Content levels
Trigger warnings
Positive tags
Protagonist archetypes
Synopsis
Alice, Trissy and their cousin Paulie are visitors in the dark old house of Aunt Sarah and faded, middle-aged Cousin Grace. It's a grim house, filled with shadows, and Aunt Sarah matches it -- old, bitter, silent, wrapped up in the crude and ugly dolls she has devoted herself or making. They talked to her, she said. The girls never dared to touch Aunt Sarah's dolls, but Paulie was different. He threw one in the fire, as the other dolls watched with their glittering button eyes. Now Aunt Sarah was making another doll just like him. "It's for Paulie," she said. A master of suspense and mood relates one of her most chilling tales in this story of three children and their brush with the madness of an evil old woman and the little dolls that do her bidding.
Is Revenge of the Dolls appropriate for my child?
Suitable for most readers 11 and up.
Children face psychological terror from an evil elderly woman who creates voodoo-like dolls to harm them. The supernatural threat is atmospheric and suspenseful rather than graphically violent, but involves children in genuine peril and themes of madness.
What to know going in
This book has moderate violence, no sexual content, and clean language. Content notes include child harm, mental illness, and gaslighting (see the full list above).
Who'll love this
Readers who love creepy, atmospheric mysteries with supernatural elements will find this genuinely scary tale gripping.