Trigger warning for horrific fictional (but in context with the story) animal cruelty, physical abuse and super creepy dolls.

Suspend all disbelief and take a ride back to the early 1900's where we meet Jemima, a 17 year old girl who takes a position as assistant mistress at Dunvegan School for Girls, an industrial school for girls who haven't committed crimes but have nowhere else to go, located on the Isle of Skye. Jemima herself is desperately trying to escape her tragic past at Whiteladies. So, no happy family stories here.

After spending some time on the Isle of Skye at the beginning of 1910 setting up the story we then travel seamlessly back and forth between there and Whiteladies where we gradually learn more about the past 18 months, Jemima's past and reasons she wants to start over. Jemima was an interesting, complex character who longed to be the girl she was before Whiteladies yet knowing her physical and emotional scarring had changed her irrevocably.

Jemima begins work for Miss Grayson, the evil woman who should be fitted with a device that gives her an electric shock when she gets within 200 metres of a child, otherwise known in this story as the schoolmistress. This is a school where little things like light in the form of candles are rationed and punishments are doled out in abundance and recorded for posterity in The Punishment Book. Punishments may include wearing the imbecile's cap while sitting in the stupid corner, being made to go without meals and heating, and being sent to Solitary where you may well freeze to death.

Needless to say, Miss Grayson wasn't exactly my favourite character and throughout the book I determined her appropriate punishment would be for me to lock her in Solitary to enjoy some quality time with Annabelle, who I would have previously arranged to loan indefinitely from Lorraine and Ed Warren. While on the subject of punishments, I think Redwing may have benefited from a new friendship with Chucky.

Now that you know which characters' names and offences should be inked into The Punishment Book for perpetuity, allow me tell you about my favourite character, Estella. Besides having the coolest name of anyone in the book which translates appropriately as star, Estella is a strong willed little girl who, despite having a history of not being believed no matter what she says, defiantly tells her truth regardless of the consequences. And believe me, for Estella there are always consequences. I definitely had a soft spot for her and would've adopted her in a heartbeat.

Henry was going to be my second favourite character as he was so sweet and loyal and loving, but he ended up annoying me because no one is that perfect. So, my actual second favourite character/s? The super creepy evil dolls, all named Frozen Charlotte with the exception of the lone male known as Frozen Charlie. Interestingly enough I don't remember Charlie being psychotic but the poor guy was surrounded by some seriously unbalanced female dolls.

If you're like me, by the halfway point, reading "Charlotte says..." will fill you with equal parts dread and morbidly fascinated anticipation that mirrors hearing Chucky's "Wanna play?". I loved the supernatural aspects of this book, dabbling in mediumship, automatic writing, séances, ghosts, possession and, of course, creepy dolls. I enjoyed the slow reveal of Jemima's past and the reason why she doesn't remember what happened the night of the fire at Whiteladies.

I spent a lot of the middle of the book arguing with myself about Jemima's actions and lack of action - "Why doesn't she just - she's only 17. She's just a kid! But couldn't she just - remember her past. But what if she told - I told you! She's a traumatised 17 year old! Just shut up and enjoy the book!"

I don't usually find books creepy these days. I'll get to the end and think to myself, 'You think that's scary? Come and sleep a night in my nightmares!' Yet Charlotte Says was delightfully creepy, best read at night when the house is silent and you can hear the creaks from the house settling and the wind rustling through the trees. This book comes with a fairly significant death toll and some really disturbing and detailed descriptions of actual and fantasised about violence against animals.

I'm not usually that into books that linger in the early 20th century. Sure, I'm happy to time travel there on my way to another time period, but Alex Bell is such a talented writer that I would have happily signed up to stay longer on the Isle of Skye reading by rationed greasy, stinky, animal fat candlelight.

Having not read Frozen Charlotte first like I probably should have as it got buried under my towering TBR pile and temporarily forgotten about until I heard about Charlotte Says, I now have the excitement of knowing I get to read about what happens next with the benefit of knowing the backstory. I can't wait!

I received an ARC from NetGalley (thank you to NetGalley, Little Tiger Group, Stripes Publishing, and a special thank you to Charlie for the opportunity) in exchange for honest feedback. "Charlotte says you need to read this book!"

This was a very good and unsettling book. I wasn't sure about this as dolls aren't my favorite topic but i'm glad i read it as the story was very good.

I loved this book, I was so please when I heard that there was going to be a seccond to the Frozen Charlotte. I read this in one day! Would highly recommend.
** This was given to me by Netgalley to review and these are my honest opinions **

So this is the second book in the Frozen Charlotte series and it shows us what happened in the children's school before Sophie finds them plastered in the walls from the first book. Jemima had a horrible past and went to the school as a last resort, Miss Grayson (The head of the school that you read about in the first book) is not very nice and try's to make Jemima uncomfortable as possible to leave after what happened to her last teachers assistant. When she gets a lovely box with her name on full of Frozen Charlotte dolls she hands them to the girls to play with as they don't have a lot of toys, the children start to act strange and deaths begin to appear.

I love how Alex Bell always leaves me wanting to turn the page and to never put the book down! She always has me hocked from the first word which I find really refreshing in books, I think its the writing style mostly as Alex puts so much detail and mystery behind each chapter, there isn't just "oh here is a death in the beginning lets find out who did it till the end" but more like " here is a mystery, oh you think your close to finding out who did it well guess again her is a random death" and I love every word!

The characters where all amazing I liked how even thought the book was about Jemima it also brought you into the girls lives and you start to feel things for them, especially Estella, the roles were well thought out and the relationships that are brought in are so subtle to make sure it wouldn't ruin the main plot it was different. I would have like to read more about Henry's character which was our love interest although him not being in it as much kind of gave you more of a better plot.

Altogether I would definitely recommend this book to everyone! Okay maybe not everyone but the people who love a good page turner, mystery, gripping story lines and a book you cant put down. Can't wait to read more of her work.

4.5**

Do you like your novels with creepy little dolls and atmospheric settings? Then this is your story.

Charlotte Says is a prequel to the popular Frozen Charlotte novel from 2015. Not having read the previous instalment, I went into this knowing nothing about the storyline or characters, and I can honestly say I don't think it made any difference. This could easily be read as a standalone story.

A historical novel, this is set in 1901, with our main character Jemima excepting a job at an All Girls industrial school in the Isle of Skye following the death of her mother and step father in mysterious circumstances. Soon after her arrival an usual package arrives from Charlotte's former home which contains a number of Frozen Charlotte dolls. As mysterious occurrences start to happen, Jemima starts to suspect that the dolls may be more dangerous than they first appear.

There's instantly a feeling of foreboding and dread that surrounds the school, and the headmistress is as despicable as you would expect her to be. At times this felt almost like a Frances Hodgeson Barnett novel, with the descriptions of down trodden girls, awful maids and slave labour. I found I had a lot of fondness for all of the girls at the school, especially Estella the outcast of the group. This obviously helped a great deal as the novel progressed and they become more deeply entrenched in the dolls 'games' and misfortunes. I cared greatly about what would happen to the girls, and became anxious when they appeared to be in peril.

The introduction of dolls is cleverly done, and really sets the tone for the rest of the novel. It involves the basement lit only by candlelight and giggling. It's creepy, and scary and the author clearly knows how to set a scene and make the reader feel unnerved. This continues as the story develops, as the dolls get more adventurous in the toy room during the night and as they start to explore the dolls house.

As we move deeper into the novel, the story starts to flit between past and present. We see how Jemima came to be at Whiteladies, her former home, and how the accident with her mother occurred. I would have liked to have spent more time with these chapters as they're short, rather than have them interrupt the flow of the present story so much. Having said that, most of the novel is well paced, with plenty of action and no side stories to get distracted by. All of the focus is on the dolls, and the plot progresses quickly, which is great.

The only aspect I didn't particularly warm to in the novel was Jemima's relationship with Henry. Henry seemed a little useless at times, not really acting as any real help in times of distress, and he often came across as a bit wet. He wasn't as strong a character as Jemima and the girls, and his undying love for Jemima seemed a little far fetched considering he hasn't seen her in a number of years. However, that said their relationship plays more of a secondary role to the plot, so didn't ruin the story for me too much.

The conclusion is satisfying and very open ended, which helps it work as a prequel. I was surprised that this is aimed at a young adult audience however, as some of the final scenes are a bit graphic in their depiction of violence. I would be cautious before letting younger readers read this. For me though, I'm already set to read Frozen Charlotte ready for Halloween season.

Frozen Charlotte was the creepiest of the first batch of Red Eye books. Charlotte Says outdoes it. The setting adds a lot and the mystery unfolds at just the right speed - not dragged out enough to be annoying, not so quickly it doesn't impact. The mirror trip is the highlight for me, and I love how everything fits perfectly with Frozen but still it's not predictable at all. I will definitely be looking out for more books by Alex - as long as I can read them during the day!
Thanks for the opportunity to read this.

I was so looking forward to reading this book, and I wasn't disappointed. Bell puts me in mind of the Gorthic horror writters and elements of this book made me think of Henry James' "The Turn of the Screw". It's set in an isolated house, where Jemima arrives, to become an assisatant teacher to a group of neglected young girls., criminals really only in word, not in deed. Jemima herself is virtually penniless following the death of her mother and brutal stepfather in a fire, and then a parcel arrives for her - a box of Frozen Charlotte dolls that had belonged to her dead step-sister. And so begin a series of unexplained happenings and accidents that grow increasingly darker more brutal.

This is real horror writing for me - it doesn't rely on blood and gore, but on an increasing sense of unease and the sort of sinister happenings that make you want to check over your shoulder and keep the light on. I loved the nod to the first book "Frozen Charlotte" as Jemima sees another resident of the house through a mirror. Such clever writing.... and defintely not just for the YA audience. One thing is for sure - I'm never having a Frozen Charlotte doll in my house! Definitely recommended for fans of quiet horror.

“Let’s play the ‘Stick the needle in your eye game!’”

Ginger Nuts of Horror has a fantastic interview with leading YA horror writer Alex Bell coming very soon. This is absolutely perfect timing as her latest chiller “Charlotte Says” hits the bookshops in early September. This is a prequel to “Frozen Charlotte” which premiered on the YA horror brand Red Eye a couple of years ago, latterly picking up considerable buzz when it was featured on the ‘WH Smith Zoella Book Club’. You may well have seen it sporting a brand spanking new cover, on high visibility Zoella displays, in many WH Smith shops.

So to prepare you for our wide ranging interview we have with Alex, here’s a double review of both her excellent “Charlotte” novels…

I always get excited when I catch a great teen horror novel as I don’t read too many, but “Frozen Charlotte” really hit the horror hotspot in some style. Alex Bell’s dark and unsettling tale of tiny porcelain dolls, the size of two pence pieces, is an edgy, tension rich read for the age group 10-14, probably girls more than boys. Right from the opening pages it builds into an outstanding page-turner with these evil little creatures whispering from behind a locked glass cabinet and in their words they have the power to kill. Equally demonic, the Charlotte’s have the ability to control and influence others to do their bidding, sneaking around a vast haunted house sowing horrible plans and turning characters against each other.

The novel begins with Sophie and Jay fooling around with a séance app on his phone, when asked who to try to contact from the world of the dead Sophie instinctively calls for her long dead cousin Rebecca who died in a horror accident years earlier. She really, REALLY shouldn’t have… Quickly they realise something is not right and Jay dies in a freak accident that night. This tragic event leads to Sophie visiting her surviving cousins, whom she has not seen for many years, on the isolated and windswept Isle of Skye. Apart from her beautiful cousin Piper, who is very welcoming, everyone else is a bit of an oddball and secrets soon bubble to the surface. Very soon strange things begin to happen and the reader finds themselves knee deep in a terrific ghost story which has a number of entertaining twists and turns.

Loaded with atmosphere, with a superb setting, a huge house converted from Dunvagen School for Girls which was closed in 1910, poor old Sophie is sucked into a mystery which takes her all the way back to 1910. But first she must solve the mystery of what really happened to her dead cousin Rebecca.

Bearing in mind this novel is aimed at kids around 10-14 it has some hair raising scenes, these nasty little dolls, once they escape from their cabinet even blind one of the characters with their “stick a needle in their eye game”. However, some of the nastier scenes are character driven, rather than perpetrated by the dolls. The pace moves fast, the characterisation is strong and the combination of mystery and the supernatural is finely balanced. It’s perfectly pitched at children who like a good mix of horror, thriller and mystery.

Now onto the prequel “Charlotte Says” –

Often I get the feeling that prequels are often either a tad forced or redundant, however, this certainly isn’t the case with “Charlotte Says”. The reader could quite easily read this book before “Frozen Charlotte” as they complement each other perfectly. This new novel provides us with a very convincing backstory on the origins of the Frozen Charlotte dolls and what occurred way back in 1910 in the Dunvagen School for Girls. This is the house where Sophie visits in “Frozen Charlotte” and there are lots of clever cross references between the two books, such as when Sophie discovers an old school photo from 1910 and one of the girls is wearing a blindfold. We find out why…

Seventeen year old Jemima is an engaging and punchy central character, and we pick up the story when she arrives at Dunvagen School for Girls for her new job as Assistant School Mistress. She quickly finds it to be a horrible place with a cruel Headmistress whom she does not get on with and punishes her along with the girls. She is responsible for a large group of little girls aged 7-10 who have either been abandoned by their families, or have no families at all. Strange things begin to happen when she receives a large package in the post containing many tiny porcelain dolls which may be connected with Jemima’s old life before arriving in Skye.

This brings us to the second strand of the story which is told in flashback from the previous year. Jemima is from a family of fake mediums and they made a living pretending to be able to contact the dead. This strand of the story connects to the present when Jemima’s mum marries a man who is mourning the loss of his daughter and has his own dark agenda.

Both story strands are woven together particularly well and Jemima is an engaging character who readers will empathise with strongly, particularly girl readers. The little girls she cares for are sympathetic characters and of course the dolls play an increasingly bigger role as the story develops. There is even a dash of romance thrown in as Jemima reconnects with an old childhood friend who also lives on the island.

Like with “Frozen Charlotte” there are chills all the way as the dolls start to play their horrible games including the “throw the teacher down the stairs game” and Jemima tries to unsolved the mystery which is interconnected to her own past, whilst trying to deal with an increasingly unhinged Headmistress. Writing horror for kids is not easy and both “Charlotte” books hit the nail on the dead, having an excellent balance of fast placed plot, the supernatural, characters you care about, and nasty little dolls that will have your kids looking under their beds at night. It’s easy for adult horror readers to pick holes in horrors aimed at kids, but in the end of the day you need to try and visualise the book through the eyes of a child.

In the time I have been working on the interview I have given “Frozen Charlotte” to my reluctant twelve year old to read, and managing to pull herself away from watching reruns of “Stranger Things” she read the book in two days flat. My daughter is a very fussy reader, so that’s high praise indeed. Both books are highly recommended.

Look out for our interview soon.

Tony Jones

I devoured this book in one day. It was so much fun. It reminded me of John Boyne's "This House is Haunted" which itself is an homage to Dickensian era ghost stories. It has everything you'd want out of a story of demonic dolls and old industrial schools and I want to get a crate of Frozen Charlottes, a box of these books and give one to everyone I know at Hallowe'en.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for an advanced copy of this book. I would definitely give this book 5 stars.

Wow - I thought the first book was scary for a teen book and a fab read - this one is even better and much darker and more graphic.

This book tells the story of how the Frozen Charlotte dolls came to be in existence in this series of books. Such an addictive read - thoroughly enjoyed it.

Definitely wouldn't recommend to those that have a fear of dolls.

Jemima or Miss Black arrives at a school to be an assistant alongside Miss Grayson, a strict woman whom she doesn't end up getting along with on the Isle of Skye for girls who've been involved in crime and it's a big change to her past experience in London of holding séances alongside her mother, she has just suffered the loss of her mother in a fire.

Back there in London after a séance to contact a man's dead daughter, Vanessa whom had the dolls herself too. The man became her mother's husband and then starts abusing the pair in an alarming way...

Her old friend Henry who loves her is there for her along with his dog Murphy. They are close and he calls her Mim, the only person who does.

Then from her old school Whiteladies, Vanessa's frozen Charlotte dolls are sent to her in a box carved with her name and inside the dolls are shattered porcelain in places. Girl's start dying Charlotte plays games about harm and death after the myth is she died by freezing hence the dolls name. Upon talking to a doll they will start to call their new owner mother.
Which soon becomes the girls at this school, then Jemima herself gets infected with the frozen Charlotte's voice and many bad things begin to happen.

The Frozen Charlotte's love to play the murder game...

This book was a great sequel with a tension building last quarter. It was creepy, horrifying and a great teen horror book set to scare us all!

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley to review, here is the blurb:

"Following the death of her mother in a terrible fire, Jemima flees to the remote Isle of Skye, to take up a job at a school for girls. There she finds herself tormented by the mystery of what really happened that night.
Then Jemima receives a box of Frozen Charlotte dolls from a mystery sender and she begins to remember – a séance with the dolls, a violent argument with her step-father and the inferno that destroyed their home. And when it seems that the dolls are triggering a series of accidents at the school, Jemima realizes she must stop the demonic spirits possessing the dolls – whatever it takes."

I had already read Frozen Charlotte last year and really enjoyed it so when I was sent this book I started reading it immediately. I wasn't disappointed. You did not need to read Frozen Charlotte in order to read this book however, there were references in here that linked in. The style of writing I find really easy to read and if I had any criticism it would be that it would have been nice to develop some of the strange happenings at the school more. Having said that, a creepy read that kept me turning the pages. I am looking foward to reading more my this author.

This is horror. Torn between needing to know and fearing for the characters, I read this fast. Alex Bell doesn't shy away from harming some characters you are holding your breath for. The atmosphere is perfectly pitched and young horror fans will love the action. A prequel to Frozen Charlotte, which should you read first? Compulsive.

I had already read Frozen Charlotte and a number of others from the Red Eye horror collection, but when I found out about this prequel I was so excited I couldn't wait to get my hands on a proof from the publisher. The book did not disappoint. It was even gorier and scarier than the first novel. And I think I even preferred the historical setting in this prequel, the harshness of it made this ever more horrific. Wonderful work yet again from Alex Bell! These Red Eye books have been so popular in the school library I work in, and I imagine this will be just as sought after as the others! Thank you to the publisher for providing me with an advanced reader copy.

What a chilling read this was! The story follows Jemima Black who seems to be escaping an traumatic event which has happened back home. She has taken a position as an assistant at a school for girls who have committed various 'crimes'.
The true horror starts when she receives a package containing frozen Charlotte dolls and things take a much darker turn in the story from there.
One I first started the book I wasn't sure what to expect and I wondered if it would be full of cliches but I was pleasantly surprised at just how well the story develops and it turns in to a true horror story. There was even a few times I found myself wincing at the thought of a few incidents which take place! The author doesn't shy away from other disturbing incidents and I actually found myself reading this tale in one sitting as I needed to know how it progresses and finishes.
The book is creepy, suspenseful and clever. Those dolls are certainly things made from nightmares!