Book Review: Dolly, by Susan Hill
Creepy dolls, spoiled brats, moody British atmosphere.
Profile Books, 2012, 153 pages
A chilling ghost story from the author of The Woman in Black, set in a crumbling English house...
The remoter parts of the English Fens are forlorn, lost, and damp even in the height of summer. At Iyot Lock, a large decaying house, two young cousins, Leonora and Edward, are parked for the summer with their aging spinster aunt and her cruel housekeeper. At first the unpleasantness and petty meanness appear simply spiteful, calculated to destroy Edward's equanimity. But when the spoiled Leonora is not given the birthday present of a specific dolly that she wants, affairs inexorably take a much darker turn with terrifying, life-destroying consequences for everyone.
There isn't a lot to Dolly, or a lot that's new. The narrator, Edward, was a little orphan boy who spent a summer with an unpleasant, spoiled cousin at their aunt's house. Leanora is a terrible brat, not entirely her fault because she's a nine-year-old with a flighty, mostly absent mother who flits from wealthy man to wealthy man. But Leanora wants a particularly expensive doll, and when her mother fails to send her one, Edward talks his aunt into getting a doll for Leanora - not the exact doll Leonora wanted, but a very nice one. Leonora pitches a fit, and the doll.
Years later, they're both grown up, the aunt has died, and Leonora and Edward are summoned back to their aunt's estate, where Edward is still a nice, mild, forgiving fellow, and Leonora is still an ungrateful, entitled bitch. The reading of the will does not go well. The doll resurfaces. Things get creepier. And worse from there.
This is a kind of ghost story, though ghosts don't appear directly. But there is definitely supernatural retribution involved. Susan Hill apparently likes to set her stories in creepy old English houses in a bog.
The twists are all fairly predictable if you've read this kind of story before, it's a kind of Stephen King light, but still a nice story to read for Halloween.
Also by Susan Hill: My review of The Woman in Black.
My complete list of book reviews.
Profile Books, 2012, 153 pages
A chilling ghost story from the author of The Woman in Black, set in a crumbling English house...
The remoter parts of the English Fens are forlorn, lost, and damp even in the height of summer. At Iyot Lock, a large decaying house, two young cousins, Leonora and Edward, are parked for the summer with their aging spinster aunt and her cruel housekeeper. At first the unpleasantness and petty meanness appear simply spiteful, calculated to destroy Edward's equanimity. But when the spoiled Leonora is not given the birthday present of a specific dolly that she wants, affairs inexorably take a much darker turn with terrifying, life-destroying consequences for everyone.
There isn't a lot to Dolly, or a lot that's new. The narrator, Edward, was a little orphan boy who spent a summer with an unpleasant, spoiled cousin at their aunt's house. Leanora is a terrible brat, not entirely her fault because she's a nine-year-old with a flighty, mostly absent mother who flits from wealthy man to wealthy man. But Leanora wants a particularly expensive doll, and when her mother fails to send her one, Edward talks his aunt into getting a doll for Leanora - not the exact doll Leonora wanted, but a very nice one. Leonora pitches a fit, and the doll.
Years later, they're both grown up, the aunt has died, and Leonora and Edward are summoned back to their aunt's estate, where Edward is still a nice, mild, forgiving fellow, and Leonora is still an ungrateful, entitled bitch. The reading of the will does not go well. The doll resurfaces. Things get creepier. And worse from there.
This is a kind of ghost story, though ghosts don't appear directly. But there is definitely supernatural retribution involved. Susan Hill apparently likes to set her stories in creepy old English houses in a bog.
The twists are all fairly predictable if you've read this kind of story before, it's a kind of Stephen King light, but still a nice story to read for Halloween.
Also by Susan Hill: My review of The Woman in Black.
My complete list of book reviews.