Review: Dollface: A Novel

Dollface: A Novel by Lindy Ryan
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

1.5 Stars because I made it past 25% of the book.

Trigger Warnings that I wish I had known about:

Suicide

Animal abuse

Nut job neighbor

Gore

Helicopter parenting

Wimpy Main Character (a horror writer for goodness sakes!)

 I made it through 25% of this book before I gave up. I applaud all the readers who made it to the end, and I also applaud the ones who didn't even make it as far as I did.

Like others, I was excited to read this book. It sounded perfect for me, but I didn't get what I expected.

When I came upon a description of a wedding cake that tasted like: "The aftertaste of raspberry filling clings to her soft palate, as thick and heady and floral as menstrual blood.", I read a couple of more chapters and then just called it a day.

Perhaps I'm getting to the age that this sort of descriptive writing doesn't affect me the way the author thought it should. I didn't understand all the references, and let's not even discuss my not knowing what all the acronyms are. So I'm an Olde Pharte, sue me!

The two characters we meet early on (excluding Jill's son Tanner, who is whiny and overindulged) are nutcases. Darla...I can imagine her going off the deep end and murdering people, but I will never know because I didn't stick with it.

Jill, the main female character, is such a wimp at this point that my eyes would have fallen out of my head had I read much more about her.

Not for me.  Maybe for you, though!

*ARC supplied by the publisher Minotaur Books, the author, and NetGalley.

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SUMMARY: " Barbie meets Scream with a 90s nostalgia twist in this horror romp from Bless Your Heart author Lindy Ryan.

Horror author Jill has just moved to suburban New Jersey, hoping to fit in with the new PTA moms and maybe not weird everyone out with her Final Girl coffee mug. You know. Make some real friends.

But then a plastic face-masked serial killer begins slashing their way through town, one overly made-up mom at a time. The police are incredulous. The moms are indignant. And Jill is slowly wrapped into a killer’s murderous spree, until she might just be the last woman standing.

A delightfully murderous novel that is equal parts scathing and salacious, Dollface will win you over with its gossip and gore, one body at a time.: