The Fish Dress by Carol Parker features a magical dress stimulating braveness in the main character. It follows her with smiling eyes as it helps her overcome past traumas.
Location: set in coastal Maine, USA in 1999.
The Fish Dress synopsis
Set in coastal Maine, The Fish Dress tells the story of Nora Jenkins, a mother desperate to reconcile with her daughter, Angelica. At nineteen, Angelica is incarcerated and has severed all ties with her mother. Nora turns to her sister Grace for help; Grace tells her that Angelica is too filled with shame to let her mother back into her life. Nora feels powerless and blames herself for her daughter’s troubles.
But Nora’s life is about to change when she acquires a second-hand dress. She tries it on, and its mystical energy surges through her. Made of black linen and imprinted with white fish skeletons and mysterious tribal symbols, the dress enchants and empowers her—until she begins to experience its shadow side. She fears where the dress might take her.
Nora reaches out to psychic Rosie Deerborn for answers. Rosie tells her they must take a past-life journey, and Nora must wear the fish dress, for it is tied to a past-life vow that still influences her life, causing great pain. Will Nora break the vow and reconnect with her daughter? Can she overcome a childhood trauma? What are the chances she will dare to love again? Weaving illusion with truth, The Fish Dress spins a tale of restoration, hope, and letting go.
Book review
“Welcome to the realm of all possibilities.”
You know a book contains magic when you start a review by quoting a dress. And not just a dress, but a fish dress inhabited by spirits of generations past just like Maine’s wooded paths. The dress has a magical effect on the main character Nora and makes her more confident and daring.
Nora is a middle-aged woman with a grown daughter, yet she sometimes feels more like an excited high school girl. She is a bit whiny which made it hard for me to connect to her. I’m not saying she is not a realistic character, but rather that I didn’t like following her around. Perhaps if Nora and I had experienced the same things in life I would better understand her actions. Still, a good book would be able to bridge the gap.
The other characters are shallow, somewhat nosy characters, performing their stereotype roles while comparing their fortunes to those of others. The writing style is nondescript and the editing of the ARC still contains many sudden scene changes without starting a new paragraph (hopefully something that will be fixed before the final release). I felt like Nora and her daughter were repeatedly saying the same things, for example when Nora expresses she is glad she and her daughter are finally opening up and speaking to each other. Please show it to me by describing their smiling eyes and tone of voice instead.
Unfortunately, other than the dress, the story isn’t very magical. It is rather ordinary actually and I am not sure whether I should take it as a feelgood story or a psychological roman. It is not really a romance or a melodrama either. I feel like The Fish Dress tries to be too many things at once including magical realism (or gypsy magic) on top of things. Unfortunately, the fish dress gets buried beneath the other topics, deserting the potential magical story like it’s an afterthought. Nothing exciting or surprising happens. I expected something else after reading the synopsis.
Interested?
Get your copy of The Fish Dress from Amazon (available 27 October 2020).
Many thanks to Kat Biggie Press and NetGalley for a digital ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
