About book The Doll Graveyard: A Hauntings Novel (2014)
The Doll GraveyardLois RubyJuvenile Horror/MysteryReview: Shelby feels like her life is falling apart. It all started when she catches her father with a woman who is not her mother. When the truth comes out that Shelby’s dad and mom are getting a divorce and her dad will have a new family Shelby becomes a very angry girl. Then on top of the divorce, Shelby’s great Aunt Amelia passes away and leaves them a big but spooky house in Cinder Creek, Colorado, that Shelby’s mom insist they move to. This means a new school for Shelby and her little brother, Brian. Unfortunately that is not all that awaits them at their new home. There is also a mystery surrounding a bunch of old porcelain dolls that are more than they seem. These dolls want revenge for all the mistreatment they have gone through at the hands of angry little girls. Now it is up to Shelby and Brian to solve the mystery before the dolls get their revenge. Now first thing you should know is that I am way older than the age group this is intended for. That being said this story was supposed to be scary, but as an adult I did not get the fear factor. That does not mean I did not enjoy this story. To the contrary I loved the mystery and could not wait to find out whether Shelby was able to help the dolls or if they would drive her crazy like they have other little girls in the past. I have to say though that at first I didn’t really care for Shelby. Yes I understand her whole world seems to be falling apart with her dad’s remarriage and everything but she is so angry and takes it out on everyone. Thankfully as the story progresses Shelby starts to grow up and see beyond herself to those around her and to start to lose the anger (with some help from the dolls of course.) Brian was cute he is nine and loves everything to do with chess, which comes in handy later. Together they piece together why the dolls are unhappy and how to fix past mistakes. This is a wonderful story. Not only because the mystery sucks you in and makes you want to know whether someone can change or not but also there is a hidden lesson. The lesson shows that we should be kind to all things even those that are not real because we want to be treated well as well. I recommend this book to young mystery lovers, who will be okay with a little to no fright factor. I received a free ecopy of this book from Netgalley for my honest review. I had high hopes for this book, but was underwhelmed. There were numerous plot threads and characters that needed to coalesce at the end, but I felt like that didn't happen satisfactorily. I had to work to keep everything straight, and thought there shouldn't have been five -- or were there six? -- dolls, because that was just too much to keep track of. Each doll corresponded to a person (or a piece of a person), and each person had his or her own story. Condensing it down to one doll would have made the story seem a lot less sloppy. At the end, I wasn't even totally sure what kind of closure Shelby received -- like, what's the message here? She'd been having a hard time with her parents' divorce and her father's subsequent re-marriage, so I thought the resolution with the dolls would translate into some kind of closure with her dad. But I didn't see that happening. So I guess the moral is...crappy people deserve sympathy, too? Or you shouldn't be mean to crazy people because maybe they're not really crazy? I'll be damned if I could parse any kind of clear resolution or meaning from the ending. In terms of creepy doll stories, there are waaay better ones out there.
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This sounds nightmare-inducing. I'm totally in. :D
—Maria
