Best friends, Sadie, and Nikki fell out of touch. Years later, Sadie is at her funeral, sleeps with her husband, and now lives with him and their baby. How did this author think of this plot? I do not know, but I was hooked and had to keep reading to find out what happened between these friends and what brought Sadie to this place. (And what the heck!! Sleeping with Nikki’s husband? Is that the kind of thing that came between these two friends?)
Told in the present by Sadie, and in the past by Nikki, hold onto your Kindle or book because the revelations and twists just kept coming. I do not recall the last book I read where I did not have many guesses on what was going on. This book, I just kept reading. It is a slow burn and was not a treadmill read for me. I only get about an hour before bed to read, so this took me a bit longer than usual to finish. Not the story's fault at all. It was all me and adulting that got in the way.
I just went back and read the book description, and I think it covers everything that you need to know. You do not need to have an extensive knowledge of Sylvia Plath, but if you do, you might find the parts related to her much more enjoyable. An excellent debut.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the eARC. I greatly appreciate it!

DOLL PARTS started off strong. As someone who studies a dead woman as an occupation, the very first chapter was extremely relatable. About 20 percent in, however, I began to lose interest. The writing was phenomenal and descriptive, but the plot felt like empty calories. Not as fulfilling as I had hoped. While I understand certain scenes have to happen in order to establish the mood and the characters personalities, but after a while, the story felt too slow to keep my interest.

Sadie and Nikki were best friends growing up. They went to the same college, but both dropped out after freshman year, and they've been estranged since. When the book opens, Nikki is dead, Sadie has a baby with Nikki's husband, and the reader doesn't know how any of this came to pass.

The novel is told in dual timeline: Nikki narrates the chapters from their freshman year in college, while Sadie provides the POV for the present-day chapters. Sadie is trying to make sense of Nikki's death, especially because she is haunted by Nikki's ghost and finds what she believes are clues that Nikki wants her to investigate. In Nikki's chapters, she was obsessed with a string of suicides at their all-female college.

The book builds gradually as we get to know these characters and the setting. In the second half, when the mysteries deepen in both timelines (and the present and past begin to intersect more), the momentum builds through to a satisfying conclusion that answered so many of my questions. This is not an edge-of-your-seat thriller but more of a slow burn driven by its two main characters.

The portrait of an unusual best-friendship between two outsiders is the aspect that will most stay with me. There is a heavy mid-90's vibe which readers of a certain age will appreciate. This is a very confident and original debut novel.

Thanks to Sourcebooks and Netgalley for the Advanced Reader's Copy.

I’m usually pretty bad at writing meaningful reviews but this book blew me away. It’s so different than the usual reads I tend to gravitate towards but the comparison to The Virgin Suicides (one of my favorite movies/books) & the mentioning of Sylvia Plath immediately had my attention.

Doll Parts is so incredibly haunting, yet beautiful, with a dash of eerie. While reading this book I had two modes: reading any free moment I had, or thinking of the next free moment I would have so I could read more. I could have easily read 400 more pages about Nikki and Sadie. This book has instantly become a forever favorite of mine.

Also, the playlist and songs/artists mentioned throughout the story was a total bonus. I can always appreciate someone with a solid taste in music.

This book sucked me right in from page one. This is a really unique premise and kept me turning the pages to see what happened next. I'm a big fan of dual-timeline stories. This is a haunting debut and I look forward to reading whatever this author writes next.

I am not sure I can even put into words what I want to say about this book but I’m going to try. Doll Parts is one of the best books I have ever read. I usually can guess the twists and turns that come along with books but this one I had no clue. I think I sat with my mouth open during half the book! I loved the dual POV and it really helped me to pick up the little clues throughout the book. I really loved the insight into the different levels of friendship and self awareness. If you love thrillers or if you usually guess the endings quick then you need to read Doll Parts! I can not wait for this book to come out so I can have a shelf trophy because WOW! Penny Zang is beyond talented and I can not wait to read more from them!

I received this book early and these are my honest thoughts.

Where do I even start with this deliciously melancholic, Sylvia Plath-obsessed fever dream of a novel? It’s like someone took The Virgin Suicides, sprinkled in a dash of mI Have Some Questions for You, and then doused it in 90s riot grrrl vibes with a side of paranormal chills. I’m still clutching my imaginary fishnets and swooning over the prose, but let’s unpack this gem, because this book deserves it, even if it made me work for it at times.

First off, the dual timeline structure—past Nikki and present Sadie—had me stumbling like a newborn fawn in chunky Doc Martens. The jumps between Nikki’s college days, where she’s chasing the dark allure of the Sylvia Club (a campus legend about Sylvia Plath-adoring girls meeting tragic ends), and Sadie’s present, where she’s navigating motherhood and living in Nikki’s creepily preserved home, took a hot minute to settle into. I’d be vibing with Nikki’s angsty, Courtney Love-blaring youth, only to be yanked into Sadie’s suburban unease, wondering if Nikki’s ghost was about to pop up like a jump scare in a 90s slasher flick. The transitions lulled me a bit, like when you’re at a concert and the band takes too long to tune their guitars between songs. But once I locked into the rhythm, I was hooked, flipping pages past midnight under the comfort of my covers.

The story follows Nikki and Sadie, former besties whose friendship frayed like a thrifted sweater. In the past, Nikki’s obsessed with the Sylvia Club, digging into the supposed suicides of Plath-loving students at their all-women’s college. Her curiosity feels like a moth fluttering too close to a flame, and it’s no spoiler to say it burns her—and her bond with Sadie. Fast-forward twenty years, Nikki’s dead, and Sadie’s got a newborn with Nikki’s grieving husband, Harrison, living in a house where Nikki’s presence lingers like a stubborn perfume. Sadie’s convinced Nikki’s sending clues from beyond, and the unraveling of the Sylvia Club’s secrets becomes a haunting puzzle. It’s a story of fractured friendships, the ache of girlhood, and grief that clings like damp Baltimore fog.

Zang’s prose is where I lost my mind—in the best way. It’s hypnotic, dripping with melancholy, like a sad girl playlist you can’t stop humming. She captures the sharp edges of female friendship with such precision, it’s like she’s holding a scalpel to your heart. One scene where Nikki and Sadie try on thrifted clothes, laughing and dreaming, had me nostalgic for my own college days, blasting Senses Fail and pretending I was cooler than I was. I could smell the musty thrift store and feel the weight of their unspoken tensions. But then Zang flips the mood, and you’re in Sadie’s present, where she’s dodging nosy neighbors and Harrison’s refusal to move Nikki’s stuff, like he’s curating a shrine.

The Sylvia Club mystery is a slow burn, but it’s worth the wait. I won’t spoil the twists, but let’s just say Zang knows how to make you gasp and then cackle at your own gullibility. The paranormal vibes add a delicious creep factor, though I occasionally rolled my eyes when Sadie’s ghost-hunting felt a tad too Scooby-Doo. Still, the way Zang ties the past and present together is fantastic, even if some lulls had me skimming like I was cramming for a final.

I read some of this while sipping a Frappuccino in a coffee shop, and I swear, every time Sadie saw Nikki’s ghost, I’d glance over my shoulder, half-expecting a spectral Plath fan to be lurking by the espresso machine. That’s the kind of immersive vibe Zang creates. Sometimes the pacing dragged like a dial-up modem, and I wanted more of Nikki’s fiery spark in the present timeline. But when it hits, it hits. It’s a love letter to the messy, beautiful chaos of being a young woman, to the friends who break your heart, and to the ghosts we carry.

Doll Parts is a must-read for anyone who’s ever been a sad girl, loved a sad girl, or just wants a thriller that feels like a riot grrrl anthem with a side of goosebumps.

3.5 stars rounded up to a solid four because the words were beautiful and I too had a best friend in college who I loved and needed more than poetry or oxygen, who loved me back better than anyone else has ever gotten close to, and to whom I haven’t spoken in very nearly a decade. Doll Parts has flaws—the dual timelines don’t quite maintain the same propulsive energy (THEN occasionally bored me to death when compared to the urgency of NOW), the supernatural elements felt very SFX, added in post instead of practical and real—but what kept me reading was Zhang’s ability to write about the friendship between two young women, hollowed out and growing mold in their hollow places, susceptible to infection and toxicity were it not for the light of one’s another’s love shining into their darkness, burning everything clean again. I’d like to thank to the publishers and NetGalley for an ARC of Doll Parts in exchange for an honest review. I do not thank them for my eyes gone all dry and puffy after crying over Sadie and Nikki.

Doll Parts is an atmospheric, haunting, and emotionally rich debut that absolutely consumed me. Told in a dual timeline, this novel follows Sadie, who finds herself drawn back into the life of her estranged best friend Nikki after Nikki’s sudden and mysterious death. When Sadie moves into Nikki’s eerily perfect suburban home—while pregnant by Nikki’s grieving husband—she starts to suspect that something about Nikki’s death isn’t right.

Back in college, Nikki and Sadie were part of a sad girl sisterhood orbiting the Sylvia Club—a campus legend centered around the suicides of Sylvia Plath-adoring students. Nikki became obsessed with uncovering the truth, and that obsession never left her. As Sadie digs deeper, she begins to wonder if Nikki's death was just the latest chapter in a much darker story.

This book absolutely nails the blend of literary suspense and psychological horror. The writing is sharp and evocative, and the tension simmers in both timelines. The portrayal of complicated female friendship is raw and unflinching—intimate, toxic, and unforgettable. I especially appreciated how it tackled themes of grief, guilt, and the romanticization of female suffering without ever feeling cliché or shallow.

It reminded me of The Virgin Suicides in tone, but with a much darker bite. The mystery kept me hooked, but it was the emotional undercurrent that truly broke me. This is a story about how the past never really stays buried, and how some friendships leave marks you can’t scrub clean.

Doll Parts is haunting in every sense of the word—and I’ll be thinking about it for a long time.

Huge thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this early in exchange for an honest review.

One of my favorite books of all time is The Virgin Suicides and I had high hopes for this book, its being ostensibly about a rash of suicides at a girl's college. Doll Parts delivers on the melancholy feel of the girls and their obsessions with Sylvia Plath, perhaps the best-known suicide of all time. But this is more than just a book about dismal observations. At its heart, Doll Parts is a mystery…a search to find out what’s behind the suicides, because Nikki is convinced that there’s something suspicious going on.

The story is told in two timelines, the first about best friends Nikki and Sadie and their experiences at school. I found this viewpoint to be beautifully written, having been friendship-centered and music-obsessed myself when it came to leaving home for college. The second timeline comes some twenty years later, following Nikki’s death by an apparent suicide. The former BFFs have been estranged from each other since college and Sadie finds herself stepping into Nikki’s shoes, taking up with Nikki’s former husband seemingly before Nikki has been laid to rest and having a baby barely nine months later. Sadie finds her new home to be haunted with her former friend’s presence and begins to uncover clues that indicate that Nikki’s death may not be as straight-forward as it seems. As Sadie follows the clues, she becomes obsessed with picking up Nikki’s trail and determining once a for all what happened all those years ago.

I loved the way this book was written, the haunting feel of the girls’ friendship, the music and poetry which colored their college experiences. The mystery itself was compelling, although I was a little disappointed with the ending, which sort of fizzled after such a big buildup. This book didn’t quite live up to the ideal of The Virgin Suicides, but I enjoyed every bit of it and would recommend to all except those who are triggered by suicides.

Much thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for allowing me to read this e-ARC in exchange for my opinions.

Really intriguing story, and the dual timelines AND POV kept me engaged. I think it was possibly a little too long with small snippets that didn’t drive the plot along. But otherwise, I enjoyed the book! I hope the author writes more!

Thank you to NetGalley & Sourcebooks Landmark for this ARC! Doll Parts by Penny Zang is a dark, unsettling collection that explores the grotesque and the feminine with sharp, unflinching prose. Each story feels like a glimpse into a beautifully twisted nightmare, blending body horror with emotional depth. Zang’s voice is unique and fearless, making this a must-read for fans of experimental and horror-tinged fiction.

From the description, I thought that Doll Parts was going to be a kind of average thriller set on a college campus, which is a genre I love, but I've read before. However, the plot was actually much more nuanced than I anticipated, with some supernatural elements that had me questioning myself and the narrator. I really enjoyed reading Doll Parts and recommend to anyone who likes college-themed thrillers.

Maybe it just went over my head but I don’t really see how this essentially murder mystery really had much to do with Plath overall. Other than the weirdly obsessed professor, I don’t really understand “the murderers” motivation or connection at all other than just the million references to Plath’s name and the unfortunate suicides over the span of 30 years. It felt like a stretch honestly. This just felt to me that that author wanted all her readers to know she likes Sylvia Plath

Nothing and I mean NOTHING is better than a story about friendship between women. Doll Parts may not seem like that story, but I promise it is. The DUAL POV and timeline was the perfect way to tell this story. It has just enough creep factor, while not attempting to go full-blown into a genre blending novel. We learn about these women, from girlhood on and watch them develop on the page. The mystery aspect was well done and unraveled at the perfect pace to keep the reader hooked. Ultimately, the friendship is what stole the show, though. You can tell this was written by a women in every aspect, and that may be the highest praise I can give. It all felt extremely authentic. Harrison’s character felt a little underdeveloped but other than that, our main crew really came to life.

The story is told through the point of views of Sadie, in the present, and her best friend Nikki, in the past, during their college days twenty years before. I thought I knew how the story would go. I mean, Sadie had a baby with her friend’s husband soon after Nikki’s death - old friend hooks up with the grieving husband and Lifetime movie tropes ensue, right? I think you were supposed to hate Sadie, but you soon find more going on here than you think. As I kept reading, I found a beautiful story of friendship and grief. Even the strongest friendships can’t stand if the grief is so intense.
What drew me to this story was the relatability of Sadie and Nikki, who I saw as the “weird girls”- a label I’ve often felt applied to me. And the feeling that you’re barely holding things together after the death of a parent.
The two POVs, which were separated by time, resulted in a rich story. The distinct voices of Sadie and Nikki move the story with perfect pacing, and I couldn’t stop reading. Their expressions of heartbreak and longing leap off the pages. The book was haunting, yet beautiful.

*Doll Parts* is a haunting and evocative debut that weaves together friendship, grief, and the dark allure of tragedy. Nikki's obsession with the mysterious deaths surrounding her college's Sylvia Club leads to a chilling unraveling, only for her estranged best friend, Sadie, to discover the eerie aftermath two decades later. Through dual timelines, this novel explores the fragility of bonds, the shadows of past trauma, and the lingering presence of those we lose.

4.5 this was one of my most anticipated books this year, and it didnt disappoint. one of the best debuts i've ever read, i'll definitely read zang's future books.

I was immediately drawn to Doll Parts because of the Virgin Suicides reference—add Sylvia Plath and I’m sold. Haven’t we all had a Sylvia sad girl phase? The writing and structure of this debut really impressed me. I just wish it had a tighter edit and fewer loose ends. I’d recommend it to anyone into haunting, dark academia or books like Bunny by Mona Awad. Extra points for all the Plath references.

The title of this book is what drew me to it but I struggled to get into it and the only thing that kept me going was the continuous emails from NetGalley to review it. I wanted to like this book so so much but I just could not. The story overall unraveled slowly to me and some chapters were easier to get through than others.

I am new to Thriller and Dark Academia so maybe I just need to read more and the come back and re-read this but that is something for me to decide later.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!