The Doll House plays out as a psychological thriller, mixed within a contemporary family drama setting - but I was left feeling unsure as to whether it really 'thrilled' me.
The Doll House follows the lives of two sisters, Ashley and Corinne. Ashley is a married mother of three, with a husband who suddenly seems distant - working late at the office and easily distracted. Is he hiding something? When Ashley starts receiving mysterious phone calls, where the caller never speaks, she becomes deeply paranoid that her supposedly happy family might not be so perfect. Corinne is desperate for a baby after several failed IVF attempts. With one last shot on the horizon, can she finally become the mother she's always wanted to be? When she starts finding pieces from her old family doll house left around her flat and workplace, she starts to feel that something sinister is afoot. Will delving into her past help her uncover a secret best left forgotten?
The narrative for this is split mainly between the two sisters, with a few chapters also told from Dominic's (Corinne's partner) point of view. Interspersed throughout is also a narrative told from an unknown third person (at first a child), mainly as memories from the past. As the story progresses, these segments begin to intertwine with the sister's history, as well as the history of a house we are first introduced to in the first chapter. I thought this was an interesting premise, as it gave us an insight into the sister's minds, but also this unknown character with a very chequered past. I was desperate to know who this person was, and what their relationship was with the other characters in the novel.
The overall plot was ok. I felt that at times, although there was always a small amount of underlying tension, nothing really progressed as rapidly as I would have liked. The doll pieces are only deposited every now and again, and because of this they felt more like a far off threat. They definitely played more of a secondary role to the overall story arc involving Ashley and Corinne's paranoia and family dramas.
I also would have liked to have had more of a background story surrounding Ashley and Corinne. We never really get a feel for their history, or see their childhood from their perspective other than in brief glimpses. As the story progresses, and the past seems to play more of an integral part to the story, I felt this would have been helpful to further understand certain characters motives.
I was definitely more invested in Ashley's story line over Corinne's. I liked the relationship between Ashley and her children, and the normal struggles she faces as a mother of three. Her paranoia felt natural given her surrounding environment, and I was really invested in her. However, I did feel that most of the tension left Ashley's narrative half way through as her conflict with her husband reaches its natural conclusion. It was my interest in the mysteries surrounding baby Holly and Lucy that kept me reading to the end, and I will say that the climax to her story line was very well done. It was dramatic, suspenseful and shocking. I did not see it coming - which is always a big plus to my very cynical and calculating mind. I'm normally very good at guessing an ending. This time I didn't. Corinne's story, in comparison, felt very flat. I felt that as a character she was very over the top and dramatic, compared to Ashley's more composed nature. I also found the conclusion to her arc was over extremely quickly and felt a little rushed. I found that I wasn't really that bothered about what happened to her.
The premise for this was good, and at times I was really invested in certain characters and their story lines, however in the end it was the consistencies in the narrative that ended up being The Doll House's downfall.
The Doll House is available to purchase from Amazon now.
- 3 stars
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