Welcome to My 31 Days Of Thrills And Chills!
I’ll be sharing all kinds of books, movies, and other spooky stuff for every day in October. Gots to
get those scares on for the 31st!
Welcome to Freakin Fridays, where I share my reviews of books that scare you, thrill you, and get those endorphins pumping.
Today I’m sharing a short horror story, The Doll. Grabbed it free from Amazon. It’s still free. If you want a copy click on the cover.
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The Doll
by J.C. Martin
Genre: Horror / Short Story
My Review
I watched a movie about dolls hanging in trees. Can’t remember the name of it. Actually, I think it was like a mini series. While the legend behind the dolls was different from this book, it stayed with me, making it an easy choice to read The Doll.
This is a short story, coming in at around 30 pages. Just long enough to put the scare on ya.
Joyce and her young daughter, Taylor, visit The Island of the Dolls while on a vacation. It’s got dolls of all kinds hanging in the trees and comes with a creepy legend. Taylor falls in love with one of the dolls and soon she starts to change. What followed her home? What does it want? Need? How far will it go?
I kept thinking of that short film with Karen Black in the Trilogy Of Terror. You know it? The ugly tribal doll. It’s chain falls off. It stalks her in her apartment. You can hear the pitter patter as it runs after her. Super creep!
This might not have a doll chasing the girl, but it oozes tension. You keep waiting for something bad to happen. The combination of eerie dolls and Palo Mayombe, the dark practice of Santeria, ensures something bad will occur.
The author got creative with this little tale, filling it with atmosphere and suspense. And it’s got a ‘killer’ ending.
4 Stars
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Synopsis
The Island of the Dolls is a strange and eerie tourist destination in Mexico, where hundreds of decomposing dolls hang from trees like grisly Christmas ornaments. On a trip to the island, Joyce Parker’s daughter falls in love with a beautiful but sinister doll. Soon after, she starts developing strange mannerisms that concerns Joyce. Her research into the doll’s past reveals a dark history, and the curse of a lonely child spirit.
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Dolla are such creepy things. They are perfect for horror stories. Here are some other books I’ve read with creepy dolls in them.
Porcelain
by William Hage
My Review
As a little girl, I wasn’t crazy about dolls. Sure, I had my barbies, but those bigger dolls, the ones that were almost actual size, with those creepy eyes, nope. I didn’t like them. It always felt they were watching me, their eyes following me. Now, all grown up, I still don’t like them.
I love horror, whether reading it or watching it. There are lots of movies about dolls. Let’s see. There’s all those Puppet Masters movies. How about Chuckie? Now, that’s one messed up doll. I would never have bought that for my kid. And now we have Annabelle. Have you seen The Conjuring? That doll was scary evil and wasn’t even the main plot in the movie.
I can go back much further. Ventriloquists. Their dolls come to life. Seen a few different takes on that idea.
So yes, the whole doll taking on a life of its own has been done before. It’s the author’s ability to take that and hone it to their own tale that reveals their talent and creativity. William didn’t disappoint me.
A weary traveler stops at a bed & breakfast for the night. It’s a rather lovely place with lots of collectibles on display.
The older woman who owns the place explains that each item has a history, it’s own story.
When the woman is pulled away from the conversation by a phone call and the guest kills time looking over the many objects, one in particular catches his eye.
A porcelain doll, quite lovely. His daughter would love it.
When the guest checks out in the morning, the doll travels with him to his condo. There it will wait until he visits his daughter.
But the doll won’t wait for long. It has quite a history and is ready to make a new one.
Once the doll began it’s rampage, I asked myself what I would do. Would I take it back where I got it from? I had a feeling either the old woman or the place wouldn’t be there anymore. Or, the doll would just return to get me so why bother. I’d just have to figure out how to deal with it.
I thought I saw the end coming. I was so wrong about that. Once the author revealed the dolls history, it went every which way but the way I thought it would.
The suspense was nail biting. If this were a movie, I’d be peeking through my fingers.
Scary good stuff.
5 Stars
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This one is free on Amazon too. Click on the cover to get your copy!
Rag Doll
by Troy McCombs
My Review
At about 14 pages, I hardly blinked before I was finished reading Rag Doll.
Lucas’s young daughter Lucy just has to have the rag doll. She discovered it in a pile of stuff at a yard sale.
The thing is frayed and battered, ugly actually, but she wants it and so Lucas buys it for her.
Here’s where the author sets the tone. It’s dark now and a thunder storm is raging. A must for most horror settings.
The rag dolls name is Sandy and it will come as no surprise that the she comes to life.
The author even throws in a babysitter. Poor thing. She must be the sacrificial lamb.
There are some creepy scenes that reminded me of Dean Koontz’ Tick Tock and voodoo dolls.
You get just enough to connect with characters, kind of recognize them, and then the fun begins. There are no wasted words. The author goes straight to the gut.
I never get tired of this kind of horror story. I suspend my disbelief and dive in, getting all kinds of creeped out and having fun.
The ending is deliciously horrific.
4 Stars
Amazon
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Bad Juju
by Dina Rae
Genre: Horror
My Review
Tom and Jessica Novak are proud to be doing God’s work. They’ve traveled to Port au-Prince as part of a missionary group with others of their church. They’re going to help with rebuilding the island after the 7.0 earthquake that shook all of Haiti, causing massive destruction.
Their 15-year-old son Henry’s Asperger’s Syndrome had them questioning their decision. He’s intelligent and quite functional, but changes in routine, surroundings and new faces could cause problems. Henry doesn’t communicate well or understand social interaction.
But Henry’s the one that urged them to go. He’s been obsessed with Haiti. So here they are, the whole family, including Henry’s younger sister Natalie, who’d rather be back home. This is not her idea of a great summer vacation.
Since Henry’s been doing so well, they decide to extend their stay. If they had only left earlier, they wouldn’t be searching for their missing son. Henry has simply vanished and wandering away from the protection of the armed camp is dangerous. There are a lot of bad people out there and he wouldn’t stand a chance against them.
If they had only known the reason Henry wandered away, they never would have brought him there.
My favorite character is Jake. He befriends Henry when they meet in detention class. They aren’t really bad boys, just a couple of kids who got in a little trouble.
Jake is a kind-hearted boy, helping out the elderly residents in his trailer park. He does odd jobs, cleans house and run errands for the less able ones. You wonder how he turned out so well when you learn he suffers violent beatings from his uncle. After losing his parents he came to live with his aunt and uncle and his aunt suffers the same abuse.
Jake brings Henry home with him after school to introduce him to his favorite neighbor, Lucien.
Lucien is a powerful bokor, a voodoo priest, and with his black skin, unruly, long white hair and piercing eyes, he looks every bit the part.
It becomes a regular routine for the boys to visit with Lucien after school and after much pleading, he begins to teach them about Vodun, the voodoo religion, beginning with simple spells and hexes.
Lucien feels death coming for him and can’t bear the thought of all his vast knowledge and power going with him to the grave.
After Jake receives another very brutal and bloody beating, the three decide to create a voodoo doll to rid Jake of his uncle.
This is where it all starts to go weird.
Bad Juju was a surprise. I thought it was going to be all about voodoo, raising the dead, and voodoo dolls. Well, it was. I learned how to do voodoo, what the religion is about, good and dark arts of it, and how to raise someone from the dead. Some of it creeped me out, but a lot of it was really funny.
Having the characters as teen-age boys made this story. Boys will be boys and they had me rocking and rolling! I can’t wait for you to meet the dead guy.
Getting back to the surprise part, there were several deeper subjects tackled throughout this book and I could tell the author did a lot of research and included that knowledge in the story to make it believable and engaging.
If you’re looking for something different, look no further. Bad Juju has plenty of interesting characters, some tough topics, plenty of laughs, and lots of scary voodoo magic. Oh Yeah, I almost forgot the zombie!
I felt like I got a crash course in voodoo, like voodoo for dummies.
4 Stars
Currently unavailable.
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