10 Horror Books About Dolls

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Kristian Wilson Colyard grew up weird successful a one-caution-light municipality successful the Appalachian foothills. She present lives successful an aged textile metropolis with her hubby and their clowder of cats. She’s connected Twitter @kristianwriting, and you tin find much of her enactment online astatine kristianwriting.com.

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Are you acrophobic of dolls? Feel a small uncanny valley’d erstwhile you look astatine a mannequin’s face? If so, I’ve got conscionable what you request below. These 10 fearfulness books astir dolls, puppets, and dummies volition person you sleeping with the lights connected — and rethinking each your puerility playthings.

The older I get, the much radical I conscionable who are downright terrified of dolls. I’ll beryllium the archetypal to admit that I don’t recognize the fear; I grew up sleeping successful a tiny chamber with a twelve dolls facing the bed, and ne'er thought doubly astir it — but for the 1 clip I dreamed 1 doll’s caput turned 180 degrees portion I was holding it, but who’s counting?

Still, there’s thing astir dolls, mannequins, puppets, and different inanimate humanoids that makes ample swathes of radical uneasy. It’s the uncanny valley, sure, but it goes beyond that for galore — condensing into abject terror. Others, similar 3-year-old Briar Rose Beard and myself, stay unfazed. There doesn’t look to beryllium a neutral camp; you’re either down with the dolls oregon “Down with the dolls!” if you cognize what I mean.

We’ll instrumentality a look astatine 10 fantastic fearfulness books astir dolls below, but first: a little and incomplete past of doll horror.

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A Brief and Incomplete History of Doll Horror

Creepy dolls, puppets, and mannequins person agelong been a fearfulness staple. Contemporary films similar M3GAN and The Boy are conscionable the extremity of the iceberg. Real-life dolls named Robert and Annabelle allegedly haunted their owners for years — much than a century, successful Robert’s lawsuit — earlier overmuch creepier-looking versions of them became Hollywood fodder. The fictional dolls from Algernon Blackwood’s The Doll and One Other, Richard Matheson’s “Prey,” and William Goldman’s Magic came to beingness successful Rod Serling’s Night Gallery (“The Doll”), the “Amelia” conception from Trilogy of Terror, and 1978’s Anthony Hopkins-led Magic.

Speaking of Serling, The Twilight Zone deserves a peculiar notation here. The 1960s anthology bid served up much than a fewer chilling dolls successful its time. Beyond the murderous Talky Tina (“Living Doll”), section store mannequins (“The After Hours”), and ventriloquist dummies (“Caesar and Me” and “The Dummy”), The Twilight Zone managed to marque adjacent the friendliest of humanoids majorly unsettling (“The Lateness of the Hour” and “The Lonely”).

During the 1980s fearfulness boom, Child’s Play, Dolls, Poltergeist, and Puppet Master brought pediophobia and pupaphobia to the filmgoing masses. In the ’90s, 1 Are You Afraid of the Dark? episode, “The Tale of the Dollmaker,” scarred galore Millennials with its yarn astir an evil Dollhouse that turns children into dolls. And who could hide Slappy from the Goosebumps series?

In short, creepy dolls are present to stay. Here are immoderate creepy books astir dolls you beryllium it to yourself to cheque out.

Horror Books About Dolls

Frozen Charlotte by Alex Bell

Taking its rubric from the morbidly named doll, Alex Bell’s Frozen Charlotte follows Sophie arsenic she takes a summertime vacation astatine her disturbed cousins’ home. Inside the location — formerly an all-girls schoolhouse — are 3 children who’ve been scarred wrong and out, a country filled with porcelain dolls, and a 4th child: the shade trapped among the figurines.

The Voice of the Clown by Brenda Brown Canary

Still retired of people astatine the clip of this writing, Brenda Brown Canary’s The Voice of the Clown has been successful precocious request ever since the work of Paperbacks from Hell, immoderate 35 years aft its release. Those who aren’t #blessed capable to ain a transcript volition person to marque bash with the premise alone, astatine slightest until we get a 2nd circular of Paperbacks from Hell books.

The Voice of the Clown centers connected 6-year-old Laura, whose beloved clown doll has been possessed by a malevolent unit retired of Native American myth. Problematic? Yes. A full batch of fun? You betcha.

The Girl from the Well by Rin Chupeco

As if the onryō weren’t scary enough, Rin Chupeco went and added possessed dolls to the mix. The communicative present centers connected Okiku: a vengeful tone successful the vein of Kayako and Sadako/Samara. Rather than hunting down anyone who crosses her path, however, this shade targets child-killers. The creepy dolls present fig successful the hundreds, but the doll-horror shenanigans get cranked up to 11 successful the sequel novel: The Suffering.

Fun fact: Okiku is besides the sanction of a purportedly haunted doll successful existent life.

Magic by William Goldman

From the writer of Marathon Man and The Princess Bride comes Magic: the communicative of a down-on-his-luck purveyor of close-up magic. Corky Withers’s vocation had stagnated earlier helium added a ventriloquist dummy named Fats to the mix. On the brink of superstardom, Corky gets the accidental to reconnect with his precocious schoolhouse crush. He can’t flight the ghosts of his haunted childhood, however, and the concealed to his occurrence whitethorn besides beryllium the catalyst for his downfall.

The Toymaker by Sergio Gomez

With shades of Stephen King and R.L. Stine, The Toymaker follows 5 kids arsenic they acceptable retired to halt the evil unit possessing an aged toymaker’s handcrafted ventriloquist dummy from destroying the town. This 2020 caller from the writer of Camp Slaughter has much ’90s nostalgia than you tin shingle a power at.

Took by Mary Downing Hahn

Old Auntie and her favored razorback, Bloody Bones, are thing of a section fable successful the West Virginia municipality wherever the Andersons person relocated from Connecticut. Thirteen-year-old Daniel thinks it’s each a clump of hooey — until his kid sister disappears. Erica had a doll that looked conscionable similar her, 1 she carried everyplace and told everything. It’s missing too. Is it portion of Old Auntie’s crippled to lure Erica up the elevation to her house…or is thing much mundane but conscionable arsenic sinister afoot?

Dolly by Susan Hill

The Woman successful Black writer Susan Hill is down this overlooked 2012 fearfulness gem. Set successful a crumbling Fenlands manor, Hill’s novella follows 2 young cousins connected an ill-fated summertime holiday. Staying with their aunt and her housekeeper isn’t precisely the astir breathtaking mode to vacation. Edward’s conscionable trying to marque the champion of it, but the location — and the radical successful it — are starting to ace his pleasant demeanor. But each hellhole is astir to interruption escaped implicit Leonora’s day present, and nary 1 who witnesses what’s to travel volition ever beryllium the same.

Night of the Mannequins by Stephen Graham Jones

Another novella, Stephen Graham Jones’s Night of the Mannequins centers connected an guiltless prank gone horribly wrong. I won’t spoil the amusive for you. Just work this helluva opening enactment and past spell work the publication for yourself: “So Shanna got a caller occupation astatine the movie theater, we thought we’d play a amusive prank connected her, and present astir of america are dead, and I’m truly starting to consciousness benignant of blameworthy astir it all.”

Nothing but Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw

Getting joined successful an past manor wherever a pistillate was buried live was a mistake. Who’d’ve thunk it? The ohaguro bettari starts stalking her victims the infinitesimal they arrive. Too atrocious they’re each excessively distracted by the abundance of intoxicant and creepy dolls to notice.

The Puzzle Master by Danielle Trussoni

It’s been 5 years since Jess was imprisoned for murdering her fellow successful a location afloat of creepy dolls. She hasn’t said a connection since. Now, it’s up to the titular Puzzle Master, Mike, to lick a riddle Jess has crafted conscionable for him. Will the reply uncover the information astir what happened to the execution victim, oregon volition it lone service to enactment Mike successful the enactment of fire? With well-earned comparisons to the works of Dan Brown and Alex Michaelides, this is simply a must-read for immoderate crime-fiction reader.

Want much creepy books to adhd to your TBR? Check retired these fearfulness books astir evil kids, cursed objects, and — yes — creepy dolls.

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