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Charlie in a Red Dress
| Title | Charlie in a Red Dress |
| Writer | |
| Date | 2025-03-10 11:41:37 |
| Type | |
| Link | Listen Read |
Desciption
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
What a lovely feel-good read!Having just read Games Boys Play by the same author, I was curious to discover how her other works would compare. And in Charlie in a Red Dress, the fun she has writing is, again, palpable. Where Games Boys Play had a bit of an edge, this 50 pages short story is your typical GFY, that leaves you feeling warm and fuzzy.Jeff and Charlie have been friends for years, the kind that play video games together in the basement. A Halloween party, that the two decide to attend as boyfriend and girlfriend, takes their friendship to a whole new unexpected level. A guy who doesn’t realize that he’s into guys yet and who’s gently forced into dressing-up as pretty girl by his best friend as part of their Halloween theme; UST and fluffiness galore?! You can just tell where this is going, can’t you? And of course you won’t be disappointed; this is not a story for unpleasant surprises. The ‘transforming Charlie into Charli’ ritual that only goes according to plan because Jeff’s sister assists with the eyebrow-plucking and tights-rolling, could maybe have been a bit more amusing, but is cute regardless. And you can just sense the anticipation when lady in red Charlie, is ready to be shown off to Jeff.The niggles that I had with this author’s other book are similar to the ones I have here though. The plotting just isn’t all that stellar. I’d recommend not paying much attention to plot implausibilities. There’s a lot that seems rather out there. But especially towards the ending, the Cinderella shift is too sudden and takes away credibility from the story. Without wanting to give much away, in particular Charlie’s thought process and his following abrupt decision come across as a bit ridiculous. Something that could’ve come across as more natural by simply including stolen moments of introspection and personal revelations during the turn of events. Rather than tacking it all on as an afterthought in one long end scene.None of this changes the fact that this is an enjoyable and heartwarming story. Though with a pinch of this there, a dash of that there and a minute or so in the ‘plot blender’, this would have come a bit closer to gooey perfection.
