Bad Dolls

by Rachel Harrison

Genres: Horror, Short Stories
Pages: 192
Rating:

Synopsis:

In Reply Hazy, Try Again, an indecisive young woman finds a mysterious Magic 8 Ball that might just have the answers she's been looking for...or might lead her down a path of self-destruction. In Bachelorette, a bridesmaid attends her childhood best friend's bachelorette weekend only to discover the itinerary may demand more than she's willing to sacrifice. In Goblin, an unusually brutal dieting app wreaks havoc on the life of a timid, insecure woman preparing to attend her ex's wedding. In Bad Dolls, after the death of her younger sister, a wayward young woman comes into possession of a strange porcelain doll that could offer a connection to her lost sister, but could also just be pure evil. These dark tales navigate the complications of modern life with humour, insight and the odd blood sacrifice...

Rachel Harrison’s Bad Dolls is a collection of four short horror stories, which I found sort of predictable, but satisfying because it was (mostly) obvious how things were going to fall into place. Sometimes that’s fun, in the same way that there’s a satisfaction in knowing what the picture’s going to look like from the lid of the puzzle box, and so it was with these stories for me (that and noticing the smaller details here and there that did stand out).

I think my favourite of the four was ‘Bachelorette’, which I hadn’t expected to end quite that way (I’d expected an ending that was worse for the main character, shall we say? I’m trying not to spoiler here!).

The title story is pretty darn creepy, too, in the way that the main character just… gives into it. She has no real plan to make sure this ends, like someone in an abusive relationship who holds on to the “good parts”. It ends on a pretty unsettling note.

Not unmissable or anything, but I had fun.

Rating: 3/5 (“liked it”)