The Midnight Dress by Karen Foxlee (review)

Rose Lovell is growing weary of traveling from town to town with her alcoholic father. When they land in the Paradise, a trailer park in a small beach town in Australia, she decides she might want to stay even if her father moves on. Part of her decision comes as a result of making her first real friend, Pearl; Pearl is a luminous beauty who talks a mile a minute and who is full of plans to find her own father, a Russian with whom her mother had a one-night stand, and move to Paris. She’s taking a romantic detour, however, in a flirtation with an older man who has seen enough of the world for Pearl to find him exotic. Rose, meanwhile, has been persuaded by Pearl to have a dress made for the annual harvest celebration by an eccentric old lady named Edie. Edie requires that Rose help make the dress, and as they design, cut, and sew, Edie shares the stories of her family with Rose, who finds her travel-hardened defenses gradually dissolved under Edie’s care and Pearl’s ebullience. All of this story emerges in the shadow of the disappearance of one of the girls; each chapter starts with either an unfolding description of what happened or an update on the investigation, then shifts to flashbacks of the events that lead up to the night of the festival, keeping the mystery taut but also reminding readers that Rose’s year of hope and transformation did not end well. Rose spends much of her time in the green world of the rain forest and beach that make up the edges of the town; her mental and emotional awakening is conveyed by her growing physical ability to navigate the terrain, which is described with alluring and loving detail. Readers who appreciate layered coming-of-age stories cut short by tragedy and tinged with mystery will enjoy this, especially if they have an affinity for wild spaces.