Review of Paper Dolls by Anya Allyn

Format: eBook
Genres: Horror, Paranormal, Gothic,
Pages: 273
Publisher: Self Published
Release Date: 13/12/2012
Find The Author: Website ¦ Twitter
Amazon UK/US ¦ Goodreads

Cassie discovers the truth behind the existence of the dollhouse- leading up to a terrifying revelation about herself, one that will challenge every last thread of her sanity. 
Jessamine journeys through the last weeks of her life in 1920 and begins her descent into madness and the supernatural realm.
Paper Dolls is filled with shocks, revelations, gothic creepiness and a much deeper journey into the strange and twisted character of Jessamine – leading up to a terrifying final chapter, one that will challenge every last thread of Cassie’s sanity.

It's basically impossible to review this book properly without giving away even minor spoilers for Dollhouse, so I'm sorry if you haven't read Dollhouse but seriously. Stop reading this spoilery review and go buy the book because it's creepy, gothic and amazing. It'll keep you guessing too!

I wasn't expecting too much from Dollhouse when I first picked it up but I love the cliched horror movie concept of a bunch of teens in the woods that stumble on an old house and stupidly decide to explore it. It really surprised me because there were so many layers to the story and I couldn't stop reading. The Dollhouse aspect was so weird and original and the ending was mind blowing, I knew I had to read the whole series as quickly as possible.

The story basically picks up where it left off, without giving us endless recaps like other books do, which I was really grateful for. Cassie literally crawls out of the hell hole she's been living in and promptly gets help for the other girls that are still trapped in there Being in the outside world again after reading about the dollhouse for so long was really strange, it made me realise just how suffocating the Dollhouse felt.

In between Cassie's story, we have Jessamine's, the owner of the Dollhouse. At first I didn't really care for her story but as it progressed, I berated myself for not giving her a chance, as her story is probably one of the most interesting ones of the book. She knows all the origins of the Dollhouse, of course, why it was built in the first place.

Jessamine, when we meet her, is living in the 1920's, a performer in the Fiveash circus. The circus, of course, belongs to her Grandfather. Jessamine is a simple enough girl, very naiive. She also very stubborn. I could see why she was so naiive though - her father passed away and her mother is in a wheelchair, switched off from the world. Basically leaving her parentless except for her Grandfather, who is always busy. Once the events leading up to the Dollhouse started, I was surprised at nearly all of them as I didn't guess a single one!

The ending to this basically blew my mind. My jaw dropped open at the twist in events and I am so, so excited to start reading Marionette to find out what happens next!


Comments

Post a Comment

I love comments! Spam comments will be deleted.

Popular posts from this blog

Many Covers Monday - ALL THE HARRY POTTER SERIES

Image
After it was not so recently revealed that the classic, original covers were to go out of print and replaced with new, shiny covers, I thought I'd do something crazy this Monday. Harry Potter. But not the first book, no! This Monday I'm showcasing... entire sets of the books. Cool, but a lot of work. And a lot of tabs. These won't just be the covers you know and love, I've included international sets of the books too, which I've never seen before. Not all of the covers are here, but most of them are. (Ignore the random pattern for the last image. I wanted to tile them right) (This post was originally posted back in 2014 and since I'm re-reading the whole series I thought I might as well go for a full Harry Potter week on my blog by sharing my most popular post with new cover sets added. UK - these are the new covers revealed by Bloomsbury recently. These are my favourite covers, I wasn't impressed initially but the amazing covers won
Read more

Many Covers Monday: 13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Image
Today we're looking at the many different covers of Jay Asher 's 13 Reasons Why and choosing a winner! Some are rejackets and others are foreign language covers. Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a mysterious box with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers thirteen cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker, his classmate and crush who committed suicide two weeks earlier. On tape, Hannah explains that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he'll find out how he made the list. Through Hannah and Clay's dual narratives, debut author Jay Asher weaves an intricate and heartrending story of confusion and desperation that will deeply affect teen readers. Book Depository ¦ Amazon UK / US ¦ Goodreads This was his freaking debut? Oh man, this book was amazing. I read it at least 5 years ago and still remember it, I'm going to read it again - as soon as I can grab a co
Read more

Many Covers Monday: One Of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus

Image
On Monday afternoon, five students at Bayview High walk into detention. Bronwyn, the brain, is Yale-bound and never breaks a rule. Addy, the beauty, is the picture-perfect homecoming princess. Nate, the criminal, is already on probation for dealing. Cooper, the athlete, is the all-star baseball pitcher. And Simon, the outcast, is the creator of Bayview High's notorious gossip app.   Only, Simon never makes it out of that classroom. Before the end of detention, Simon's dead. And according to investigators, his death wasn't an accident. On Monday, he died. But on Tuesday, he'd planned to post juicy reveals about all four of his high-profile classmates, which makes all four of them suspects in his murder. Or are they the perfect patsies for a killer who's still on the loose? Everyone has secrets, right? What really matters is how far you would go to protect them.    UK/US I really love the US cover. It keeps the air of mystery by covering t
Read more