Title: The Doll's HouseAuthor: Lisa Unger
First Published: September 12, 2024
Publisher: Amazon Original Stories
Pages: 98
Genre: Horror, Mystery, Paranormal, Short Stories, Thriller
Format: Ebook
Source: Kindle Unlimited
Rating:
Synopsis:
When Jules first meets the handsome artist Kirin, she’s still mourning her husband’s death, but a fairytale romance soon sweeps her off her feet. Now she and her daughter Scout are moving out of the city and into Kirin’s once-lonely mansion. He’s thoughtfully updated and adapted the home to match their personalities. But Scout is determined to keep her father’s memory alive by rejecting the new life her mother and Kirin have spun for her.
Scout’s sullenness begins to fade, though, when she finds a beautiful handmade doll in one of the many empty rooms in the house. Kirin says that the doll belonged to his late sister and he’d like Scout to have it. Scout’s hopeful for a connection over their shared grief, but as she grows more curious about Kirin’s sister, she can’t escape the feeling that a danger lurks in the house…and its gaze is fixed on her mother.
Buy the Book: AmazonReview
The Doll’s House is an interesting little novella that straddles the line between horror and mystery thriller with a dash of paranormal. The story is told from the dual POVs of a mother and daughter, Jules and Scout, as they grapple with their grief over the loss of Doug, Jules’ husband and Scout’s father. The story begins at the start of their “new life” as they move in with Jules’ new beau, Kirin. I enjoyed the characters in this story and found the discussions of grief palpable, especially Scout, whose experiences mirrored much of my own. I found myself highlighting plenty of passages in the book and thought that the mother-daughter relationship was developed well.
I was surprised but appreciated how grounded this novella was in the present day, particularly over the inclusion of AI and smart homes, which added an element of unease to the story. The dolls were also creepy but a bit under-utilized. There were a few parts I found a bit cheesy (anime eyes!?), and the mystery is a bit predictable but the book was overall enjoyable. I just wish that the book could have been longer to flesh out some of the weaker aspects of the story.
This is the longest story that I’ve read by Lisa Unger, having sampled two other shorts featured on Amazon’s original story collections, and my favorite so far. It has ended up being a bit of a redemption read for me, as I felt only lukewarm about the other stories I had read, and I’d like to pick up one of her full-length novels to see if they would work better for me.
Quote
“It’s not really hate, though. It’s a childish rage mingled with desperate love and a deep disappointment that you’ve turned out to be a human full of flaws and bad decisions.”
Content Warnings
View Spoiler »About the Author
About Lisa Unger
Lisa Unger is a New York Times and internationally bestselling author. With books published in twenty-six languages and millions of copies sold worldwide, she is widely regarded as a master of suspense. Her new release is CONFESSIONS ON THE 7:45, a Goodreads Choice Awards Nominee.
Unger’s critically acclaimed books have been named on “Best Book” lists from the Today show, Good Morning America, Entertainment Weekly, People, Amazon, Goodreads, and many others. She has been nominated for, or won, numerous awards including the Hammett Prize, Macavity, Thriller Award, and Goodreads Choice. In 2019, she received two Edgar Award nominations, an honor held by only a few authors, including Agatha Christie. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, NPR, and Travel+Leisure. She lives on the west coast of Florida with her family.
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