Reviewed by Donna

TITLE: Charlie in a Red Dress

AUTHOR: Zoe X. Rider

PUBLISHER: Self Published

LENGTH: 65 Pages

BLURB: When Charlie agrees to go to a Halloween keg party as the “girlfriend” half of a boyfriend-and-girlfriend costume with his best friend, Jeff, he has no idea what he’s signing up for. The night of the party, Jeff’s older sister tweezes, squeezes, and transforms Charlie into Charli, a curvy, curly-haired brunette in a flare-skirted red dress. The shoes are hell, but the attention Charli gets at the party—especially from Jeff—goes straight to her head. When Jeff walks her to her door at the end of the night, neither of them is quite ready to give up the act.

REVIEW: Well, the title says it all doesn’t it. This is a story about a young man named Charlie who, one night, finds himself decked out as a woman in a red dress. Poor Charlie has no idea what he’s gotten himself into. “I pictured myself flirting and playing it up, but then I got there and guys started leering, and I was just like, Ew. Step off.”

Charlie’s long time best friend and roommate, Jeff, decides the two men should go as boyfriend and girlfriend to a Halloween party. Because of Charlie’s lack of stature and Jeff’s fast growing facial hair, Charlie can’t argue his way out of being “the girlfriend”.

The whole story, bar the last couple of pages, covers Charlie’s transformation into “Charli with an I”, the Halloween party and the events that unfold after Jeff walks his date for the night (Charli) to her door.

The beginning of this story actually had me laughing. The endless hair removal, the tweezing, the pantyhose battle, the poking and prodding to ensure boobs are sitting correctly. Layers of makeup. “Do I look like a meth-addicted hooker?”

It was hilarious reading the thoughts and opinions flowing through Charlie’s head as he completes the hours long rituals that most women (and some men) put themselves through in the process of getting ready to go out on a date. I had to hike my slip around my waist to get the hose up. The bottom of the crotch still stretched across about three inches below my balls. I tugged and pulled until it managed to seat more or less where it was suppose to. An ugly seam went right up the middle of my front. “Is this right?” I asked. “Maybe I’ve got them on backward.” I sure as fuck hoped not. I didn’t want to struggle into them all over again. I sucked in my belly, but a little flab still lapped over the waistband. This was what it felt like to be a sausage.

I love the way Jeff begins treating Charlie as his female date as soon as he transforms himself into Charli. For the sake of not confusing everyone who reads this review I’ll stick with “he” and Charlie but for a portion of this book it changes to “she” and Charli. Honestly at one point I felt like I’d gone back to reading m/f.

It is well done and utterly believable the way Charlie is both confident and awkward. He feels beautiful as Charli but because he is confused by just how comfortable he feels (despite the heels and pesky clutch) he frequently switches back to feeling like a freakish man in a dress again. To regain his confidence he needs to remind himself that he’s not Charlie in a dress but Charli. When I was done, I straightened my clothes, took a look at myself in the mirror- and there Charli was again. I’d started to forget about her.

What starts as completely light hearted fun transitions smoothly into a much more serious and thought provoking story. Things that are said and done while Charlie is Charli must be dealt with once the dress comes off and the best friends are left facing each other as two heterosexual males.

This story isn’t about realizing you’re gay or coming out as gay. I get the impression that Jeff and Charlie would be relieved if plain old gay was the answer to their confusion. “I’ll tell you about being fucking deluded,” he said. “Deluded into thinking there’s something wrong with you, that you’re somehow fucked in the head and unfixable and all you can do is fucking pretend you’re like everybody else because the world’s made it pretty fucking clear that what you’re attracted to is pretty fucked up.”

While I absolutely, totally adored this book, the ending didn’t satisfy me. Firstly, I’ll reassure you that it does end happily, with a strong HFN. I don’t want people to skip over this brilliant book because I’ve made it sound like it ends in an undesirable way. My issue with it is it seems incomplete and left a lot questions unanswered.

Even after being intimate together (there is no penetrative or oral sex in this story) neither man identifies as being gay. Do they continue to only be intimate while Charlie is Charli? Do they continue to identify as heterosexual because of that? Do they have actual sex because they seemed uncertain?

Because I loved this book so much the lack of answers was a let down and was it not for that lack I would have given this novella 5 stars. In my opinion it’s much harder to deliver that 5 star impact with shorter stories but Zoe X. Rider very nearly accomplished it, for me at least.

Please don’t let the subject matter turn you off. I know a boy in a dress is not my usual reading material but I definitely recommend giving this one a shot.

RATING:

BUY LINKS:

Amazon

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