Doll Bones

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I am an affiliate with Z Publishing House. See bottom of this post for details.

Doll Bones by Holly Black was published by Margaret K McElderry Books in 2013. Holly Black is known for her contemporary fantasy for kids and teens including the Spiderwick Chronicles, The Magisterium Series, and the Modern Fairie Tale series and has recently started a new series with The Cruel Prince (2018). She has been a a finalist for an Eisner Award, and the recipient of the Andre Norton Award, the Mythopoeic Award and a Newbery Honor. 

In my experience, Holly Black's books are very hit or miss for me. I loved the Spiderwick Chronicles and the Magisterium series is my little sister's favorite books in existence, but the rest of her work seems to just fall flat for me. I'm not sure if I just haven't found the right ones to read yet or if it's something with her style but Holly Black is an author that I'm cautious about picking up since I never know how it's going to go.

I also need to note that I listened to the audio version of Doll Bones, narrated by Nick Podehl.

Doll Bones is a tween/teen horror fantasy story with some gothic literature overtones about three friends.
"Zach, Poppy and Alice have been friends 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 . . ."

This book is about friendship and growing-up. It sounds interesting. It's a middle-grade book, so it can't be that scary, and it's an easy thing to listen to while working on stuff. Sounds like it should be a decent read. 

I was not impressed.

Spoilers below!

I'll admit, I was a little hesitant about the story. Right off the bat, it makes a reference to the Odessey and in my experience that means the author's going to try to hard to make a lot of parallels for the reader to follow or they're going to start to follow it and then drop the whole thing. But then it's revealed the reference is part of the game Zach, Poppy, and Alice are playing and I felt like that was alright. These are kids, using bits of things that they know in order to play. Cool.

It's also cool how Black uses this game to introduce us to the different voices and personalities of our main characters. It shows how everyone reacts to each other, how they want to be perceived by each other, and how they want to handle themselves in real world situations. For example, Zach wants to be a leader and a hero but he's also willing to let Poppy and Alice make decisions and take over the story when they want or need to. Unfortunately, this method of introduction also means it takes a little while for things to start moving. We see the game. We then witness Zach's father throwing away his toys and how Zach doesn't want to admit to his friends that he wasn't able to protect something important to him, and then we see how they try to make things better by telling him about the doll, Eleanor. Finally, something starts happening.

Eleanor is revealed to be made from the bones of a dead girl. This is both creepy and intriguing, and prompted me to look up some real world "cursed dolls" out of curiosity. 

As the story progresses and the three of them run away to try to find out what happened and where they can lay her to rest, things start to go downhill. Poppy starts to act strange and it's implied Eleanor is either possessing her or influencing her to do some things. Which is typical of a cursed doll story. They steal a boat to get to where they need to go and nearly drown when it capsizes, they break into a library to figure out where they're going, and that's when Black reminds us . . . these kids are twelve. Yes, I know middle school books have young protagonists, but some of the things these kids do and deal with pulled me out of the story when I remembered how old they were. 

Eventually, they are caught and waiting for their parents to come and get them and it's revealed that Poppy is doing this, leading her freinds through this crazy adventure and acting strangely because . . . she doesn't want them to grow up and change without her.  

  

Am I missing something?! Where did this come from? Why did Poppy think Zach's not being able to play with her anymore somehow meant she was going to be left behind and forgotten? And why did she think taking them on a dangerous adventure was the way to make sure they never left her? It doesn't make sense! Either I completely missed that subplot or Black threw it in at the end, and I think I'm pretty good and picking up story clues, especially in mysteries. 

Eleanor is a McGuffin. She's only there to move the plot forward. She starts out creepy and is thought to be a threat but then she returns to being a normal doll, especially towards the end. Did Black realize a cursed doll might not be appropriate for middle schoolers and back out of that plot point? But then, why have the doll behaving strangely only to wave her hand and say "oh it's nothing! you should focus on how Poppy feels, not the impossible things that this doll supposedly did. It's fine." If I am promised a creepy cursed doll, I expect the story to include and revolve around a creepy cursed doll. 

Everyone promises to remain friends no matter what, they go home, and Zach's dad apologizes for trying to make him grow up faster. Everyone is happy. The end.

I wasn't really expecting amazing literature from this book, but I was expecting a fulfilling story. The characters are fine, even if I question the likelihood of a couple twelve-year-olds actually being able to do the things they do. I was annoyed that Poppy's development took a sharp turn towards the end, but maybe I didn't notice things since it was audio and not actually reading the words. Most of all, I was disappointed in the ending. Eleanor was killed but how and why, etc. no longer comes into play.

I want to like Holly Black's books but it's things like this that makes it so hard for me. If you're going to drop the cursed doll aspect, give me a good reason. The whole thing was Poppy making the story up and messing things up so everyone thought it was the doll would work. Otherwise, follow through with what was promised. And what about the consequences for their actions. Three kids ran away and were missing for a few days. Why don't we see the consequences for this? at least have the parents ground the kids.

Middle-schoolers will probably enjoy this book. It's simple and easy and there are a few creepy elements in it. But the "horror" aspect is thrown out the window pretty quickly. I was disappointed and wouldn't necessarily recommend this book to anyone.

I am an affiliate with Z Publishing House. I do get a small commission from anything purchased through this link: www.zpublishinghouse.com?rfsn=1831564.e6254