The Doll's House

Lisa Unger has written my kind of spooky in her most recent short story, which I can only say makes me glad I wasn’t much of a doll kind of girl growing up!

When renowned puppet and doll maker Kirin Winslow invites his love Jules and her 17-year-old daughter Scout to live with him on his 20-acre estate, it looks like a dream come true. After losing her husband by his own hand, Jules is convinced that Kirin’s devotion and kindness to her and Scout will be the new start for them that they both need.

One person who’s not thrilled with this move is Scout. She and Jules have always been close, and even more so after her dad’s death, but now Jules has sold their beloved NYC apartment, moved Scout away from her school and friends and seems to be growing strangely less available for her by the day. Maybe the beautiful doll she discovered while wandering the house can keep her company …

You know it’s only going to get creepier when a doll is introduced, right? Add in an eerily polite AI smart home assistant named Vivi and that creepy quotient only multiplies! Told in alternating chapters by Jules and Scout, I enjoyed the dual POVs and how their stories came together for the spine-chilling conclusion!

This was engaging from the get-go, and I had a lot of fun with it. Though just under 100 pages, I felt like I got  a complete and satisfying story arc, which is a credit to Unger’s talent, since that often doesn’t happen with short stories. It was never full-on scary, but the vibes stayed weird and ominous throughout, with light touches of horror and the supernatural.

If you want a quick, entertaining read for the spooky season (or you need something to do while hiding from the trick-or-treaters on Halloween night … not saying I’d do that *cough*), this may be worth your time!

★★★★ 

Thanks to Amazon Original Stories, NetGalley and author Lisa Unger for this digital ARC to honestly review. It’s available now on Amazon Prime.