🖤 DOLL PARTS 🖤
by Penny Zang
Pub Date: Aug 13, 2024 | Sourcebooks Landmark

This debut is a deliciously melancholic, Sylvia Plath-obsessed fever dream—and I’m still clutching my imaginary fishnets. Think The Virgin Suicides meets I Have Some Questions for You with a riot grrrl soul and just enough paranormal spice to keep you looking over your shoulder.

Told in a dual timeline (past Nikki + present Sadie), the story lingers in the ache of fractured friendship, girlhood grief, and ghostly obsession. The Sylvia Club lore? Unsettling in the best way. The prose? Dripping in angst and nostalgia. The vibes? Immaculate.

Penny Zang has created something raw, haunting, and honestly a little unhinged and I mean that as a compliment. You’ll laugh, ache, side-eye the espresso machine for ghosts, and probably cry at least once.

✨ For the sad girls. The haunted girls. The girls who never stopped loving Sylvia.
📚 Themes: gothic academia, toxic friendships, dual timeline, mystery, hauntings, the messiness of womanhood
🖤 Read this if you love: Courtney Love, thrift store angst, slow burn mysteries, dark academia with teeth

#DollParts #PennyZang #Bookstagram #DebutNovel #DarkAcademia #SadGirlLit #ParanormalMystery #SylviaPlathVibes #RiotGrrrlReads #PutnamBooks #NetGalley #FeministFiction #FallReading #BooksThatHaunt #GhostGirlsAndGrief

Doll Parts really got under my skin in a way I didn’t expect. I picked it up thinking it’d be a spooky little mystery with some ghost story vibes, but it ended up being a lot more emotional than that.

The story follows Sadie, who- after the sudden death of her estranged best friend, Nikki- ends up living in Nikki’s house, pregnant by Nikki’s husband. I know, it sounds messy (and it is), but the book leans into that messiness in a way that feels intentional. It’s not just drama for drama’s sake, but about grief, memory, and how complicated friendships can be, especially the kind you form when you're young and everything feels like it means everything.

It flips between the past and the present, slowly revealing what happened between Sadie and Nikki back in college, when they got wrapped up in this strange campus legend called the Sylvia Club. That part adds a kind of eerie, almost gothic undertone, but what really kept me reading was the way it captured the tension and love between two girls who were once inseparable.

The writing is beautiful, sometimes gutting, and occasionally it felt like the author just got it- how friendship can be intimate, painful, confusing, and unforgettable all at once. It wasn’t perfect (some parts dragged a bit), but honestly, I didn’t care. I stayed up late with it. I felt a lot while reading. That’s what sticks with me.

I don't normally read mysteries, but I would definitely recommend this- especially to anyone who’s ever had a friendship that changed them. Worth adding to your TBR!

The title grabbed my attention immediately, the 90’s were the Courtney Love years for so many of us. This book envelopes so much nostalgia- the music, the thrift store babydoll dresses and chunky boots, seánces and that feeling of freedom. We were wild and had no tether to our parental figures in those pre cellphone days. And then, like the second part of this dual timeline, we grew up. We married and had babies. We have responsibilities and nothing but fond memories and a fierce desire to go back for just a week to feel that wildness again-to remember who we really are, deep inside.

The nostalgia might be the hook of this book, but the mystery and the haunted lives of these girls are what keeps you involved in the story. While you think you have parts of the mystery figured out, there’s always more to be revealed. It’s written beautifully for a debut, I cannot wait to have a finished copy for my shelves and to share with those women who grew up along side of me.

Thank you Penny Zang, and to Sourcebooks Landmark for the advance copy!

I loved this book. As a Hole & Sylvia Plath fan, the title alone sold me. I did not expect to be moved as deeply as I was. This is a beautiful testament to friendship and a reminder that “tragic” figures are so much more than their deaths.

The writing is gorgeous and engaging.

The twists are relatively predictable if you read mysteries/thrillers often enough but it is not in a bad way. I am looking forward to adding this to my collection.

4.5 Stars

Penny Zang manages to capture everything I love about dark academia, mystery/suspense, gothic atmospheres, and the macabre in her debut novel, Doll Parts. This book grabbed me from the beginning, and I didn't want to put it down until the final page. The 90s nostalgia gave my little black heart all of the feels and the musical references to some of my favorite bands...Nirvana, Hole, the Cranberries, the Fugees, and Veruca Salt (who I saw in concert in 1995 and hung out with some of the band), made me love the story so much.

The setting and Zang's writing brought the perfect atmosphere to the story. She brought in a great feel with the description of Loch Raven's campus and the obsession that many of the female students had with Plath and suicide. I felt there was an energy to her writing, where the narrative voices were somewhat frenetic/frantic that worked so well in both timelines and just really added to the dark atmosphere of the story. I really loved seeing Sadie work through the unfolding mystery behind Nikki's death and her attempts to fit in with Nikki's adult world.

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐓𝐨 𝐄𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭:
* TW: Suicide, Death, Mental Illness
* Ghosts/Hauntings
* Female Friendship
* Dual POVs & Timelines
* Academic Setting
* Mystery/Suspense

𝐈𝐬 𝐈𝐭 𝐒𝐩𝐢𝐜𝐲?
🥶 (No)

I definitely recommend Doll Parts if you love 90s nostalgia, long-time friendships, a haunting atmosphere, and a slow burn mystery.

Haunting, sharp, and impossible to put down. Doll Parts blends campus legend with modern suburban dread in a dual-timeline mystery full of sad girls, secrets, and ghostly grief. Loved it.

Dark academia meets supernatural murder mystery. Sadie and Nikki were best friends, navigating a women's college rife with elite snobs, sad "Sylvia Plath" girls, and shady professors. Now, Nikki is dead, and she's left a trail for Sadie to follow to find out what really happened. While there's a sharp edge of dread as Sadie comes closer to learning the truth, you'll also find a wistful, evocative love letter to friendship.

A Haunting Dive into Buried Secrets
Doll Parts is a compelling and atmospheric debut that expertly weaves a dual-timeline suspense. If you enjoyed the melancholic intensity of The Virgin Suicides and the investigative depth of I Have Some Questions For You, you'll find yourself drawn into this unsettling tale.
The story follows Sadie as she grapples with the sudden death of her estranged best friend, Nikki, nearly two decades after a shared tragedy tore them apart in college. Their alma mater, an all-women's school, was plagued by the chilling legend of the "Sylvia Club," a series of deaths of Sylvia Plath-obsessed students, all dismissed as suicides. Aspiring writer Nikki, fascinated by these dark tales, suspected something more sinister was at play—a suspicion that seemingly led to her own demise.
Now, pregnant with Nikki's grieving husband's child, Sadie finds herself inhabiting her friend's life, only to discover that Nikki may be sending her clues from beyond the grave. The past and present intertwine as Sadie uncovers Nikki's continued quest for truth about the Sylvia Club, and the horrifying possibility that Nikki herself became its latest victim.
This evocative novel explores the intricate and often painful dynamics of female friendship, the lingering ache of girlhood, and the profound, almost physical, nature of grief. Doll Parts is an irresistible read that proves some stories truly refuse to stay buried.

THIS FUCKING BOOK. Holy forking shirtballs. What a debut.
I absolutely love when a debut makes me question where the author has been my whole life. BRAVO.

Doll Parts by Penny Zang is gritty, weird, and absolutely not for the faint of heart—and I devoured it. This isn’t your standard horror; it’s raw, grotesque, and intentionally disorienting in a way that makes you feel like you’ve stumbled into someone’s nightmare. The body horror is front and center, but what makes it so effective is that it’s never there just for shock—it’s layered with grief, anger, and a dark, twisted femininity. It’s like peeling away skin just to show what’s festering underneath, both literally and emotionally.

There were moments I had to pause—not because I wasn’t into it, but because the writing hit a nerve in that “wait, is this actually genius or am I just spiraling?” kind of way. The surreal, almost fragmented structure won’t work for everyone, but it mirrors the themes of disconnection and trauma in such a smart way. It’s messy, it’s gross, it’s disturbing—and yet it felt oddly cathartic. If you like your horror visceral, feminine, and unapologetically strange, Doll Parts is going to burrow under your skin.

Told in dual timelines, Penny Zang really delivered on a new The Virgin Suicides for the newer generation. With tons of the aforementioned, Bunny, and a riveting popcorn thriller, this debut novel blends magnetic and dynamic characters with beautiful and lilting prose. We meet Sadie and Nikki, best friends who ride around blaring grunge together and can be depended on to share with each other their deepest and darkest secrets. The friendship we learn about and read Multiple POV's from presents a level of vulnerability I truly found inspiring. I love that both girls found in each other a soulmate that had nothing to do with romance, until tessellating factors found their way within and dug their hooks in. Doll Parts is based around a college, a few professors, and a rash of suicides that are so similar to what Copolla and Eugenides did that I was stunned. You can really tell Zang not only did her research, but also shared a compelling story of Plathian proportions. Thanks so much to the author and publisher for the chance to read this advance eARC!
#sourcebookslandmark #sourcebooks #dollparts #pennyzang #pennyzangdollparts

“Doll Parts” (out Aug. 26 from Sourcebooks Landmark) from Penny Zang is a spellbinding debut that melds literary suspense with the eerie allure of dark academia.

Told in dual timelines, it follows Sadie, who steps into the life of her estranged best friend Nikki after Nikki’s sudden death and very complicated pregnancy. But Nikki isn’t quite gone. Her ghost lingers in memories, messages and a decades-old campus mystery involving the tragic deaths of Sylvia Plath-obsessed college girls. As Sadie digs into Nikki’s past, she begins to question her own sanity.

Laced with sorrow and grit, this searing novel cuts like a blade, an unforgettable exploration of girlhood, fury and the secrets that fester in silence.

I LOVED THIS BOOK!!! I LAUGHED. I CRIED. I MOURNED. I GRIEVED. I FELT THE LOVE OF NIKKI AND SADIE TANGIBLY. THANK YOU NETGALLEY FOR THIS ARC!

Female friendships are one of my favorite book subjects, and holy cow, this book did not disappoint.

In her debut novel, Penny Zang follows the friendship of Nikki and Sadie and what happens after, as Sadie tries to uncover the true cause of her childhood best friend's death - while living in her home and getting pregnant by her grieving husband. A story of mistakes, redemption, ghosts, mystery, and the horrors that can come when a society glamorizes suicide, Zang's novel is a masterpiece and easily one of my favorite reads this year so far.

My favorite aspect of the book is the very real and beautiful way that Zang talks about friendship, the ways girls show up for each other, and the messiness and struggle within female relationships. It's so REAL in a way that many books just aren't. The mother-daughter relationships, the friendships, the student-mentor relationships, the "this is awkward because we both used to be friends with the same person, but we don't actually know each other, but I want to be friends, but I'm pretty sure you hate my guts" relationships (how did she make something I've never even experienced before so relatable???).

That, combined with absolutely beautiful prose, ghosts, and a mystery that kept me guessing until the very end, made this book unforgettable and an absolute pleasure to read.

5/5 stars
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A cool premise but unfortunately I started losing interest about half way through. While the writing was good, not much was happening to keep the story moving. Once we get to the reveal, I was a little underwhelmed.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the e-ARC!

I adored this thriller as it ticked quite a few boxes for me. Sylvia Plath obsessed women? Check. Dark academia? Check. Women solving mysteries while danger abounds? Fucking check check and check. Not only did the cover draw me in, but Sadie and Nikki's relationship and characterizations did as well. I do wish that it moved a bit quicker in some parts and the ending did sort of disappoint, but overall, this was a solid thriller read!

A luminous exploration of friendship, grief, and the quiet violence women carry twisted in a college past of dark academia.

Nikki and Sadie left their small town without a second thought. A team of two, the best friends thought that Loch Raven College would bring big and bold new experiences. But Loch Raven holds its own kind of sorrow: a decades-old legend bore from the love of Sylvia Plath. Too many girls at the school have gone missing through the years.... Nikki takes on the cause and becomes quietly obsessed.

Twenty years later, Nikki is gone, and Sadie is pregnant by her best friend’s grieving husband. Living in Nikki’s old house, surrounded by her notes, books, and belongings, Sadie begins to sense Nikki's messages. Clues begin to surface, as if Nikki never stopped looking for the truth and as if she’s still trying to tell someone what she found.

Dual timelines, lots of nostalgia, dark parts and some confusion, but altogether mesmerizing and breath taking.
Doll Parts is a layered, lyrical story of girlhood and grief, of passion and friendships that refuse to fade and at it's core, female power. #sourcebooks #dollparts #livethroughthis #pennyzang

I would like to thank NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the ARC.

Wow, the writing was phenomenal. I will definitely be thinking about this one for a while.
5 ⭐️

Nikki and Sadie were best friends since elementary school, and both enrolled in an all-women parochial college as scholarship students. The student body is obsessed with Sylvia Plath, and several girls on campus over the years have committed suicide and thus have become members of the morbid Sylvia Club, which fascinates Nikki but not Sadie.

The friends last only a year at school apiece, and their friendship dies as well. Two decades later, Nikki, a successful self-help author, takes her own life. At her erstwhile friend's funeral, Sadie becomes enmeshed with Nikki's widower, eventually having his baby and moving in with him in the house that serves as a shrine to her predecessor. Almost immediately, Sadie becomes haunted by Nikki's ghost; furthermore, she discovers that Nikki had been working on the Sylvia Club again and seemingly had plans for Sadie to finish what she started.

The story unfolds in two narrative timelines, present-day Sadie and historical Nikki during their time in college. Both narrators are unreliable but also very likable. The dark academia vibes create a haunting backdrop with a stellar 90s indie music soundtrack. The twists and reveals form a compelling domestic thriller sure to please fans of the genre. This is a phenomenal debut, and I look forward to more books from this author.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for my review.

Just an FYI: Trigger warnings for suicide, mental illness

Every college has that one urban legend - that creepy building or supposedly haunted place everyone avoids or uses to scare the freshmen. But what if your college had an entire history of tragedies? And nobody wanted to talk about them? That’s what happened at Loch Raven College, where Sadie and Nikki attended for one year, and at various times at least nine girls, deemed the “Sylvia Club,” due to their supposed fixation on Sylvia Plath. Now, 20 years later, Sadie is a new mom, having gotten together with Nikki’s husband shortly after her death. The pair hadn’t talked since college, but now, Sadie begins seeing Nikki everywhere and finding clues Nikki left for her to complete one final project, which will make her confront the ghosts of Loch Raven.

This book is told from both womens’ perspectives, along two timelines: during their time at Loch Raven; and then in the present day, with Sadie trying to piece together what is going on.

Wow. That’s all I can say about this book. It’s one of the best thrillers I’ve read in a while, even though it’s low on action, because it just has such a huge amount of creepiness that pervades every page. There’s so many spooky angles, from a professor obsessed with dead girls, to the ghosts that roam the campus of Loch Raven, to Sadie seemingly slowly losing her mind in the present day as she sees Nikki’s ghost and dives into the mystery of her death and final work.

There’s a lot of focus on the girls as unreliable narrators and whether they are really experiencing what they are seeing, or if they are just depressed (Nikki had just lost her Mom) or overtired….the normal excuses. But it adds another layer to the story. It’s another creep factor.

There’s also some interesting discussion about what you should or should not have to give up for “happiness” or security. And what’s the price of that security. I’ll leave you to discover that one. It makes you think.

But even with all these threads, I had no problem keeping everything straight in my mind. The author does a great job of making everything fit together and organized so that it doesn’t become overwhelming. I had a clear picture of what was going on the entire time.

And the ending - OMG. I was blown away. It was amazingly perfect for the storyline. And I didn’t see it coming at all. Just great. That’s all I’ll say.

If you love thrillers or ghost stories, pick this book up. You won’t regret it!