Welcome to Welcome to Dorley Hall

First Impressions

Everything changes but him.

Man, that line hits hard. I assume it will prove false?

I just read the first chapter of The Sisters of Dorley, and I like it so far. There's this immediate invitation to mystery, and part of that is probably the way I stumbled into reading this, but it also reminds me of a spy novel or The X-Files.

I said on BlueSky that the first chapter reminded me of The Game, and I think that's kind of spot on. Our protagonist Stef, Stefan to his (?) friends and family, has a mentor figure in Mark, Stef's best friend's older brother.

First, Mark is acting strange. Then Mark is at university. Then Mark is gone. Then Mark is, presumably, Melissa.

Great hook to a mystery.

One bit I liked especially is the way that the text reveals that Stef wants to be helped like the women of Dorley Hall. The dumb/reactionary version of this book would have Stef being aghast at the idea that young vulnerable men were being abducted. I kind of expected that, and for Stef to realize that he didn't want to be a boy later on.

Murky Waters for Dudely House

So, this is a bit where I'm going to be going over my skiis maybe!

When Stef can't cry, is that because she (?) is so alienated from her body, or is it because she's trying so hard to be a boy?

I have no earthly clue, but that struck me.

Likewise, I really can't imagine feeling that way about your body. It sounds impossibly difficult, to be honest. My body isn't great at being a body in some ways but all along very anodyne lines - properly medicated, it works quite well, and the balance of that medication takes a little bit of quantitative reasoning now and then, but it's not very emotionally fraught, because it's like, "do food good", "get enough exercise", and "replace the stale blood sensor".

But that seems kinda rude of me (sorry); I'm comparing trans-ness to illness, and that's not particularly friendly of me.

The reality is that I really enjoyed getting through puberty. The proces sucked but the result was really gratifying. So the detail of the result being the horror never occurred to me as a comon experience for other people.

Stray Thoughts

Forshadowing Good.

The forshadowing of Stefan being introduced as Stef is nice. There's an internality to it that I find pleasing as prose.

Likewise, the reveal to the reader that Melissa is the person Stef knew as Mark by way of Melissa knowing Stef's name was well handled.

Stef knowing about the, like, bits and pieces of being helped along to being a woman was very effective. I don't know what a tracheal shave is, and it's a great thing to put that stuff right becore the high-impact line, "Who is helping these women?"

Surprise British!

Job markets, man. It's honestly funny how durable the meme "in this economy??" is. People were saying it in like, Avatar.

I think the choice of the mid-teens is interesting. I don't know a ton about British culture during that period - it was before Brexit but after the Torys took over I guess? I wanna say before the Scotish referendum?

So, a period of austerity, but before the real fuck-ups started, I guess? Stef's family seem to be kind of blandly-working-class-pious. Russel's mom having a Coke for Stef, etcetera.

Surprise Jesus!

As an aside, I really don't get people who are religious like that. I'm a pretty boring Yankee UCoC (woke Puritans) person, nominally, but the whole idea of like, an Established Church, is just odd. But I'm kinda guessing Stef's folks are nondenominational or Baptists or something, since they sound socially conservative? I dunno, maybe Br*tish Methodists aren't socially progressive.

Castellans

I think a castellan is like a seneschal but maybe with fewer horses?

Austerity Watch

He doesn’t have a second choice university; it’s Saints, or it’s nowhere.

Okay buddy, good luck!

So far this text is light on details, so I kind of assume that they'll be relevant later:

Stef studies:

• German
• Literature
• Philosophy

What the fuck is a snooker table.

I was more expecting a The Magicians style magic school or something than getting drugged and kidnapped, but I'm still not sure what this is going to be. A mystery, a lit-fic, &c.