Shivering Dolls

Frozen Charlotte by Alex Bell was a recommendation from my daughter.  I consider this book both creepy and confusing.

It starts with a Ouija scene between Sophie and her friend Jay.  Anything with a Ouija has an automatic creep factor for me! Sophie mentions her dead cousin Rebecca, and it seems that in doing so she brings Rebecca’s spirit into their world.  Unfortunately, the Ouija also predicts that Jay will die that night (SPOILER- he does).

Shortly after this, Sophie goes to stay with Rebecca’s family (who she hasn’t seen in years), while her parents are on vacation.  Her uncle hides away most of the time with his art and sorrow, her aunt is in a hospital for mentally disturbed patients, and Rebecca’s remaining siblings (Cameron, Piper and Lilias) seem weary of Sophie’s presence.  It turns out that their home has been haunted/cursed by Frozen Charlotte dolls ever since the house was formerly an all-girls school.

Sophie makes it her mission to figure out more about Rebecca’s death.  In the process, more and more strange violent events occur at the hands of these bizarre dolls which are kept in a case in Rebecca’s old room.  Piper also wears a necklace of their body parts (weird, right??).  It turns out that friendly, perfect Piper isn’t at all what she seems.  Sophie and her cousins almost lose their lives due to Piper and the dolls.

The confusing points: why would Rebecca (who was killed and wants to share the true story of her death) injure an innocent waitress when she first appears and seemingly predict Jay’s death?  Why are there so many of these little possessed dolls all over the place?  How did they get possessed in the first place?  Is Piper evil all on her own, or is it because of the dolls?  Why hadn’t anyone gotten rid of them a long time before all this (instead of embedding them into the walls of the house)??

Since the creepiness started to get a bit muddled for me, I would say I can’t give this book quite as high of a rating as my daughter. But I can definitely see how it would appeal to teen girls who don’t mind creepy and somewhat gory subject matter.