The Doll's House - 3.5 Stars

A good little thriller. I enjoyed the characters and being able to understand both sides of the mother-daughter dynamic of Jules and Scout through the duel POVs. I really enjoyed the beginning of the book and how it set up this new life for the main characters. I think for me, it went from setting up the story to just jumping to the ending. It kind of felt like the middle of the story was missing. The ending just came and went too fast.

Regardless, I still had fun reading it! If you're after a short and sweet thriller then you might enjoy this one!

Thank you NetGalley! This novella had many twists and turns that kept you wondering what would happen next

Rating: 4/5 Stars
Pub Date: 9/12
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The Doll’s House is an Amazon Short Story about a widowed mother giving love a second chance, when things start to get creepy.
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This is a fast paced story that will hook you right from the start. I enjoyed both Jules and Scout’s POV as the story alternates. I felt like it gave the story a deeper perspective, having both characters POV.
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This wasn’t overly scary but I love the creepy atmosphere that was created in such a short story and I loved the ending, it gave the perfect amount of shock to keep the reader wanting more. I flew through this one very very quickly.
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I listened to this one via audiobook while simultaneously reading along with my eARC. Mia Barron and Kimberly Woods were great. I loved this audio, their voices are easily distinguished between the two main characters. I highly recommend the audiobook.
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This is going to be a huge hit during spooky season! Making sure my horror / thriller friends pic this one up! You dont want to miss this short story! Huge thank you to NetGalley, Brilliance Publishing, and Amazon Original Stories for the eARC and ALC in exchange for my honest opinion.

This was a fantastic read! It was my first Lisa Unger book and it won't be my last for sure!!

The way she gave so much detail to her characters, especially her main characters Jules and Scout. You got an insight to their relationship but it wasn't too in depth that it felt like it dragged or was too much.
Even though I had guessed how the story was going I was still invested in reading it through and found it very captivating.
I wished it was a full sized novel because I was so invested in the story!


Thank you Amazon Short Stories and NetGalley for the ARC

In The Doll’s House, Jules is still grieving her husband's death when she meets Kirin, a charming artist who sweeps her into a whirlwind romance. Moving out of the city with her daughter Scout, Jules starts a new life in Kirin’s grand mansion, which he has carefully tailored to suit them. However, Scout struggles to accept her mother's new life, clinging to her father’s memory. Her resistance begins to wane when she discovers a handmade doll that once belonged to Kirin’s late sister. As Scout learns more about the doll and Kirin’s past, she senses a sinister presence in the house, one that seems to be focused on her mother. I enjoyed this short story! It’s a creepy, atmospheric read, perfect for October or Halloween. It is filled with eerie suspense, a growing sense of dread and dolls…. Lisa Unger writes a chilling short story that leaves readers questioning what’s real and what’s imagined, making for an exciting and thrilling novella.

This is a quick reading horror story. At 98 pages, there is plenty of content to enjoy. Scout and her mother, Jules, move into Kirin's family home. It's a luxurious home and at first blush, everything looks great. But then some odd things start to happen.

I enjoyed reading the book and the interesting twists.

The short story had a lot of good things about it, but I think it would have been better if it had been fleshed out a little more. I thought some things moved crazily fast and would have been more effective and creepy if they had been a little slower. Overall this story wasn’t bad, it was a fun ride even if it was very predictable. I liked the two narrators and I thought their experiences with grief were both good. Scout and her mom have moved in with her mom’s new boyfriend who is a famous artist and puppeteer. Scout didn’t want to move and leave behind everything she’d shared with her father but as a teenager she didn’t have much choice. But it’s clear this new house is holding secrets, but will Scout and her mother find them in time?

3.5★s
The Doll’s House is a short story by best-selling American author, Lisa Unger. Scout Cranor is too filled with resentment to be impressed by the fancy smart house her mother’s new boyfriend moves them into. Her mother, Jules has sold the apartment that holds all their memories of her recently (to Scout) deceased father, Doug; it’s just too soon.

Kirin Winslow is a world-renowned puppet and doll maker, and he tries hard to make her welcome, to make her comfortable. It’s when she stumbles on the doll he made in memory of his missing younger sister that Scout begins to warm to him a little: he knows what it is to grieve.

Meanwhile, exploring the woods around her writing studio, Jules has a disturbing encounter with a distressed young woman who shouts warnings at her, and somehow ends up with concussion. Kirin and his staff are all care and concern, but something is off.

Meanwhile, Scout has teamed up with new friends at school to find out what really happened to Kirin’s sister. Even in this short fiction, Unger expertly builds the tension and has the reader guessing the why, if not the who.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories.

This was a quick short story, I finished in an hour or so. It was interesting and felt like a mix of thriller and spooky horror, which I enjoyed. I do wonder why the author elected to make it a short story rather than a full novel- I would have been interested in getting to know the characters more if it had been longer. Worth the read!

Thanks to Amazon Original Stories and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy of The Doll's House in exchange for my honest review.

Pretty good for a short story. Enough time for the story to develop and then a satisfying conclusion.

This was such a creepy novella - especially for those who find dolls and puppets scary! I thought this would lend itself as well to be a longer story, I really liked the plotline. I will keep reading everything by Lisa Unger.

Lisa Unger’s The Doll's House is a fast-paced thriller that will keep you hooked from start to finish. The story moves quickly, making it a real page-turner that’s hard to put down.

Even though it’s a short read, Unger does a great job developing the characters. They feel real and relatable, adding depth to the story and making you care about what happens to them.

The ending is another standout. It’s both surprising and satisfying, wrapping things up in a way that feels just right.

Overall this is a fun and thrilling ride with strong characters and a great ending. It’s definitely worth checking out if you’re into gripping suspense stories.

This novella started out so well. I was really enjoying it and then (like most novellas) ten different things happened in the span of about ten pages. I think this storyline would be a great full-length novel. I really liked it up until about the halfway point and would love to see how the storyline would unfold in 300 pages rather than around 100 pages. 3.5 stars rounded up for potential. I suppose it's not the novellas fault it had to be so short ;)

Thank you to NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories for an ARC of this novella.

It was a well-written, quick, creepy story. Perfect for the upcoming spooky season. I read it in one sitting and enjoyed it so much.
Thank you to NetGalley and Amazon publishing for the ARC of The Doll’s House in exchange for an honest review.
Pub Date Sep 12 2024

An excellent read, this book grabs you with an eerie, foreboding atmosphere that keeps you hooked until the last page. With surprising twists and relentless suspense, this short tale has tension that just keeps mounting.
The author has quite intelligently created well-developed characters, that are relatable and understandable. The novella is thrilling and has quite a satisfying end.

“The Doll’s House” is a quick and easy read that is perfect for spooky season. At just 98 pages, this short story is a bingeable thriller you can read in one sitting. The story was a bit predictable, but I enjoyed the eerie and creepy vibes. A lot happened in such a short story, and I almost wish it was a full-length novel. Overall, an entertaining read that is a great pick when you need a palate cleanser or are trying to get out of a reading slump.

3.25

I thought this was an enjoyable short story. It had a good mixture of suspense with a little touch of the supernatural. Perfect for the start of spooky season!

An easy, simple spooky/haunted read.
I enjoyed the haunted doll house aspect of this, but my favorite was not the AI being involved with the house. Although it was a little predictable with who was the bad guy, I still enjoyed it.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
3.75 rounded up!

This one only took me about an hour to read, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. This was the first of the Amazon short story collections that I have read, and I loved how quick and to the point it was while also giving enough detail that it felt like I full length book.

I will say that I immediately had an idea where the story was going, but it was still a fun and enjoyable ride. I liked the juxtaposition of the POVs of Jules and her daughter, Scout. And I loved how Unger was able to perfectly capture the personality of a sullen teenager in such a short read.

Overall, it is a nice quick one if you are looking for something with a campfire horror story feel for the spooky season.

I am a huge Lisa Unger fan, and I loved her holiday novella last year and was excited to see a new one this year!

The Doll's House centers on a mother and daughter moving in with the mom's boyfriend after the death of her husband. The atmosphere feels eerie and tense, with the over the top technology throughout his house and his creepy job of building large handmade dolls. With a short story, the focus stays on the plot moving forward at a fast pace, and it is a quick and easy read great for the spooky fall season.

Thank you to Amazon Original Stories for the ARC; all opinions are my own.