Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Voyager for providing me with an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review!!

Shean of Pearl makes beautiful, intelligent, and strong dolls. Everything she believes will be necessary to fight the Shod. When it’s time for her licensing test, however, the guild feels her dolls are too artistic to be part of the guard. Shean is so upset by the outcome of her testing. How can she not be a guard dollmaker when it’s all she worked for? In an attempt to have her accept her license and begin her life outside of instruction, her mentor send Shean to a faraway land called Web to speak with Ikiisa who was not like other dollmakers. Rather than coming to learn, Shean decides to challenge Ikiisa for her position in Web as the town guard dollmaker. But doing so may cause Shean more harm than good.

This was a truly unique story! I enjoyed the magic system so much. The world was rich and I felt so immersed in the setting of this book. I have a few gripes with the book, however. Shean is not a fun main character to be on this ride with. Very early on you just kinda wanna scream at her. But if you can look past a frustrating fmc then the story is great! The only other thing that really bothers me with this story is how many loose ends there are by the end of it. It’s very unclear if there are more books intended for this story but I would love if there are! Outside of those two issues, I really did love this book. It’s captivating and immersive. The dolls are so cool and the overall story reminds me very much of my favorite Tim Burton movie, 9. If you’ve seen that movie, read this book! And vise versa. Overall, this book is a SOLID 4/5 stars. I really REALLY hope to see another book in this world to button up all the open ended plot lines.

What a fun and original concept!! I had to pick this one up since it was recommended by Brandon Sanderson and described as feeling like a Ghibli movie, which are two of my favorite things!

Shean is a very interesting character, because I love seeing a woman believe that she deserves good things and feel like she is just as good as, if not better, than a man. BUT, she's also kind of the most annoying person on the planet and super rude. So you may find it hard to relate to her at times. However, I loved the lore of this world, where there is a scary group of creatures that hunt humans and the only way to stop them are with guard dolls. It was a great book to visualize in my head while reading.

I absolutely LOVED Ikiisa. Such a sweet character who holds a lot of depth and made me feel a lot of things. It takes good writing for me to side with a secondary character over the main one, but this book did it. I loved it!

Definitely recommend this one if you're into fantasy and want something a bit different!

This is a stand alone fantasy debut. Cozy fantasy and a bit of horror. Really enjoyed it. Hope the author writes more in this world.

A little spookier than I was expected and a little less cozy. I guess “a society that creates dolls to protect them from hordes of monsters” is a clue on the spooky scale. This book really works. The characters establish themselves immediately on the page and they all have the chance to really grow in a short time. The world building is unique without being complicated. It could have been a little longer to play with Roque’s character but overall I really liked it.

This book was so engaging and the world-building was flawless. I want to spend more time there. I also appreciated making the main character flawed and three-dimensional. Give me more right now.

Two stars overall due solely to the unique world building, but the MC was extremely unpleasant and genuinely awful. I won’t even say there was real growth.

The only flaw is this book is that the action and pacing of it didn’t pick up until half way through. But from there is a mad sprint to the end that I couldn’t put down. The characters are compelling, flawed, and dynamic. And I have hopes for the next installment. The exposition of this was long and at times too much so, however the world building is consistent and whimsical and prone to leading to something truly immaculate as it continues.
As a YA this is one of the most thoughtful ones I’ve found recently, and though it had some things I’d complain about none are worth listing in criminal detail.

In this world, Dollmakers are vital in the battle against the Shod—both artist and guard alike.

Shean of pearl thinks she is the best dollmaker. She makes the most artful, lifelike, and creative dolls and is so scandalized at being given an ✨artist’s✨ dollmaker license that she punches licenser Maton, probably my favorite character of the story.

I didn’t think this story was bad, more like woefully ill explained, if beautifully imagined… and I hate the FMC. I really just couldn’t get past her temper tantrum in the first chapter and her character development is criminally slow. By the time I got to where she is put in her place [insert loud cheering], I just hated her for every crappy thing she’d done to everyone else that I couldn’t start to care about her.

Almost every other character described is one whose story I would have rather been told, but we’re unfortunately stuck with Shean, the brat.

Besides all that, I actually really enjoyed this world Buchanan wrote. The writing was nice, if a little hard to follow when scenes got busy, and the pacing was a little weird. I just wish, desperately, that there had been more world building. Honestly, I wish this had been split into two books so the characters and the world had more time to develop. There was so much more I wanted to know.

Roque was by far the most interesting character. He did provide more questions than answers, but he really added a lot of magic to the story. I’d love a followup to this story, maybe some sort of prequel where more of his story is told leading up to the events at the Village called Web. This did end in a way that strongly suggested a second.

Overall this falls somewhere in the middle for me. I’m truly looking forward to what Lynn Buchanan comes up with next!

3.5 ⭐️!

I want to thank the author, Harper and Voyager, and Avon via Netgalley for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This one started really sluggish for me, and I found myself really not wanting to read a book with a FMC that was so fit to throw tantrums like a feral child. However I decided that my curiosity of the magic system and synopsis kept me going. I really ended up enjoying the majority of the book. I think that had I not disliked Shean so much in the beginning I don't think that I would have appreciated her growth and development. The magic system was really something neat and I loved how even it evolved and changed through the book. The dolls were an absolute delight and I love how mischievous some of them were. I did really like a lot of the secondary characters and thought that they lent to the story well. I am really excited to see what is next for this author!

This book was so magical, spooky and fascinating. It took a minute to understand the pacing, though, I do feel that was an intentional choice by the author. This is a perfect October read!

dnf at 13%

I wanna start by saying that I thought the premise of this book was amazing. The concept of there being dollmakers creating these dolls to protect them and/or be a form of artwork was interesting and I enjoyed that aspect. I really enjoyed reading the descriptions of the dolls, especially after seeing one of the illustrations, and the lyrical writing was really well done. I also enjoyed that the dolls were separated between those that were guards and the ones that were artisans.

However, I think there could be revision when it comes to the main character of this story. I was really surprised to see how unbearable Shean was as a character, and it shocked me that I ended up disliking the main character of a book so early. Having a dislikable character is totally fine (look at Yellowface by RF Kuang), and I understand having a character that experiences growth throughout the book, and perhaps Shean does that, but the introduction of her character was so jarring that it made me wonder if she really does grow or change her behavior. Watching her not get the result she wanted from something and so she decides to physically assault someone for not giving her that something? It's giving emotionally immature, and this all happened within the first few pages! Honestly, I really really hope that as the story continues Shean becomes a better character (and a better person heh) and hopefully her worldview on artisan dollmakers drastically changes because it was pretty hypocritical of her to spend all this time designing this doll with such immense detail, despite knowing that a guard doll's only purpose is to be a guard and fight, and yet she views artisan dollmakers as weak.

Ultimately, this book had a good concept but it wasn't executed well and the structure of the book definitely needs some work. Not only are there no chapters, but there is also no real world building. We're just introduced to the dolls, how they work, and then there's a reference to 'the country of One' or 'the town of Pearl' (the amount of times I read the words 'the -- of --' was a bit odd and very much overdone). I also think there should be a few questions raised in regards to the use of these dolls. Within just the first would-be chapter of this book, there's a scene where the reader can obviously tell that these dolls are sentient beings. Of course I don't think there would be much of a plot surrounding these dolls if they weren't sentient, but the way in which they are created for nothing more than what would basically be forced conscription, or they can be sold off to people because their entire role as a doll is to serve humans really shows how these sentient beings are being subjected to indentured servitude/slavery. Maybe the plot of this book is to save these dolls from this kind of harm, I don't know, but I'm not gonna read on to find out whenever I don't like the main character's childish behavior and the introduction to her, as a character, is watching her throw a tantrum and gnaw on a pillow like a rabid animal (I did have a pretty good laugh at that though. It was a fun thing to mentally picture lol).

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins for a gifted arc of this book, this is just my honest opinion.

The Dollmakers was an exciting adventure from the start, with excellent character development and growth, and a strong voice from author Lynn Buchanan. I’d happily read more books set in this Studio Ghibli world!

The Dollmakers is a fascinating and creative fantasy that had me completely enraptured. I love the word-building and the entire concept of the dolls and dollmakers in this book. This says this is "a novel from the Fallen Peaks," so I'm anticipating that there is more of this world to come (or that already exists, but this seems to be her only novel thus far) and I'm really looking forward to that! I'll be honest and admit that the protagonist was extremely unlikable in the beginning of the book for me and I was starting to feel so confident that nothing could change my feelings towards her, but fortunately Lynn Buchanan is a talented enough writer that there were actually a lot of things happening in this book that caused me to be surprised at so many different points of this book. I loved that I could never really predict where the story was going and it really felt like I was reading something really new. I had an amazing time on this journey and really enjoyed this book, the characters, and the entire dollmaking concept. Highly recommended and I look forward to reading more from Lynn Buchanan!

This book was fantastic! I did find the main character insufferable at first, but she has an amazing character development arc. I loved the fantasy world this was set in and look forward to reading any future books by this author!

This was incredibly strange in ways that I both found interesting and didn't. I enjoyed the idea behind the world as well as how difficult our protagonist could be, but I felt like the actual ideas of the dolls opened a huge moral and philosophical can of worms that was never satisfyingly dealt with. It was a strong start that fell apart at the halfway point for me and left me dissatisfied at the end.

Thank you Netgalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review

I have never picked up a book with a character that has irritated me to no end AND was compelled to finish this piece of literature. I was introduced with the Dollmakers Edicts, and our stubborn, arrogant, ambitious, and talented dollmaker's apprentice, Shean. She is....misguided to say the least. I couldn't fathom how she has gotten this far with her will. I was transported with her throughout her journey of finding who she was meant to be.

There was a lack of chapters, but I am astonished at how I didn't notice, or care. It's also not only in Shean's point of view, which quite surprised me (I do wish I had Silver's POV). The worldbuilding was not overly encumbered with details, simple, but thorough that the reader can immerse themselves. The descriptions of certain scenes and moments served to bring the reader, and I had an unhealthy want for that meal in the city called Port.

Most of the questions and answers with the book are predictable, but no less enjoyable. I may just have a bias towards dolls and puppets, but this book is a must read for high fantasy, fast-paced lovers!

I would first like to thank Net Galley and Harper Voyager for sending an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

It honestly took me a little while to get into this story. The main protagonist was infuriating and kind of a drag to follow but as the story progressed I realized that was in fact intentional. The same could be said for the world building, once I grew accustomed to everything, I was hooked. It’s a story of growing up and maturing, learning your place in the world and accepting who you are. I loved the way the story (and characters) developed, and really enjoyed the unique element of the dolls.

Overall I was pleasantly surprised by The Dollmakers and I look forward to seeing where this series goes and will keep looking for more from Lynn Buchanan.

Shean is an apprentice dollmaker who dreams of her dolls fighting against the Shod, the demonic creatures that killed her family. But when Shean’s dolls are rated only as toys and unsuited for battle, she’s wild with rage. When her master suggests Shean visit another dollmaker to seek her advice, Shean instead decides she’ll challenge the dollmaker to a duel to steal her position and prove her dolls can indeed defeat the Shod.

My favorite part of this book was the beautiful imagery in this, especially in the description of the dolls. An example:
Unlike most dolls, though, great care had been taken to give this doll a very realistic, human face: slightly parted lips painted the shade of pink found inside seashells, a thin and delicate nose, a set of low-lidded eyes made with opal and onyx and a blue stone for the rises that Maton had no name for.

But so much frustrated me. For someone who wants to craft magical creatures to defend the world from evil, Shean is deeply unlikeable and her actions sincerely troubling. Her rage at the beginning of the book seemed more like a toddler than the young adult she is. I like a good character progression story, but Shean’s development just didn’t feel convincing.

Some of the plot also didn’t make much sense. I won’t go into spoilers here, but the most obvious is that Shean’s dolls are fundamentally different, but authority figures seem oddly unconcerned.

Would I recommend this? Yes, with caveats, especially to people interested in remarkable scene-setting and interesting magic systems.

Engaging and spooky, reminded me of studio ghibli. I’m excited to see what this author comes out with next!

Thank you NetGalley and Harper Voyager for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

The Dollmakers follows an aspiring Dollmaker named Shean as she strives to become guard dollmaker to protect people from the monsters of this world, the Shod.

Shean is a character that puts her own ambitions first and we see the consequences of now only her actions, but the society she's a part of as a whole. This is an original story with complicated characters and growth. I couldn't put the book down.

One thing I will note is that the flaws if the main character are a central component to the story, so if unlikable character traits are a problem for you, it may be a struggle to get through. There were times when I was screaming at the book because of my frustration.