Beneath A Thousand Skies

A Dress to Kill For

How much are you willing to sacrifice to gain everything you ever wanted?

Lady Claire Rosewood lives on the fringes of society, being pitied by people she once thought of as friends. Her husband isn’t the suave businessman he used to be when he proposed marriage. Both frustrated with their situation and marriage, they long for more.

When an opportunity comes around that allows her to not just be part of higher society, but to be at the very top, she needs to make a choice. The price is higher than she ever dared to think. Is she ready to pay with blood?

He gave it back to me, smiled, and said it was unfair of me to fall first. It should’ve been him falling for me. He’s caught me ever since.

This short story is a fantastic, bite-sized horror for this time of year. What I really love is how Hastjarjanto manages to capture the historical aspects, the societal expectations on both sides of a marriage and how that plays out in both their relationship but also the spheres they control in public. It’s a concisely written story, with every element building towards this dress, its price and what that dress can achieve, and yet we get the little details of their history, their romance and what their relationship has grown into – a love with thorns, very fitting for the dress too.

The sheer imagination in terms of the dresses mentioned is fantastic, and very much brings to mind couture fashion – just with a much darker edge. It was also a lovely twist, to realise that others had paid the price – to wonder about their stories, their sacrifices. I also really like that there is no apology for the prices paid, even though it was clear that the price lingered, with an implication that what had been bought might not be permanent. I think my only complaint is that I want to know more about the dressmaker, we get such a short taste of her, but the mystery of her business and prices and who she would work with was well done, and I appreciated the little details about how Claire got information about her.

The concept was fascinating, I loved all the little details, and it makes you wonder just how far people will go to get what they want.

A Dress to Save Me

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.

Hope and love were for fools blinded by the firelight of their own funeral pyre.

It was a delight to return to these stories of the Dressmaker and her clients, and I felt that this one was even better than A Dress to Kill for. This was a more personal tale in some ways. Yes, there was the same exploration of historical expectations as in the first short story, albeit through a different lens this time as this was an origin story in more than one way, the start of a marriage, of a rise to a high society position and of finding freedom for yourself. But there was more emotional depth here, with the build up at the beginning of the woman who was going into this marriage, of her own thoughts and feelings of the expectations she was facing, and the fact that she was more than them, but might not get the chance to be.

The horror here was different too, softer, more slow burn. There were two levels to it though, the horror of society and what our main character was being faced with, that slow, slinking horror of being able to see what you are walking into and not being able to do anything of it. Then the eruption of violence, cleverly done, and to see the Dressmakers influence in it play out, which was unsettling in its own way as there is a feeling of a puppet master behind the scenes, and you have to wonder… do the clients really chose her?

I also loved how the aftermath was handled, because we get payoff for the character development and introspection at the beginning. It’s like watching a flower bloom after a storm, and Hastjarjanto captures that feeling of someone finally coming into their own, through their own efforts and strengths.

I loved that the ending had both that swelling rise of hope, both through the details with the dress, but also with the Duchess setting out into a new life; but also carried a weight, and a promise of more to come. Especially if you have already read A Dress to Kill for, and I hope that Hastjarjanto will play more in this world.