The Doll

Rating:
Summary: The Doll
Review: The Doll by Josh Webster was an very entertaining book. It is about two twin girls named Gretchen and Mary. They lived with their divorced mother named Barbara. One day the twin's father sends the three of them gifts. He gave Gretchen a doll, Mary an apron that says momies little helper on it, and Barbara a tie.

This is the end of my review and I hope you have enjoyed it.

Rating:
Summary: Not Your Typical Bad Dollie
Review: The Doll is a simply nasty little tale involving a pair of twins, Gretchen and Mary. After their parents divorce, the gap between the girls' personalities--Mary the kindly extrovert, and Gretchen the malcontent--seem to widen. Gretchen spends more and more time confiding in her father's last gift, a beautiful doll who eeriely resembles the blond, blue-eyed twins. The doll, created by a Mexican dollmaker and bruja of great power, was created in order to grant a little girl's fondest wish, but Gretchen's only wish is to destroy her sister.

The writing in this one is careful and direct, and the storyline a lovely, wicked twist on the whole good twin/bad twin and evil doll genre. Characters are drawn in broad and sometimes overly heavy strokes, but otherwise come across the page with wonderful individualism. The horror is not all supernatural: the sibling rivalry between Gretchen and Mary is often cruelly, painfully close to home, as is the nastiness of their parents' divorce, the panic of a narrowly averted non-custodial abduction, and the playground taunting against outcast Gretchen. Gretchen herself is a treat, coming across as both a lonely little girl and Rhoda from The Bad Seed. For a fan of the classic genre horror, it's definitely worth hunting for.

Rating:
Summary: Not Your Typical Bad Dollie
Review: The Doll is a simply nasty little tale involving a pair of twins, Gretchen and Mary. After their parents divorce, the gap between the girls' personalities--Mary the kindly extrovert, and Gretchen the malcontent--seem to widen. Gretchen spends more and more time confiding in her father's last gift, a beautiful doll who eeriely resembles the blond, blue-eyed twins. The doll, created by a Mexican dollmaker and bruja of great power, was created in order to grant a little girl's fondest wish, but Gretchen's only wish is to destroy her sister.

The writing in this one is careful and direct, and the storyline a lovely, wicked twist on the whole good twin/bad twin and evil doll genre. Characters are drawn in broad and sometimes overly heavy strokes, but otherwise come across the page with wonderful individualism. The horror is not all supernatural: the sibling rivalry between Gretchen and Mary is often cruelly, painfully close to home, as is the nastiness of their parents' divorce, the panic of a narrowly averted non-custodial abduction, and the playground taunting against outcast Gretchen. Gretchen herself is a treat, coming across as both a lonely little girl and Rhoda from The Bad Seed. For a fan of the classic genre horror, it's definitely worth hunting for.

Rating:
Summary: The Doll
Review: Well it's not your typical "evil doll" tale, where it becomes animated and starts chasing people around with sharp knives. (As the cover would have you believe) Rather the story focuses on ten year-old twin girls, one good and one evil, this IS still a horror story after all.

The doll is manufactured in one of those Cabbage Patch hospitals reminiscent of the 80's. For some reason there is a separate division, this was a very weak part of the story, in which the "dollmaker" an Incan priestess, manufactures her own special dolls and imbues them with certain powers. They have the ability to achieve the owner's deepest desires. So before you can say "Chuckie Rules," the doll falls into the eager hands of the evil twin who uses it to make her sister's life miserable...even unto death!

"The Doll" was such an enjoyable, quick read that I can forgive the underdeveloped "dollmaker" character.

Rating:
Summary: good (p.s: some reviewers are giving away the plot)
Review: wow, other reviewers are really giving you the whole story. well, i won't. there are two twins and a mother. one twin (daddy's girl) receives a doll which has gone through a magical ritual. but it's not the common evil doll or evil twin story. it's perhaps a mix of both, sort of (you'll see) making it more original then it seems. Gretchen (twin) is taking a strong liking to the dull, making a very powerful link between them. unfortunately she doesn't like her mother and sister as much. it was well enough written. entertaining. there were 2 flaws however. one of them concerns a character whose role i cannot reveal, the dollmaker. i didn't care for her. all scenes with her in them seemes a bit stupid. i guess i did not believe in her. the other flaw is the dialogue. sometimes when the twins spoke you could feel there was an adult forming there words. i couldn't believe a girl would say it, or form a sentence in such an adult way. but hey, it's a good book.