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Summary: ok
Review: may need to read again it is quite interesting
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Summary: A cup of tea, a comfy chair, and this book...
Review: Once you sit down with this book in your hands, prepare to do nothing else until you are finished. This is a mesmerizing historical fiction, filled with intriguing prose that only an expert storyteller could bring to life. I found myself startled at times by the gruesomeness of the story, yet the writing is so absolutely wonderful that it begs for you to continue. Holman masterfully switches between a variety of narrative styles to paint the picture of life in this working-class town, and brings these characters to life with vivid detail. All of these people are trapped in a sad tale of haunting, since they are pursued by both the demon of disease and the demons that haunt their tormented lives. Be prepared to fall under the spell of this book!
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Summary: Couldn't make it past page 120
Review: When I read the other reviews posted, I thought we must have been reading different books. While I ordinarily love works of historical fiction, I found The Dress Lodger to be, in a word, irritating. The author is the literary equivalent of someone who talks too much simply because they like the sound of their own voice. When I finally gave up at page 120, virtually nothing had developed in terms of plot. Lastly, I thought if the author referred to me as "dear reader" one more time, I would vomit.
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Summary: historical fiction at its best
Review: Such a strange coincidence that the 2 books I bought at Border's included Ambrose Bierce...the quotation by him to begin "The Dress Lodger" and the title of the other..."Ambrose Bierce and the Queen of Spades." Caleb Carr's "The Alienist" got me intrigued with life during the 19th century. I have since looked for books that dealt with this period of time. I read a review of "The Dress Lodger" in the Detroit Free Press and knew that I would be fascinated by it. I was not disappointed. Gustine and Dr. Chiver led me on a historical jaunt through an England that was beset by cholorus morbus...the deadly cholora. Holman gripped me in the first chapter. Her way of telling this story seemed quite unique to me. While the book is quite morbid in its content, her characters are well drawn-out. I could empathize with Fos, Pink, and especially Gustine. I've passed this on to a friend and purchased Holman's first, looking forward to another great story. At 54 years old, I'm learning about the history that I didn't learn in school. I have purchased non-fiction books on Teddy Roosevelt, WWI (about the flu that killed millions of people that I never heard about), and now cholera. Maybe I can share with my students the facts that I wasn't aware of.
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Summary: Not your usual "historical novel"
Review: This is a terrific novel,and not only because it has a gripping plot (which it does); it has that rare quality which I can only, for lack of a better word, call world-creation. A great deal of historical fiction, however painstakingly researched, reminds one more than anything of *other* historical fiction. Holman's book doesn't: it gives you a sense of place, a sense of things happening -- with a kind of doomed intensity -- in that place, which seems completely original. I've done enough reading in the area to know that this book is very accurate about its historical "sources" (body snatching, the cholera epidemic in the area). But what I loved about the book was how little that mattered -- just how caught up I was in the world the writer created.I'm saying too much: this is a great read!
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting story, but tiresome writing style. . .
Review: "~I found myself engrossed by the disturbing story, but was constantly distracted by the annoying, pretentious second-person writing style. This story could have been written beautifully without this attempt to make it "different" by referring to the reader (?) as "you", when the "you" keeps changing. in the early 19th century.
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Summary: unfortunately disappointing
Review: As a big fan of historical fiction, I thought this would be right up my alley. Unfortunately, the writer uses a tone that is oddly distancing from the action of the novel -- you never become fully absorbed in the time and place. Additionally, the charaters are rather slight (too much action, not enough feeling/thinking). The ending is just flat-out anitclimactic.
Rating:
Summary: Riveting
Review: I couldn't put it down......The unpredictability of the secret narrators was an outstanding literary twist. And while some may have found it gruesome, let's face it, the cholera epidemic wasn't pretty. I think the descriptions were probably fairly realistic. I only wish the ending would have been more fulfilling. Unfortunately, after deftly establishing the characters and their plights, it seemed like Sheri Holman ran out of steam. Despite this, I'm still recommending the Dress Lodger to everyone I know.
Rating:
Summary: RARA AVIS
Review: I must be getting old and jaded. The subject matter certainly didn't throw me for a loop as it seems to have done to others. In fact, this novel acurately depicts the period and people of 19th England.My only gripe is very tiny. Ms. Holman just has to be non English. Indian summer I believe is an American phenonomen and I don't think "quilts" would be a word Brits would have used.Overall, this is a rare bird -- a book you can enjoy and learn from.
Rating: 
Summary: Irritatingly pretentious and excessively gruesome
Review: The Dress Lodger is one of the bleakest books I have ever read. The story is dark and lacking in any kind of subtlety, the descriptions of grave-robbing, autopsies, and death from cholera are morose and gruesome, and the characters are unrelentingly unsympathetic and grotesque. Moreover, there is too much going on in the story. There are too many lives whose stories are being told, too many points of view. The author seems to tell the story both through the eyes of different characters and through the eyes of an omiscient narrator whose identity, when revealed, is simply unbelievable. By the time I reached the book's inconclusive conclusion, and realized that I didn't really care about any of its characters, I felt manipulated and just plain annoyed.
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