down, also at the time I was more into P.I. novels, MacDonald, Bill Pronzini or Ed McBain, straight whodunits. Which Woolrichs work is not. I still don't like his kind of thrillers much. Which on the other hand admittedly are still at the top of crime-fiction.

Macdonald I still re-read once a year. Books like The Zebra Striped Hearse or Black Money are works which today really don't get produced any more.

[cauldronbrewer]

Oct 27, 2018 16:17:45 GMT dem said:

Thanks for mentioning I'm Dangerous Tonight. Am almost certain I read it (and the were-leopard story) when Sev kindly gifted me a copy of Vampire Honeymoon, just never got around to providing any comment. Will try put that right next week.

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts. I recall it being more of a straight-ahead supernatural tale than most of his stories (with some crime stuff thrown in, because it's Woolrich).

Speaking of which: I've not read any of his more conventional thrillers, but he could write fine horror when he turned his mind to it. I'm a fan of not only "I'm Dangerous Tonight" but also "Vampire's Honeymoon" (a.k.a. "My Lips Destroy"), "Graves for the Living," and especially "Jane's Brown Body" (which involves a Frankenstein-like attempt to revive a gangster's moll).

[dem]

Oct 30, 2018 11:42:19 GMT cauldronbrewer said:

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts. I recall it being more of a straight-ahead supernatural tale than most of his stories (with some crime stuff thrown in, because it's Woolrich).

Speaking of which: I've not read any of his more conventional thrillers, but he could write fine horror when he turned his mind to it. I'm a fan of not only "I'm Dangerous Tonight" but also "Vampire's Honeymoon" (a.k.a. "My Lips Destroy"), "Graves for the Living," and especially "Jane's Brown Body" (which involves a Frankenstein-like attempt to revive a gangster's moll).

Am on the case, my friend, 30 pages in. As mentioned, was pretty sure I'd read it, but nothing was ringing any bells until the old night-watchman's confrontation with Mimi as she left the salon with the Devil's dress. For what it's worth, I make your Prom Dress comparison spot on.