Zach, Poppy and Alice have been
friend for ever. They love playing with their action figure toys, imagining a
magical world of adventure and heroism. But disaster strikes when, without
warning, Zach’s father throws out all his toys, declaring he’s too old for
them. Zach is furious, confused and embarrassed, deciding that the only way to
cope is to stop playing…and stop being friends with Poppy and Alice. But one
night the girls pay Zach a visit, and tell him about a series of mysterious
occurrences. Poppy swears that she is now being haunted by a china doll—who
claims that it is made from the ground-up bones of a murdered girl. They must
return the doll to where the girl lived, and bury it. Otherwise the three
children will be cursed for eternity…
Now I won’t
lie. This review might just be a little bit of a love letter to Holly Black, so
be forewarned. Ever since I first read Tithe,
I fell in love with Black’s style of writing.
She’s always able to turn the most mundane, non-special of settings into
something completely magical. With Tithe
there was the industrial-ness of the setting that made it deadly for the fae,
but then there was still the magical undertones and secret world. Doll Bones really brought me back to
that enchanting feeling, but in a new way.
The setting
in Doll Bones is really anything but
magical. All the magic occurs in the minds of the three main characters—Zach,
Poppy and Alice. I really connected with these three because I was absolutely
one of those kids that played make-believe with dolls for “too long,” but I
never really stopped. I just moved mediums and became a writer! But it was
amazing to get to see this ordinary world through the eyes of a group of
friends with extraordinary imaginations.
Since the
world was ordinary, there wasn’t a lot of apparent magic, just whatever the
kids came up with. There was, however, that little pinch of creepiness that
Black likes to sow in all of her book. Most all of the adults, when looking at
the friends, saw four kids instead of just three because of Eleanor the haunted
bone china doll. It was the perfect amount of eerie to take the book to the
next spooky level.
The book
was really a perfect look at childhood and growing up (and how much it sucks).
This quest to lay the china doll to rest is sort of these kids’ last chance to
be together and go on adventures like they’ve done so often throughout their
lives so far. This is the last quest before they have to grow up, and that
makes the book almost even more terrifying.
What I
would have really loved to see in this book is a more omniscient POV. The
majority of the story is told through Zach’s eyes and that made him immediately
a dynamic character. Poppy and Alice, however, were not so dynamic. I found
myself getting confused as to which girl was which, and I think getting to see
a little more about them would have been great. Of course, at the same time I
loved the mystery of being in one, singular person’s POV.
I honestly
didn’t find much else to be wrong with the story. I think everything worked
really well and I absolutely adored it. Holly Black has yet to let me down.
XOXO Tia
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