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Dolly
The remoter parts of the English Fens are forlorn, lost and damp even in the height of summer. At Iyot Lock, a large decaying house, two young cousins, Leonora and Edward are parked for the summer with their ageing spinster aunt and her cruel housekeeper. At first the unpleasantness and petty meannesses appear simply spiteful, calculated to destroy Edward's equanimity. But when spoilt Leonora is not given the birthday present of a specific dolly that she wants, affairs inexorably take a much darker turn with terrifying, life destroying, consequences for everyone.
192 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 5, 2012
74 people are currently reading
3081 people want to read
About the author
Susan Hill
180 books2,265 followersSusan Hill was born in Scarborough, North Yorkshire in 1942. Her hometown was later referred to in her novel A Change for the Better (1969) and some short stories especially "Cockles and Mussels".
She attended Scarborough Convent School, where she became interested in theatre and literature. Her family left Scarborough in 1958 and moved to Coventry where her father worked in car and aircraft factories. Hill states that she attended a girls’ grammar school, Barr's Hill. Her fellow pupils included Jennifer Page, the first Chief Executive of the Millennium Dome. At Barrs Hill she took A levels in English, French, History and Latin, proceeding to an English degree at King's College London. By this time she had already written her first novel, The Enclosure which was published by Hutchinson in her first year at university. The novel was criticised by The Daily Mail for its sexual content, with the suggestion that writing in this style was unsuitable for a "schoolgirl".
Her next novel Gentleman and Ladies was published in 1968. This was followed in quick succession by A Change for the Better, I'm the King of the Castle, The Albatross and other stories, Strange Meeting, The Bird of Night, A Bit of Singing and Dancing and In the Springtime of Year, all written and published between 1968 and 1974.
In 1975 she married Shakespeare scholar Stanley Wells and they moved to Stratford upon Avon. Their first daughter, Jessica, was born in 1977 and their second daughter, Clemency, was born in 1985. Hill has recently founded her own publishing company, Long Barn Books, which has published one work of fiction per year.
Librarian's Note: There is more than one author by this name.
She attended Scarborough Convent School, where she became interested in theatre and literature. Her family left Scarborough in 1958 and moved to Coventry where her father worked in car and aircraft factories. Hill states that she attended a girls’ grammar school, Barr's Hill. Her fellow pupils included Jennifer Page, the first Chief Executive of the Millennium Dome. At Barrs Hill she took A levels in English, French, History and Latin, proceeding to an English degree at King's College London. By this time she had already written her first novel, The Enclosure which was published by Hutchinson in her first year at university. The novel was criticised by The Daily Mail for its sexual content, with the suggestion that writing in this style was unsuitable for a "schoolgirl".
Her next novel Gentleman and Ladies was published in 1968. This was followed in quick succession by A Change for the Better, I'm the King of the Castle, The Albatross and other stories, Strange Meeting, The Bird of Night, A Bit of Singing and Dancing and In the Springtime of Year, all written and published between 1968 and 1974.
In 1975 she married Shakespeare scholar Stanley Wells and they moved to Stratford upon Avon. Their first daughter, Jessica, was born in 1977 and their second daughter, Clemency, was born in 1985. Hill has recently founded her own publishing company, Long Barn Books, which has published one work of fiction per year.
Librarian's Note: There is more than one author by this name.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 729 reviews
October 23, 2017
Horror is best when little is known, so I won't divulge a synopsis here. I will say that this renowned novella-length horror tale gave me all the creepy vibes I had anticipated, directly from the cover alone. Before even beginning this chilling narrative, I was already imbibed in emotions of dread, which did not cease until the final pages were turned.
The actual events depicted in this tale were less terrifying than the atmospheric creepiness that emanated from the page. Hill's prowess, here, lay in the evocative depiction of weather and landscape that pervaded the senses with fear. Fog-encapsulated houses, rural cemeteries deluged in rain, and low-rolling and thunder-heavy clouds, threatening the earth with all they contain, were only the beginning of the chill setting this story contained.
The bones of the narrative were relatively simple in conception and similar to others I have read, but never have I encountered such a skillful and authentic sense of atmosphere that so enchanted my senses. Any writer can learn a lot from this skill in depiction. Every one of my senses were awoken and so, too, were every one of my darkest fears.
The actual events depicted in this tale were less terrifying than the atmospheric creepiness that emanated from the page. Hill's prowess, here, lay in the evocative depiction of weather and landscape that pervaded the senses with fear. Fog-encapsulated houses, rural cemeteries deluged in rain, and low-rolling and thunder-heavy clouds, threatening the earth with all they contain, were only the beginning of the chill setting this story contained.
The bones of the narrative were relatively simple in conception and similar to others I have read, but never have I encountered such a skillful and authentic sense of atmosphere that so enchanted my senses. Any writer can learn a lot from this skill in depiction. Every one of my senses were awoken and so, too, were every one of my darkest fears.
November 11, 2012
I was excited to read Dolly but, perhaps, didn't have enormously high expectations. I have found the author's other ghost stories enjoyable, but patchy: The Mist in the Mirror was great, spooky fun; The Woman in Black tremendously atmospheric, but nowhere near as scary as its reputation would suggest; and her two most recent, The Man in the Picture and The Small Hand, were both good but disappointing in some respects, primarily their brevity and lack of satisfying explanations. Sadly, I found that this book fell squarely into the last category, despite an extremely engrossing beginning which made me think it had the potential to be my favourite Hill ghost story so far.
Dolly starts with Edward, a forty-something conservator, returning to Iyot Lock, a village he last visited in his childhood. Then - and this will be no surprise to anyone familiar with Hill's ghost stories - there's a flashback, and we're back in the village forty years before, when Edward and his cousin Leonora were children and spending the summer at Iyot House with their Aunt Kestrel. Orphaned and shy, Edward seems the opposite of Leonora, who is spoilt and bold. There are already hints of something evil in Leonora's character - the dour housekeeper, Mrs Mullen, proclaims that she 'has the devil in her' - but these are brought to the fore when Aunt Kestrel sets out to buy the one birthday present Leonora's indulgent mother has never given her: a doll.
However, when the tale drawn from Edward's memory reaches its climax, we jump back to the present (?) day again, and that's where the story falls down as it rushes headlong towards an abrupt conclusion.
I always feel like Hill's ghost stories suffer because her writing is its own worst enemy. The opening of Dolly is SO good - the scene-setting, the characterisation, the subtle and slow building of tension, not to mention the inherent creepiness of old-fashioned dolls - that you naturally want this amount of attention to detail to continue throughout the book, and it just doesn't, despite some fascinating sparks of promise. The section in which Edward journeys abroad, for example, reminded me strongly of the Daphne du Maurier short stories I've recently found so addictive, as well as more classic ghost stories such as those by M.R. James - but it happens too quickly and is cut too short to really allow any impact on the reader. It feels like the author was given a word limit for this story, and had to cut lots of material out of the ending because she couldn't bear to let anything go from the brilliant beginning. I would still recommend this to ghost story fans - especially if you've enjoyed any of Hill's previous work in this genre, as it's so similar in style and structure - but be warned, you may feel let down when you reach the end.
Dolly starts with Edward, a forty-something conservator, returning to Iyot Lock, a village he last visited in his childhood. Then - and this will be no surprise to anyone familiar with Hill's ghost stories - there's a flashback, and we're back in the village forty years before, when Edward and his cousin Leonora were children and spending the summer at Iyot House with their Aunt Kestrel. Orphaned and shy, Edward seems the opposite of Leonora, who is spoilt and bold. There are already hints of something evil in Leonora's character - the dour housekeeper, Mrs Mullen, proclaims that she 'has the devil in her' - but these are brought to the fore when Aunt Kestrel sets out to buy the one birthday present Leonora's indulgent mother has never given her: a doll.
However, when the tale drawn from Edward's memory reaches its climax, we jump back to the present (?) day again, and that's where the story falls down as it rushes headlong towards an abrupt conclusion.
I always feel like Hill's ghost stories suffer because her writing is its own worst enemy. The opening of Dolly is SO good - the scene-setting, the characterisation, the subtle and slow building of tension, not to mention the inherent creepiness of old-fashioned dolls - that you naturally want this amount of attention to detail to continue throughout the book, and it just doesn't, despite some fascinating sparks of promise. The section in which Edward journeys abroad, for example, reminded me strongly of the Daphne du Maurier short stories I've recently found so addictive, as well as more classic ghost stories such as those by M.R. James - but it happens too quickly and is cut too short to really allow any impact on the reader. It feels like the author was given a word limit for this story, and had to cut lots of material out of the ending because she couldn't bear to let anything go from the brilliant beginning. I would still recommend this to ghost story fans - especially if you've enjoyed any of Hill's previous work in this genre, as it's so similar in style and structure - but be warned, you may feel let down when you reach the end.
April 27, 2021
I really can't see how this is a ghost story, but whatever. It's more like a haunted doll story if you ask me. The haunted doll, a sweetheart of a boy, (that grows into a man), and a horrid little girl, (that grows up to be a horrid, ungrateful woman.)
Smothered in atmosphere and darkness, I did enjoy this short, novella length tale and the narrator was pretty decent.
Smothered in atmosphere and darkness, I did enjoy this short, novella length tale and the narrator was pretty decent.
June 29, 2024
Susan Hill is a prolific English author, born in 1942 in North Yorkshire, which is often where her novels are set. Her first novels were critically acclaimed, and since then she has turned to genre writing in addition, with a popular mystery detective series, and an annual ghost story. Her most famous works include “The Woman in Black” and “The Mist in the Mirror”. She wrote Dolly: A Ghost story in 2012, and in the same year, she was awarded a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire). It seems a shame that this was not in a year when she wrote one of her most successful books. Dolly: A Ghost story is memorable, but not for the right reasons.
Let me say at the start that I hesitated about reading this story. I am rather automatonophobic, and even miniature “people” in death-like poses make me uneasy. Plus it is clear from the title that this doll will not be a cute pretty doll, but something more horrific, and probably the embodiment of my worst nightmares. However I need not have been concerned. The story did not scare or even chill me whatsoever. It appalled me.
Dolly: A Ghost story begins promisingly enough, with a description of an overgrown and desolate area of the fens; a forgotten place, with an atmosphere of impending doom. This is the sort of prologue which the author does so well. Then we are into the main text, and realise that the narrator is looking back into his past and remembering when he was there about 40 years earlier. He visits an old house, now empty, feeling himself driven by unseen forces to a particular dusty, dark cupboard in the house. He is disturbed by strange rustling sounds, and the sound of crying, but time has blurred whatever disturbed him in childhood. The place acts “like a pick stabbing through the ice of memory” and we are about to be transported back to discover what happened.
Edward also has a strong urge to visit the graveyard which he does not resist. He is filled with nostalgia about the place and has a feeling of déjà vu, which he cannot understand. But now we are into the flashback, which is to comprise most of the book.
We read of a childhood summer, when Edward was about 8 years old. He is sent by steam train to Iyot House in the Fens, to spend the summer with his Aunt Kestrel. His aunt, who is not very familiar with children, has also invited his cousin Leonora, whom he was to meet for the first time. The two children are polar opposites: Edward shy and introverted, Leonora, “a white-faced child with a halo of red hair” is spoilt, privileged and selfish.
We learn that the children’s mothers, Kestrel’s sisters Dora and Violet, had a life-long feud. One was plain and gawky. She had brown hair and was jealous of the other, “an extremely pretty child with blonde bubble-curls”, who grew up to have a succession of lovers and husbands. The latest of these is an older, wealthy man, and Leonora’s father. Leonora’s mother, Violet, travels the globe restlessly, sometimes indulging her daughter and sometimes neglecting her. Leonora boasts about her globetrotting lifestyle to Edward, but we are not told who brings Edward up, or where he lives, except that he misses his mother sometimes. The parts about the family take a long time to tell, considering that this is a novella. They have little atmosphere, and are flat, reading like a saga.
The other person in this claustrophobic old house is the housekeeper Mrs. Mullen. She does not like either child, finding Edward “namby pamby” and saying that “the devil is in Leonora”. We suspect that she might be right. Aunt Kestrel, unused to children, really wants to to please them but even she finds Edward unsettling—“opaque and polite”—and inwardly dislikes the precocious Leonora, saying that Leonora is like her mother Violet. Leonora is bored, and completely without empathy; looking down on everything and everyone. If things do not go her way, she has violent rages, on one occasion , and screaming “without apparently needing to pause for breath”.
Aunt Kestrel believes that this all bodes ill, and Mrs. Mullen, a darkly superstitious countrywoman, does not want the strange children in the house at all. She believes Leonora is possessed.
They are both, in their own ways trying to make up to Leonora for what they see as her loneliness, and lack of love. But their efforts ultimately have horrific consequences.
As a child, Edward had been unusually sensitive, and prey to his imagined fears, and sinister premonitions. He could hear strange rustling sounds in various places, and also crying.
Susan Hill is usually very good at building tension, but here it felt all too calculated. The novel has a 19th century feel, and I fear the author was attempting to write a modern gothic novel. What it inspired in me was not fear, but a strong feeling of distaste and disapproval. Not of the characters—we do not always expect to necessarily like the characters—but of the author’s jaundiced views which are assumed with this ending. I feel that one of my favourite authors, Susan Hill, has let herself down with the crux of this story. However, it is difficult to convey why without revealing a huge spoiler.
The message of this story is that evil can manifest itself in future generations. It is messy and confused.
The only way we can read such stories now, is by buying into the cruel superstition and myths of the past. But we are not 19th century readers. When reading a Victorian writer, we are able to suspend our 21st century pragmatism by reminding ourselves that this is what people used to fear and believe.
Dolly: A Ghost Story has the feel of a gothic novel, and uses some of its tropes such as an isolated creaky old house, wuthering storms and dank places, a darkly superstitious servant making portentous remarks, a bleak and dreary churchyard abandoned by God, a blameless, sensitive protagonist, warped reflections in mirrors (a symbol of the darker self), a mysterious will, possession and evil spirits and so on. However it is clearly set in the near present with talk of modern gadgets such cars, electric light, telephones, and at one point the 1970s were mentioned. Plus it is a common horror plot now, to have a doll—a symbol of childhood, happiness, and innocence—twisted to something darker, which embodies something more.
Would if have helped then, if the author had dispensed with the modern style of writing, assumed a flowery diction and set the story at least a century before? Perhaps, but the thoughts behind this one are twisted indeed, and writers rarely spelled out such abominations. Charles Dickens wrote about some of these themes, and very scarily too, but he never sank to this “pointing fingers and peepshow” level, despite the popular beliefs of his time. He had more compassion and respect.
This story goes far further than the merely grotesque, and leaves a foul taste in the mouth. It is a long time since I rated a book at one star, but I cannot honestly award more. Even though there are some well written passages, the message of this book is base and corrupt. I cannot personally merit this above my lowest grade.
You may feel differently, but do not assume this is because I want to retreat into a cosy nook. I recently read descriptions of barbaric torture and sexual deviancy in a set of much-acclaimed literary fantasy stories. I did not enjoy them at all, but left them at my default of 3 stars as I recognised their creativity and literary worth. This was worse. Here we have a novel founded in realism, and the supernatural parts are clearly defined. If we then buy into the author’s final suggestion of what is an horrific abomination in the real world, we lose the sensitivity and empathy which makes us uniquely human. We disrespect what it means to have intelligence, and are back to ignorance. For shame! No, no, no.
Let me say at the start that I hesitated about reading this story. I am rather automatonophobic, and even miniature “people” in death-like poses make me uneasy. Plus it is clear from the title that this doll will not be a cute pretty doll, but something more horrific, and probably the embodiment of my worst nightmares. However I need not have been concerned. The story did not scare or even chill me whatsoever. It appalled me.
Dolly: A Ghost story begins promisingly enough, with a description of an overgrown and desolate area of the fens; a forgotten place, with an atmosphere of impending doom. This is the sort of prologue which the author does so well. Then we are into the main text, and realise that the narrator is looking back into his past and remembering when he was there about 40 years earlier. He visits an old house, now empty, feeling himself driven by unseen forces to a particular dusty, dark cupboard in the house. He is disturbed by strange rustling sounds, and the sound of crying, but time has blurred whatever disturbed him in childhood. The place acts “like a pick stabbing through the ice of memory” and we are about to be transported back to discover what happened.
Edward also has a strong urge to visit the graveyard which he does not resist. He is filled with nostalgia about the place and has a feeling of déjà vu, which he cannot understand. But now we are into the flashback, which is to comprise most of the book.
We read of a childhood summer, when Edward was about 8 years old. He is sent by steam train to Iyot House in the Fens, to spend the summer with his Aunt Kestrel. His aunt, who is not very familiar with children, has also invited his cousin Leonora, whom he was to meet for the first time. The two children are polar opposites: Edward shy and introverted, Leonora, “a white-faced child with a halo of red hair” is spoilt, privileged and selfish.
We learn that the children’s mothers, Kestrel’s sisters Dora and Violet, had a life-long feud. One was plain and gawky. She had brown hair and was jealous of the other, “an extremely pretty child with blonde bubble-curls”, who grew up to have a succession of lovers and husbands. The latest of these is an older, wealthy man, and Leonora’s father. Leonora’s mother, Violet, travels the globe restlessly, sometimes indulging her daughter and sometimes neglecting her. Leonora boasts about her globetrotting lifestyle to Edward, but we are not told who brings Edward up, or where he lives, except that he misses his mother sometimes. The parts about the family take a long time to tell, considering that this is a novella. They have little atmosphere, and are flat, reading like a saga.
The other person in this claustrophobic old house is the housekeeper Mrs. Mullen. She does not like either child, finding Edward “namby pamby” and saying that “the devil is in Leonora”. We suspect that she might be right. Aunt Kestrel, unused to children, really wants to to please them but even she finds Edward unsettling—“opaque and polite”—and inwardly dislikes the precocious Leonora, saying that Leonora is like her mother Violet. Leonora is bored, and completely without empathy; looking down on everything and everyone. If things do not go her way, she has violent rages, on one occasion , and screaming “without apparently needing to pause for breath”.
Aunt Kestrel believes that this all bodes ill, and Mrs. Mullen, a darkly superstitious countrywoman, does not want the strange children in the house at all. She believes Leonora is possessed.
They are both, in their own ways trying to make up to Leonora for what they see as her loneliness, and lack of love. But their efforts ultimately have horrific consequences.
As a child, Edward had been unusually sensitive, and prey to his imagined fears, and sinister premonitions. He could hear strange rustling sounds in various places, and also crying.
Susan Hill is usually very good at building tension, but here it felt all too calculated. The novel has a 19th century feel, and I fear the author was attempting to write a modern gothic novel. What it inspired in me was not fear, but a strong feeling of distaste and disapproval. Not of the characters—we do not always expect to necessarily like the characters—but of the author’s jaundiced views which are assumed with this ending. I feel that one of my favourite authors, Susan Hill, has let herself down with the crux of this story. However, it is difficult to convey why without revealing a huge spoiler.
The message of this story is that evil can manifest itself in future generations. It is messy and confused.
The only way we can read such stories now, is by buying into the cruel superstition and myths of the past. But we are not 19th century readers. When reading a Victorian writer, we are able to suspend our 21st century pragmatism by reminding ourselves that this is what people used to fear and believe.
Dolly: A Ghost Story has the feel of a gothic novel, and uses some of its tropes such as an isolated creaky old house, wuthering storms and dank places, a darkly superstitious servant making portentous remarks, a bleak and dreary churchyard abandoned by God, a blameless, sensitive protagonist, warped reflections in mirrors (a symbol of the darker self), a mysterious will, possession and evil spirits and so on. However it is clearly set in the near present with talk of modern gadgets such cars, electric light, telephones, and at one point the 1970s were mentioned. Plus it is a common horror plot now, to have a doll—a symbol of childhood, happiness, and innocence—twisted to something darker, which embodies something more.
Would if have helped then, if the author had dispensed with the modern style of writing, assumed a flowery diction and set the story at least a century before? Perhaps, but the thoughts behind this one are twisted indeed, and writers rarely spelled out such abominations. Charles Dickens wrote about some of these themes, and very scarily too, but he never sank to this “pointing fingers and peepshow” level, despite the popular beliefs of his time. He had more compassion and respect.
This story goes far further than the merely grotesque, and leaves a foul taste in the mouth. It is a long time since I rated a book at one star, but I cannot honestly award more. Even though there are some well written passages, the message of this book is base and corrupt. I cannot personally merit this above my lowest grade.
You may feel differently, but do not assume this is because I want to retreat into a cosy nook. I recently read descriptions of barbaric torture and sexual deviancy in a set of much-acclaimed literary fantasy stories. I did not enjoy them at all, but left them at my default of 3 stars as I recognised their creativity and literary worth. This was worse. Here we have a novel founded in realism, and the supernatural parts are clearly defined. If we then buy into the author’s final suggestion of what is an horrific abomination in the real world, we lose the sensitivity and empathy which makes us uniquely human. We disrespect what it means to have intelligence, and are back to ignorance. For shame! No, no, no.
November 23, 2014
Little girls walking around in their mums' shoes, little boys wearing their dads' jackets. You see them stumble to keep upright, shuffling around clumsily and awkwardly but all the time you are thinking.... ah how cute. However, short stories draping themselves in full novel garb or trying to step out in a Gothic novel's shoes is not cute. It is frustrating and annoying.
This was supremely disappointing. It was an intriguing short story plot but had nothing of the credibly supernatural in it and it was certainly not worthy of nigh on 150 pages. It didn't hold together, it made no real sense. The four main characters were archetypes or perhaps even clichés. Edward-scared wimp; Leonora-vicious self-seeker; Aunt Kestrel-sweet old aunt; Mrs Mullen-acid tongued Housekeeper.
The main drive of the supposed horror stems from the spoilt Leonora smashing a birthday gift....a doll. From this brutal rejection everything else purportedly develops. Weird noises of babies crying, of tissue paper rustling and then the eight year old Edward hits upon the idea of burying the broken doll in the graveyard. I won't say anything more because to examine the story beyond this point would be to remove even more credibility from an already dubious plot.
Hill never reasonably explains or offers an inkling as to a) Why does Edward hear rustling in his bedroom on the first night...days before he even meets Leonora and weeks before the doll smashing which supposedly begins the horror b) What was Leonora ? Hill sometimes presents her as just a spoilt brat or a self centred cow but at one point she is described, as Edward sees her crouching in the graveyard, as evil and full of menace and hate. Is she supposed to be possessed or captured by some evil residing in the doll, or the house, or her unloving mother or somewhere else c) Why does what happens, happen ? I am perfectly content to shiver and quake in thrall to supernatural goings-on and nasty come-uppances coming up but there is no sense as from where the central terror originates or why.
Massively unconvincing....I read it in one sitting and for that I am grateful. It means I did not really have the time to build up much expectation only to see it dashed by a poor finish. Susan Hill, in part of the novel written by Edward as an adult, uses him to trumpet how awful things would get....... From this moment I would not sleep soundly again for many weeks..etc etc or words to that effect.....it was lazy writing.
In 'The woman in black' and 'The man in the picture' Susan Hill intimates fear, she creates an atmosphere of terror and gathers shadows and horrors around us, just out of reach or out of sight....In this book, as in 'The small hand' or even 'The mist in the mirror', I felt she was lazier in her writing and just told us what we should be feeling and did not bother to use her considerable talent to enable us to feel.
I regularly recommend ghost stories to people during the winter months....sadly, this is not one that shall join that list.
This was supremely disappointing. It was an intriguing short story plot but had nothing of the credibly supernatural in it and it was certainly not worthy of nigh on 150 pages. It didn't hold together, it made no real sense. The four main characters were archetypes or perhaps even clichés. Edward-scared wimp; Leonora-vicious self-seeker; Aunt Kestrel-sweet old aunt; Mrs Mullen-acid tongued Housekeeper.
The main drive of the supposed horror stems from the spoilt Leonora smashing a birthday gift....a doll. From this brutal rejection everything else purportedly develops. Weird noises of babies crying, of tissue paper rustling and then the eight year old Edward hits upon the idea of burying the broken doll in the graveyard. I won't say anything more because to examine the story beyond this point would be to remove even more credibility from an already dubious plot.
Hill never reasonably explains or offers an inkling as to a) Why does Edward hear rustling in his bedroom on the first night...days before he even meets Leonora and weeks before the doll smashing which supposedly begins the horror b) What was Leonora ? Hill sometimes presents her as just a spoilt brat or a self centred cow but at one point she is described, as Edward sees her crouching in the graveyard, as evil and full of menace and hate. Is she supposed to be possessed or captured by some evil residing in the doll, or the house, or her unloving mother or somewhere else c) Why does what happens, happen ? I am perfectly content to shiver and quake in thrall to supernatural goings-on and nasty come-uppances coming up but there is no sense as from where the central terror originates or why.
Massively unconvincing....I read it in one sitting and for that I am grateful. It means I did not really have the time to build up much expectation only to see it dashed by a poor finish. Susan Hill, in part of the novel written by Edward as an adult, uses him to trumpet how awful things would get....... From this moment I would not sleep soundly again for many weeks..etc etc or words to that effect.....it was lazy writing.
In 'The woman in black' and 'The man in the picture' Susan Hill intimates fear, she creates an atmosphere of terror and gathers shadows and horrors around us, just out of reach or out of sight....In this book, as in 'The small hand' or even 'The mist in the mirror', I felt she was lazier in her writing and just told us what we should be feeling and did not bother to use her considerable talent to enable us to feel.
I regularly recommend ghost stories to people during the winter months....sadly, this is not one that shall join that list.
October 13, 2017
Classic Gothic ghost story from the pen of Susan Hill - the title says it all really....it does what you'd expect it to do, but is non the worse for that. A strong, memorable and haunting narrative from Susan Hill. For fans of the genre - not to be missed.
August 10, 2017
First of all a disclaimer - many of Susan Hills supernatural stories (She also writes crime stories amongst others which I have yet to try) have the subtitle of "a ghost story", although this definitely falls in to the supernatural category it is not a ghost story in my mind.
Without going in to the details of this story I would liken to a classic episode of the UK TV series Tales of the Unexpected (so expertly written by Roald Dahl).
You see what you have is a tale of unease and supernatural - where events seemingly start out normal if emotionally charged, they quickly start to slide in to the weird and disturbing.
This is something I think Susan Hill has a unique grasp of - very much in the style of many of the classic 19th (and a few 20th) century authors who spun a great fire side yarn - ideal for giving disturbed nights sleep. It has all the right ingredients, eccentric and creepy family relatives (and their servants), depressing and isolated locations and violent and unforgiving weather.
Now what I would say is that even with all of these stock story ideas the actual delivery and storyline are fresh and unique - I didn't feel I was reading a re-hash or pastiche of something else's work.
I did feel in a few parts that it was recognising its predecessors -such as with its narratives final confession and acknowledgement that nothing will be the same again (how many times have I heard that in a stories conclusion).
I will not say it is Susan Hills finest work - but I will say it proves she is a master at her material and still has plenty more unnerving stories to tell.
Without going in to the details of this story I would liken to a classic episode of the UK TV series Tales of the Unexpected (so expertly written by Roald Dahl).
You see what you have is a tale of unease and supernatural - where events seemingly start out normal if emotionally charged, they quickly start to slide in to the weird and disturbing.
This is something I think Susan Hill has a unique grasp of - very much in the style of many of the classic 19th (and a few 20th) century authors who spun a great fire side yarn - ideal for giving disturbed nights sleep. It has all the right ingredients, eccentric and creepy family relatives (and their servants), depressing and isolated locations and violent and unforgiving weather.
Now what I would say is that even with all of these stock story ideas the actual delivery and storyline are fresh and unique - I didn't feel I was reading a re-hash or pastiche of something else's work.
I did feel in a few parts that it was recognising its predecessors -such as with its narratives final confession and acknowledgement that nothing will be the same again (how many times have I heard that in a stories conclusion).
I will not say it is Susan Hills finest work - but I will say it proves she is a master at her material and still has plenty more unnerving stories to tell.
June 27, 2016
This book is honestly not even worth the 1 star I gave it.
It is the definition of an anticlimax. The entire book (and it's not that big) is spent building up more and more momentum... which just fizzled into nothing at the end. I was left disappointed and kind of betrayed, with a bitter taste in my mouth. What was the POINT to this book? It wasn't creepy. It wasn't scary. It wasn't even interesting.
For example: Why was I expected to care at all about all this? The writer sure didn't make me care.
It's a huge pity that this book was a disappointment. I've wanted to read it for 2 years (this review is written in 2016, but I read it in 2015), ever since I saw ads in it in the London Underground, basically praising it. Well, after reading it, I understand that it needed all the advertising it could get, at least. It needed it, but didn't deserve it.
It is the definition of an anticlimax. The entire book (and it's not that big) is spent building up more and more momentum... which just fizzled into nothing at the end. I was left disappointed and kind of betrayed, with a bitter taste in my mouth. What was the POINT to this book? It wasn't creepy. It wasn't scary. It wasn't even interesting.
For example: Why was I expected to care at all about all this? The writer sure didn't make me care.
It's a huge pity that this book was a disappointment. I've wanted to read it for 2 years (this review is written in 2016, but I read it in 2015), ever since I saw ads in it in the London Underground, basically praising it. Well, after reading it, I understand that it needed all the advertising it could get, at least. It needed it, but didn't deserve it.
October 6, 2017
This novella was written by the same woman who wrote The Woman in Black, which I read and reviewed back in January of this year. I must say, I enjoyed this story much more.
Dolly still has that neo-gothic feel to it. I just felt there was more of the horror aspect I love so much in this one. And lets face it......
Dolls are creepy.
Dolly still has that neo-gothic feel to it. I just felt there was more of the horror aspect I love so much in this one. And lets face it......
Dolls are creepy.
November 3, 2012
I'm genuinely not sure what to make of this. I bought it on a whim from our local, friendly bookseller, and I quite liked The Woman In Black, so I thought I'd give this a go. I'm not going to say that I wish I hadn't, but I didn't get a lot out of it.
I think the problem I have with this book is that it's trying to be a lot of things in a very small space. It's a novella, really, but it's trying to capture something of the gothic novel (think Wuthering Heights), elements of Dorian Gray, and there are odd smatterings of eastern mysticism that don't fit with the rest of the story, and are left unexplained.
Probably my greatest problem with any kind of horror or spooky fiction is that it works much more for me if the supernatural elements are grounded somewhere in the story, or in reality, or even with a cogent backstory behind them, but in the case of Dolly, I really don't think those reality-building linkages were built. The reasons behind events aren't clearly explained and all we are left with is a somewhat cowardly protagonist and his own musings on whether he should really write the story down.
That said, I can see what Hill was trying to do here, and elements of it were quite clever. I wouldn't advise you not to read it, but I would say that it's not actually a ghost story, though it's marketed as such, and it's nowhere near as good as The Woman In Black or some of her other stuff. I gave it a 2.
I think the problem I have with this book is that it's trying to be a lot of things in a very small space. It's a novella, really, but it's trying to capture something of the gothic novel (think Wuthering Heights), elements of Dorian Gray, and there are odd smatterings of eastern mysticism that don't fit with the rest of the story, and are left unexplained.
Probably my greatest problem with any kind of horror or spooky fiction is that it works much more for me if the supernatural elements are grounded somewhere in the story, or in reality, or even with a cogent backstory behind them, but in the case of Dolly, I really don't think those reality-building linkages were built. The reasons behind events aren't clearly explained and all we are left with is a somewhat cowardly protagonist and his own musings on whether he should really write the story down.
That said, I can see what Hill was trying to do here, and elements of it were quite clever. I wouldn't advise you not to read it, but I would say that it's not actually a ghost story, though it's marketed as such, and it's nowhere near as good as The Woman In Black or some of her other stuff. I gave it a 2.
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August 2, 2019Όσοι με ξέρετε θα γνωρίζετε ήδη το κόλλημά μου με εξώφυλλα που έχουν πορσελάνινες (συνήθως ραγισμένες) κούκλες που κοιτάνε κατευθείαν στη ψυχή σου.
Αυτός ήταν ο πρώτος και κύριος λόγος που πήρα αυτό το βιβλίο.
Ο δεύτερος είναι ότι η Σούσαν Χίλλ είναι η μόνη συγγραφέας που κατάφερε να με τρομάξει,
όχι στο σημείο να ρίξω το βιβλίο χάμω από τον φόβο ή να κρυφτώ πίσω από μαξιλάρι, αλλά να ανατριχιάσω σύγκορμος, it sent shivers down my spine που λένε και στο χωριό μου.
Το βιβλίο δεν είναι άλλο από τη γυναίκα με τα μαύρα, μια ιστορία με φαντάσματα, στοιχειωμένες επαύλεις βαλτοτόπια, καταχνιά, ομίχλη, με άλλα λόγια ατμοσφαιρικά μακάβριο.
Το ίδιο συμβαίνει και εδώ.
Παρόλο που δεν τρόμαξα, αλλά ανατρίχιασα σε 1-2 σκηνές η Χιλλ για άλλη μια φορά σε μεταφέρει σε ένα γοτθικό περιβάλλον, ατμοσφαιρικά μουντό, με μνήματα γεμάτα βρύα, κούκλες που είναι σχεδόν ζωντανές, δαιμονικά πνεύματα και κατάρες.
Μπορεί η ιστορία να μου άφησε πολλά ερωτήματα και να ένιωθα ότι κάτι έλειπε, να έχω πολλές απορίες, η γραφή όμως της Χιλλ το έσωσε, μεταφέροντάς με σε μια εποχή Βικτωριανού γοτθικού τρόμου.
Αν σας αρέσει το είδος δοκιμάστε την, αλλά καλύτερα θα έλεγα να ξεκινήσετε με το γνωστότερο και καλύτερό της έργο The Woman In Black
Καλό σαββατοκύριακο και καλά διαβάσματα.
Βαθμολογία: 7/10
Αυτός ήταν ο πρώτος και κύριος λόγος που πήρα αυτό το βιβλίο.
Ο δεύτερος είναι ότι η Σούσαν Χίλλ είναι η μόνη συγγραφέας που κατάφερε να με τρομάξει,
όχι στο σημείο να ρίξω το βιβλίο χάμω από τον φόβο ή να κρυφτώ πίσω από μαξιλάρι, αλλά να ανατριχιάσω σύγκορμος, it sent shivers down my spine που λένε και στο χωριό μου.
Το βιβλίο δεν είναι άλλο από τη γυναίκα με τα μαύρα, μια ιστορία με φαντάσματα, στοιχειωμένες επαύλεις βαλτοτόπια, καταχνιά, ομίχλη, με άλλα λόγια ατμοσφαιρικά μακάβριο.
Το ίδιο συμβαίνει και εδώ.
Παρόλο που δεν τρόμαξα, αλλά ανατρίχιασα σε 1-2 σκηνές η Χιλλ για άλλη μια φορά σε μεταφέρει σε ένα γοτθικό περιβάλλον, ατμοσφαιρικά μουντό, με μνήματα γεμάτα βρύα, κούκλες που είναι σχεδόν ζωντανές, δαιμονικά πνεύματα και κατάρες.
Μπορεί η ιστορία να μου άφησε πολλά ερωτήματα και να ένιωθα ότι κάτι έλειπε, να έχω πολλές απορίες, η γραφή όμως της Χιλλ το έσωσε, μεταφέροντάς με σε μια εποχή Βικτωριανού γοτθικού τρόμου.
Αν σας αρέσει το είδος δοκιμάστε την, αλλά καλύτερα θα έλεγα να ξεκινήσετε με το γνωστότερο και καλύτερό της έργο The Woman In Black
Καλό σαββατοκύριακο και καλά διαβάσματα.
Βαθμολογία: 7/10
July 31, 2016
Dolly is one of Susan Hill's supernatural novellas. My copy is a nice little hardcover edition; I have matching editions of The Small Hand and Printer's Devil Court, also by Hill, and they're very nicely designed.
Dolly is the story of two cousins who are invited to spend the summer with their aunt in her isolated ancestral home. Edward and Leonora are the children of Dora and Violet, Aunt Kestrel's much younger, feuding sisters. Dora is now dead, leaving Edward an orphan, and international socialite Violet has been drifting from country to country for years, living in hotels with Leonora in tow, her lifestyle financed mainly by a succession of boyfriends. Part of the story takes place in the present, with Edward and Leonora returning to Iyot House after Aunt Kestrel's death, and the rest is set during their childhood stay there.
Susan Hill excels at building atmosphere and making places feel like characters in their own right. Iyot House, large and rambling with its isolated Fenland location, is every bit as damp and bleak as The Woman In Black's Eel Marsh House. The rain falls even throughout the summer and there's a general sense of decay about the place, with a flat, grey gloominess to the landscape.
Edward, from whose point of the view the story is told, is a polite, timid child and a polite, non-confrontational adult, constantly nervous but also stoical and innately kind. By contrast, Leonora is rude, spiteful, thoughtless and self-centred. Despite this, there are times when you will feel sorry for Leonora, spoilt but unloved by the mother she clearly idolises and resigned to a life of a succession of 'stepfathers'. Are Leonora's tantrums solely down to her upbringing, or is there someone or something at Iyot House that's driving her to worse and worse behaviour? Housekeeper Mrs Mullen seems to think so - does she have a point, or does she simply hate children?
I have some very minor issues with the sequence of events, as I think there is a slight flaw in the logic at one point early on in the story, but Dolly is certainly a very creepy book indeed, and by and large it's beautifully constructed. Although its cover calls it a ghost story, it isn't really a ghost story in a literal sense. It's is a supernatural horror story, but the 'haunting' isn't the traditional sort and to me, Dolly reads like a cross between MR James and one of Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected.
It's short enough to read in one sitting (and I would recommend doing so), yet long enough to build the characters effectively and to lend it some extra nuance that might have been absent in a short story. It also leaves plenty of scope for the reader to decide why certain things might have been happened and who or what might be responsible; it doesn't spoonfeed the reader with clear explanations. This would make a great read for a rainy summer afternoon or a winter evening by the fire - and if the BBC don't adapt it as a ghost story for the Christmas schedules one day, they're really missing a trick.
Dolly is the story of two cousins who are invited to spend the summer with their aunt in her isolated ancestral home. Edward and Leonora are the children of Dora and Violet, Aunt Kestrel's much younger, feuding sisters. Dora is now dead, leaving Edward an orphan, and international socialite Violet has been drifting from country to country for years, living in hotels with Leonora in tow, her lifestyle financed mainly by a succession of boyfriends. Part of the story takes place in the present, with Edward and Leonora returning to Iyot House after Aunt Kestrel's death, and the rest is set during their childhood stay there.
Susan Hill excels at building atmosphere and making places feel like characters in their own right. Iyot House, large and rambling with its isolated Fenland location, is every bit as damp and bleak as The Woman In Black's Eel Marsh House. The rain falls even throughout the summer and there's a general sense of decay about the place, with a flat, grey gloominess to the landscape.
Edward, from whose point of the view the story is told, is a polite, timid child and a polite, non-confrontational adult, constantly nervous but also stoical and innately kind. By contrast, Leonora is rude, spiteful, thoughtless and self-centred. Despite this, there are times when you will feel sorry for Leonora, spoilt but unloved by the mother she clearly idolises and resigned to a life of a succession of 'stepfathers'. Are Leonora's tantrums solely down to her upbringing, or is there someone or something at Iyot House that's driving her to worse and worse behaviour? Housekeeper Mrs Mullen seems to think so - does she have a point, or does she simply hate children?
I have some very minor issues with the sequence of events, as I think there is a slight flaw in the logic at one point early on in the story, but Dolly is certainly a very creepy book indeed, and by and large it's beautifully constructed. Although its cover calls it a ghost story, it isn't really a ghost story in a literal sense. It's is a supernatural horror story, but the 'haunting' isn't the traditional sort and to me, Dolly reads like a cross between MR James and one of Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected.
It's short enough to read in one sitting (and I would recommend doing so), yet long enough to build the characters effectively and to lend it some extra nuance that might have been absent in a short story. It also leaves plenty of scope for the reader to decide why certain things might have been happened and who or what might be responsible; it doesn't spoonfeed the reader with clear explanations. This would make a great read for a rainy summer afternoon or a winter evening by the fire - and if the BBC don't adapt it as a ghost story for the Christmas schedules one day, they're really missing a trick.
October 15, 2012
Although it is published as a stand-alone this is definitely a ghost story rather than a novel and it didn’t, I am afraid, cause me even a momentary shudder. There are just too many ‘why do thats?’ in the story. Why did Leonora want that particular doll so much, and why did her bout of bad temper when she didn’t get it produce such terrible consequences not only for herself but for her perfectly innocent cousin Edward? Why did he feel himself drawn to do such bizarre things, not only involving spooky dolls, but in everyday life, such as pretty well forgetting he had acquired a house, and sending a parcel there when he knew it was empty?
And why did he and Leonora make a considerable journey for ‘the reading of the will.’ Although a trope much beloved in film and fiction there is no legal requirement for a will to be read aloud to the family of the deceased. True, the solicitor announces that their Aunt Kestrel instructed that they should attend his office to hear the will, but I don’t think such instructions would have any force in law. Not even if she added that if they didn’t turn up all her worldly goods would go the local Dolls Hospital.
I was left puzzled and annoyed rather than scared.
And why did he and Leonora make a considerable journey for ‘the reading of the will.’ Although a trope much beloved in film and fiction there is no legal requirement for a will to be read aloud to the family of the deceased. True, the solicitor announces that their Aunt Kestrel instructed that they should attend his office to hear the will, but I don’t think such instructions would have any force in law. Not even if she added that if they didn’t turn up all her worldly goods would go the local Dolls Hospital.
I was left puzzled and annoyed rather than scared.
August 1, 2017
Sometimes short books pack a big punch. Dolly by Susan Hill certainly does.
'...when he lay down, he could hear the faint sound again. It was coming from beneath his bed, where the doll lay in its box. He sat bolt upright and shook his head to and fro hard to clear the sound but it had not gone away when he stopped. The wind was dying down and before long it died altogether and then his room was frighteningly silent except for the crying.
He was not a cowardly boy, although he had a natural cautioness, but for a long time he lay, not daring to lean over and pull the box out from under the bed. He had no doubt that the sound came from it and he knew that he was awake, no longer in the middle of a nightmare, and that a china doll could not cry.
The crying went on. '
An excellent read in a genre that often fails to convince.
'...when he lay down, he could hear the faint sound again. It was coming from beneath his bed, where the doll lay in its box. He sat bolt upright and shook his head to and fro hard to clear the sound but it had not gone away when he stopped. The wind was dying down and before long it died altogether and then his room was frighteningly silent except for the crying.
He was not a cowardly boy, although he had a natural cautioness, but for a long time he lay, not daring to lean over and pull the box out from under the bed. He had no doubt that the sound came from it and he knew that he was awake, no longer in the middle of a nightmare, and that a china doll could not cry.
The crying went on. '
An excellent read in a genre that often fails to convince.
November 6, 2012
I love Susan Hill’s elegant, gothic style of writing, and in that respect Dolly doesn’t disappoint. The tone of the story is brooding and atmospheric, and the descriptions of the decaying old house and the wildness of the surrounding fens are truly beautiful.
I was intrigued (and spooked ) by the idea of a doll seeking revenge for a long ago wrong, but sadly I just didn’t enjoy this book. I am a great believer in the less is more philosophy, and I love books where you have to read between the lines a bit, rather than have it all thrown in your face, but I couldn’t make Dolly hold up.
Although Leonora was an extremely selfish and unpleasant child, I am not convinced her childish tantrum (and this is the point – she was only a child!) warranted the sheer malevolence of the curse that dogged her for her entire life. And I don’t believe that Edward (whose only guilt was by association) deserved it at all. I have to admit he made some very strange decisions, but ultimately he was a kind and loyal boy (later man) who tried to do the right thing in life.
The images of the crying doll were very unsettling, and I did feel oddly moved by its plight at the beginning, but ultimately the book just left me cold, and not for the right reasons.
I was intrigued (and spooked ) by the idea of a doll seeking revenge for a long ago wrong, but sadly I just didn’t enjoy this book. I am a great believer in the less is more philosophy, and I love books where you have to read between the lines a bit, rather than have it all thrown in your face, but I couldn’t make Dolly hold up.
Although Leonora was an extremely selfish and unpleasant child, I am not convinced her childish tantrum (and this is the point – she was only a child!) warranted the sheer malevolence of the curse that dogged her for her entire life. And I don’t believe that Edward (whose only guilt was by association) deserved it at all. I have to admit he made some very strange decisions, but ultimately he was a kind and loyal boy (later man) who tried to do the right thing in life.
The images of the crying doll were very unsettling, and I did feel oddly moved by its plight at the beginning, but ultimately the book just left me cold, and not for the right reasons.
December 24, 2012
Another sinister offering from Susan Hill; I'm rather partial to a ghost story, but this one didn't quite do it, unlike some of her other offerings. I think it suffered from being a novella and may have worked either as a short story or a longer novel.
The setting was gothic enough, an old house in the fens; an area of the country I know, which can indeed be bleak and rather creepy. The cast was good and the idea ok; vengeful doll (has been done before though). The working out just didn't work well enough. The setting and structure was pure M R James (still the master); the problem was the content.
The setting was gothic enough, an old house in the fens; an area of the country I know, which can indeed be bleak and rather creepy. The cast was good and the idea ok; vengeful doll (has been done before though). The working out just didn't work well enough. The setting and structure was pure M R James (still the master); the problem was the content.
October 31, 2019
The book just builts up the tension by adding too many spooky elements, but never really explains them in the end.
June 26, 2019
English author Susan Hill had recently been an impressive 2 for 2 with this reader. Last year, I was happy to discover that her 1983 ghost novel, "The Woman in Black," is one of the scariest books that I’d read in quite some time, and just a few weeks back, her 2010 ghost novel, "The Small Hand," had proved highly satisfying for me, if not quite as chilling as the earlier book. Curious as to whether Ms. Hill could possibly go 3 for 3 with yours truly, I dove into her 2012 offering, "Dolly," which, like those other two, is subtitled "A Ghost Story." So, you may reasonably ask, has Ms. Hill managed the difficult challenge of pulling off a hat trick with me? Well, yes and no. For one thing, "Dolly," as it turns out, is hardly a ghost story, as advertised...unless we are possibly talking about the ghosts of memory here; a "supernatural enigma" might be closer to the truth. The book is hardly as shivery as those other, earlier ones, yet still manages to conjure up some undeniably bizarre moments. Fortunately, this short novel also features two sharply drawn main characters, and its descriptions of the Fenlands, in England, where most of the action transpires, engender atmosphere to spare. Whereas "The Woman in Black" had been set in the early 20th century (at least, one assumed) and "The Small Hand" very much in the present day, "Dolly" is set in two distinct periods, separated by a good 40 years (or so), and one must read between the lines a bit to figure out the possible dates. (More on this in a moment.)
The book is narrated by the middle-aged Edward Cayley, who returns to his Aunt Kestrel's (!) home, Iyot House, in the lonely, windswept village of Iyot Lock, after a period of what he tells us is 40 years. Kestrel had recently passed away, and Cayley has returned to attend the reading of her will, along with his first cousin, Leonora van Vorst. While waiting for Leonora to arrive, Edward flashes back to the summer that he and his cousin had spent at Iyot House four decades earlier, when he was 8 and Leonora was 9; this section takes up a full half of Ms. Hill's novel. Cayley had been a quiet, well-mannered child, whereas Leonora had been anything but. Spoiled, willful, self-centered and disdainful, the girl was truly something of a "bad seed" brat. She was also decidedly odd: a sleepwalker, an easily enraged screamer, frightened of images that she sees in standing water (we never quite learn what this is all about), a lover of thunderstorms (like Edward, granted). No wonder Aunt Kestrel's housekeeper, Mrs. Mullen, offers the opinion that the girl is possessed by demons! Still, their summer together had gone by uneventfully, until Leonora's birthday, when Aunt Kestrel had made the mistake of giving her niece the wrong dolly as a present. In a rage, the ungrateful brat had thrown the china doll against a wall, cracking its head wide open. And this act of youthful spite and anger, it would seem, had set off a series of unexplainable events, with that doll not only seeming to later come to life, but to exert a malign influence on Leonora's future. And then, years later, in a small toy shop in Eastern Europe, Edward finds another doll, the exact copy of the one wished for by Leonora 40 years earlier, and its purchase similarly seems to set off unfortunate events....
If this capsule description of "Dolly" strikes you by chance as being a bit vague and hazy, I apologize, but to reveal any more would be a disservice to any potential readers here, ruining the few shocking surprises that the book adroitly reserves for just the right moments. To my own great surprise, my favorite section of "Dolly" was the highly atmospheric first half, in which the two kids are shown getting to know one another. Once the supernatural occurrences start, confusion sets in; at least, for this reader. And to be sure, this short novel left me just as perplexed as another entertainment that I recently took in, Darren Aronofsky's current film, "mother!" Like that film, "Dolly" is a book in which no matter how one rearranges all the pieces, they never seem to fit together to make a coherent whole. Why the dolls manage to come to life, and do the things they do, and how, remains a mystery by the book's conclusion. No wonder that our narrator, toward his story's end, tells us "I feel helpless and at the mercy of strange events and forces which not only can I not explain away but in which I do not believe. Yet what happened, happened...." Fortunately for the reader, Susan Hill is such a compelling, readable author that most folks will probably devour this short novel in a sitting or two, reserving their head-scratching for later.
The book, as I said, is highly atmospheric and occasionally creepy; plus, whereas those two earlier bona fide ghost novels had each concluded with a terrible tragedy, "Dolly" manages to conclude with a double bummer, which only serves to amplify what had preceded them. It is a very British novel, employing many words and terms that might be a tad unfamiliar to those living outside the U.K. Thus, "lay-by" is used for a road turning; "holdall" for a traveling case; "lemon squash" for lemonade and soda water; "garibaldi biscuits"...well, look that one up for yourself; "plimsolls" for sneakers; "deal" for pinewood; "skirting" for baseboard; and "poste restante" for general delivery. Oh...not to mention such childhood games as shove ha'penny, and solitaire (the latter of which, apparently, is not the card game for single players that you might be envisioning, but rather, a board game played with marbles). As I say, a very British type of spook story. And Ms. Hill does not shy away from making up her own words, as well, as she sees fit...unless "scrumpled" is a real word not to be found in even the unabridged dictionary....
I mentioned earlier that the exact years when "Dolly" is set are kind of hard to pin down, and this leads me to some more minor problems that I had with the book. As I said, Cayley had told us that he and Leonora first met 40 years earlier, when he was 8 and she was 9. But at the will reading, the older, now pregnant Leonora states that she is currently 43. Shouldn’t that be 49? Or perhaps Edward was wrong; perhaps they had first met 34 years earlier? Who knows? Is this a mistake by authoress Hill, or of Edward, an unreliable narrator? There is no way to tell. Similarly, the adult Leonora tells Edward that her share of Aunt Kestrel's will should be larger, as her mother was older than Edward's. However, it had been clearly stated earlier that although Kestrel was the oldest of three sisters, Edward's mother, Dora, was the middle sister, and Leonora's mother, the similarly bratty Violet, had been the youngest. Again, a mistake on the part of the distraught Leonora, or an instance of sloppiness and loss of control on the part of Ms. Hill? Once again, no way to know. Anyway, when we learn that Edward purchases that second doll closely following the Prague Spring (which was in 1968), we can thus only roughly approximate when the kids' first summer together was, by subtracting either 40 (giving us 1928) or 34 (which results in 1934). Just one more inexplicable conundrum in a book filled with many.
But these petty gripes aside, let me be clear that I did enjoy "Dolly," and indeed, gulped it down in record time. It's surely a book to arouse lively discussion, and that is hardly a bad thing, right? Further good news concerning "Dolly" today is that it currently appears in print in an edition from Vintage Books that also includes "The Small Hand" in the same volume. Taken together, the two make for one very impressive double feature of British horror....
(By the way, this review originally appeared on the FanLit site at http://www.fantasyliterature.com/ ... a most ideal destination for all fans of Susan Hill....)
The book is narrated by the middle-aged Edward Cayley, who returns to his Aunt Kestrel's (!) home, Iyot House, in the lonely, windswept village of Iyot Lock, after a period of what he tells us is 40 years. Kestrel had recently passed away, and Cayley has returned to attend the reading of her will, along with his first cousin, Leonora van Vorst. While waiting for Leonora to arrive, Edward flashes back to the summer that he and his cousin had spent at Iyot House four decades earlier, when he was 8 and Leonora was 9; this section takes up a full half of Ms. Hill's novel. Cayley had been a quiet, well-mannered child, whereas Leonora had been anything but. Spoiled, willful, self-centered and disdainful, the girl was truly something of a "bad seed" brat. She was also decidedly odd: a sleepwalker, an easily enraged screamer, frightened of images that she sees in standing water (we never quite learn what this is all about), a lover of thunderstorms (like Edward, granted). No wonder Aunt Kestrel's housekeeper, Mrs. Mullen, offers the opinion that the girl is possessed by demons! Still, their summer together had gone by uneventfully, until Leonora's birthday, when Aunt Kestrel had made the mistake of giving her niece the wrong dolly as a present. In a rage, the ungrateful brat had thrown the china doll against a wall, cracking its head wide open. And this act of youthful spite and anger, it would seem, had set off a series of unexplainable events, with that doll not only seeming to later come to life, but to exert a malign influence on Leonora's future. And then, years later, in a small toy shop in Eastern Europe, Edward finds another doll, the exact copy of the one wished for by Leonora 40 years earlier, and its purchase similarly seems to set off unfortunate events....
If this capsule description of "Dolly" strikes you by chance as being a bit vague and hazy, I apologize, but to reveal any more would be a disservice to any potential readers here, ruining the few shocking surprises that the book adroitly reserves for just the right moments. To my own great surprise, my favorite section of "Dolly" was the highly atmospheric first half, in which the two kids are shown getting to know one another. Once the supernatural occurrences start, confusion sets in; at least, for this reader. And to be sure, this short novel left me just as perplexed as another entertainment that I recently took in, Darren Aronofsky's current film, "mother!" Like that film, "Dolly" is a book in which no matter how one rearranges all the pieces, they never seem to fit together to make a coherent whole. Why the dolls manage to come to life, and do the things they do, and how, remains a mystery by the book's conclusion. No wonder that our narrator, toward his story's end, tells us "I feel helpless and at the mercy of strange events and forces which not only can I not explain away but in which I do not believe. Yet what happened, happened...." Fortunately for the reader, Susan Hill is such a compelling, readable author that most folks will probably devour this short novel in a sitting or two, reserving their head-scratching for later.
The book, as I said, is highly atmospheric and occasionally creepy; plus, whereas those two earlier bona fide ghost novels had each concluded with a terrible tragedy, "Dolly" manages to conclude with a double bummer, which only serves to amplify what had preceded them. It is a very British novel, employing many words and terms that might be a tad unfamiliar to those living outside the U.K. Thus, "lay-by" is used for a road turning; "holdall" for a traveling case; "lemon squash" for lemonade and soda water; "garibaldi biscuits"...well, look that one up for yourself; "plimsolls" for sneakers; "deal" for pinewood; "skirting" for baseboard; and "poste restante" for general delivery. Oh...not to mention such childhood games as shove ha'penny, and solitaire (the latter of which, apparently, is not the card game for single players that you might be envisioning, but rather, a board game played with marbles). As I say, a very British type of spook story. And Ms. Hill does not shy away from making up her own words, as well, as she sees fit...unless "scrumpled" is a real word not to be found in even the unabridged dictionary....
I mentioned earlier that the exact years when "Dolly" is set are kind of hard to pin down, and this leads me to some more minor problems that I had with the book. As I said, Cayley had told us that he and Leonora first met 40 years earlier, when he was 8 and she was 9. But at the will reading, the older, now pregnant Leonora states that she is currently 43. Shouldn’t that be 49? Or perhaps Edward was wrong; perhaps they had first met 34 years earlier? Who knows? Is this a mistake by authoress Hill, or of Edward, an unreliable narrator? There is no way to tell. Similarly, the adult Leonora tells Edward that her share of Aunt Kestrel's will should be larger, as her mother was older than Edward's. However, it had been clearly stated earlier that although Kestrel was the oldest of three sisters, Edward's mother, Dora, was the middle sister, and Leonora's mother, the similarly bratty Violet, had been the youngest. Again, a mistake on the part of the distraught Leonora, or an instance of sloppiness and loss of control on the part of Ms. Hill? Once again, no way to know. Anyway, when we learn that Edward purchases that second doll closely following the Prague Spring (which was in 1968), we can thus only roughly approximate when the kids' first summer together was, by subtracting either 40 (giving us 1928) or 34 (which results in 1934). Just one more inexplicable conundrum in a book filled with many.
But these petty gripes aside, let me be clear that I did enjoy "Dolly," and indeed, gulped it down in record time. It's surely a book to arouse lively discussion, and that is hardly a bad thing, right? Further good news concerning "Dolly" today is that it currently appears in print in an edition from Vintage Books that also includes "The Small Hand" in the same volume. Taken together, the two make for one very impressive double feature of British horror....
(By the way, this review originally appeared on the FanLit site at http://www.fantasyliterature.com/ ... a most ideal destination for all fans of Susan Hill....)
June 1, 2013
Susan Hill is the Queen of Ghost stories, another creepy tale that matches The Woman in Black in atmospheric spookiness.
September 24, 2022
3.5 stars - creepy doll story! Recommend the audio.
September 16, 2018
“What he saw on her face when she glanced round was a look so full of malice and evil, so twisted and distorted with dislike and scorn and a sort of laughing hatred, that he wanted to be the one to run, to get away as fast as he could, back to what he now thought of as the safety and shelter of Iyot House.”
Dolly by Susan Hill
I was recently browsing in the local bookstore with my brother when I found a book with a rather intriguing cover. I realized it was a new one from the author of The Woman in Black, Susan Hill. I read the description and thought it sounded like a good story so I wrote down the title to look up later. I was very happy to find that the library had a copy, and I requested it immediately.
The story follows a man called Edward, and his life changing stay at Iyot House with his Aunt. The story starts with a much older Edward returning to Iyot House after the death of his Aunt. He wanders the grounds, only vaguely remembering some of the events almost 40 years before. The story then flashes back to the summer when he was 8 and he stayed at his childless Aunt’s house. She invited his only cousin, Leonora, to stay as well so he would not be alone. The two children are not very similar, and Leonara has a horrible temper. There is one thing she has ever wanted, the one thing her mother has not given her, a very specific dolly. The events of this summer will change the rest of their lives.
The characters were very well done. Edward is a very introspective man and boy. He is easy going, and wants people to just get along. The polar opposite to him is Leonora, and she is terrifying. She is a beautiful, only child, who is used to be spoiled and fawned over. When she doesn’t get her way, she seems to turn into a horrible banshee, with an uncontrollable rage. It is that rage that makes this story terrifying, and ultimately costs the cousins everything.
I had previously read The Woman in Black, after seeing the movie, and liked the book, but did not love it (I actually liked the movie much better). I did like the style that Hill used though, and that is what hooked me immediately with Dolly. Hill has a beautiful and prosaic way of writing. While sometimes the descriptions of things go on for a bit, they are always beautifully written.
The beginning of the story was wonderful, and I found I was halfway through the book in a couple hours. Unfortunately the story fizzles out, and then ends. After I read the last paragraph, I flipped the pages looking for anything more; it just sort of ends, no real conclusion or explanations. I have to say it really ruined things for me. After the first half I was all set to give this a glowing review, but then it just lost its way.
Final Verdict: A fast read, and well written, but ultimately unsatisfying in the end. Take it or leave it.
Review originally posted: http://francesandlynne.wordpress.com/...
Dolly by Susan Hill
I was recently browsing in the local bookstore with my brother when I found a book with a rather intriguing cover. I realized it was a new one from the author of The Woman in Black, Susan Hill. I read the description and thought it sounded like a good story so I wrote down the title to look up later. I was very happy to find that the library had a copy, and I requested it immediately.
The story follows a man called Edward, and his life changing stay at Iyot House with his Aunt. The story starts with a much older Edward returning to Iyot House after the death of his Aunt. He wanders the grounds, only vaguely remembering some of the events almost 40 years before. The story then flashes back to the summer when he was 8 and he stayed at his childless Aunt’s house. She invited his only cousin, Leonora, to stay as well so he would not be alone. The two children are not very similar, and Leonara has a horrible temper. There is one thing she has ever wanted, the one thing her mother has not given her, a very specific dolly. The events of this summer will change the rest of their lives.
The characters were very well done. Edward is a very introspective man and boy. He is easy going, and wants people to just get along. The polar opposite to him is Leonora, and she is terrifying. She is a beautiful, only child, who is used to be spoiled and fawned over. When she doesn’t get her way, she seems to turn into a horrible banshee, with an uncontrollable rage. It is that rage that makes this story terrifying, and ultimately costs the cousins everything.
I had previously read The Woman in Black, after seeing the movie, and liked the book, but did not love it (I actually liked the movie much better). I did like the style that Hill used though, and that is what hooked me immediately with Dolly. Hill has a beautiful and prosaic way of writing. While sometimes the descriptions of things go on for a bit, they are always beautifully written.
The beginning of the story was wonderful, and I found I was halfway through the book in a couple hours. Unfortunately the story fizzles out, and then ends. After I read the last paragraph, I flipped the pages looking for anything more; it just sort of ends, no real conclusion or explanations. I have to say it really ruined things for me. After the first half I was all set to give this a glowing review, but then it just lost its way.
Final Verdict: A fast read, and well written, but ultimately unsatisfying in the end. Take it or leave it.
Review originally posted: http://francesandlynne.wordpress.com/...
March 26, 2014
In other less capable story telling hands this short novel could verge on absurd, clichéd and predictable. Susan Hill gets away with it - just!
It's a very pale shadow of some of her other work.
The wonderful descriptions of the gloomy Fenland house, church and surrounding countryside are by far the best parts. Hill doesn't need long descriptions to conjure up the settings she puts her stories in. The creak of the church door, the battered chicken wire to keep the birds out, the ancient smell of 'damp stone and mould ' and the 'cold of centuries' etc - the sense of place is wonderful.
The Woman in Black casts a long shadow and anyone hoping for something of that calibre is going to be disappointed. But if you are scared of dolls (as I understand some people are?) then maybe this is the ghost story for you.
It's a very pale shadow of some of her other work.
The wonderful descriptions of the gloomy Fenland house, church and surrounding countryside are by far the best parts. Hill doesn't need long descriptions to conjure up the settings she puts her stories in. The creak of the church door, the battered chicken wire to keep the birds out, the ancient smell of 'damp stone and mould ' and the 'cold of centuries' etc - the sense of place is wonderful.
The Woman in Black casts a long shadow and anyone hoping for something of that calibre is going to be disappointed. But if you are scared of dolls (as I understand some people are?) then maybe this is the ghost story for you.
October 5, 2019
Nobody can tell a story like Susan Hill. I liked the gothic tone of this book. The book doesn't state explicitly when the story takes place but I got gothic vibes. I liked the story of quiet, thoughtful, and obedient eight year old Edward Cayley being sent to stay with his childless Aunt Kestrel in the remote English countryside. When his selfish, spoiled, spiteful cousin Leonara arrives, a series of events spirals that will affect his life well into the future in ways he never could have imagined. Although Dolly doesn't compare to The Woman in Black, it makes a darn good fall read.
May 9, 2024
Dolly had some creepy moments but overall just seemed dull and pointless. The characters were also incredibly annoying.
March 31, 2016
The taste of the fog came into my mouth and its damp web touched my skin. But through its felted layers, from far away, I heard it again, half in my own head, half out there, and then everything came vividly back, the scene with Leonora in Aunt Kestrel's sitting room, her rage, the crack of the china head against the fireplace, my own fear, prompting my heart to leap in my chest. All, all of it I remembered--no, re-lived, my heart pounding again, as I stood at the window and through the fog-blanketed darkness heard the sound again.
Deep under the earth, inside its cardboard coffin, shrouded in the layers of white paper, the china doll with the jagged open crevasse in its skull was crying.
How could a story containing these lines be anything other than awesome? This book should have been so, so much better than it was. I've thought about it now for a couple days and I'm still so disgusted with it that I've decided the initial three star mark was much too generous, so I'm bumping it down. Susan Hill is unfortunately headed for the same place as Stephen King and H.P. Lovecraft, which is not praise from me. Sure, she can write in the sense of stringing great words together. (Man, can she write in that sense!) But she does not seem to understand how to hang a blasted story together.
This one starts out great (all her books do), and picks one theme (too many themes was the downfall of The Mist in the Mirror), but, like The Small Hand, the mystery is inexplicably set aside by the protagonist in favor of business trips, and unlike The Small Hand, the curse is not well thought out or executed. Also, most of the plot relies on one of my least favorite of all tropes, the protagonist who, golly gee whiz, just cannot remember the horrible traumatic thing that happened or what the significance of it might be.
So, the writing is great, the horror is shocking, but the story is succumbs to stupid. Avoid.
(Note: I read this in the omnibus, The Small Hand and Dolly. I prefer to review bundled books separately.)
Deep under the earth, inside its cardboard coffin, shrouded in the layers of white paper, the china doll with the jagged open crevasse in its skull was crying.
How could a story containing these lines be anything other than awesome? This book should have been so, so much better than it was. I've thought about it now for a couple days and I'm still so disgusted with it that I've decided the initial three star mark was much too generous, so I'm bumping it down. Susan Hill is unfortunately headed for the same place as Stephen King and H.P. Lovecraft, which is not praise from me. Sure, she can write in the sense of stringing great words together. (Man, can she write in that sense!) But she does not seem to understand how to hang a blasted story together.
This one starts out great (all her books do), and picks one theme (too many themes was the downfall of The Mist in the Mirror), but, like The Small Hand, the mystery is inexplicably set aside by the protagonist in favor of business trips, and unlike The Small Hand, the curse is not well thought out or executed. Also, most of the plot relies on one of my least favorite of all tropes, the protagonist who, golly gee whiz, just cannot remember the horrible traumatic thing that happened or what the significance of it might be.
So, the writing is great, the horror is shocking, but the story is succumbs to stupid. Avoid.
(Note: I read this in the omnibus, The Small Hand and Dolly. I prefer to review bundled books separately.)
September 27, 2025
"Bajo tierra, en el interior de su ataúd de cartón, amortajada en varias capas de papel blanco, la muñeca de porcelana con la brecha abierta en el cráneo lloraba."
3.7/5⭐
Susan Hill siempre sabe como describir atmósferas spooky y eso me encanta, te pone en el mood de la temporada, sin embargo con esta lectura me quedo debiendo un poco.
Dolly tenía mucho más potencial de donde sacar jugo, aún así, creo que es ideal si buscas una lectura corta con toques de terror.
👶🏻🎀
3.7/5⭐
Susan Hill siempre sabe como describir atmósferas spooky y eso me encanta, te pone en el mood de la temporada, sin embargo con esta lectura me quedo debiendo un poco.
Dolly tenía mucho más potencial de donde sacar jugo, aún así, creo que es ideal si buscas una lectura corta con toques de terror.
👶🏻🎀
December 24, 2019
You can rely on Susan Hill for straightforward entertainment, which is what I was in the mood for last night. She always makes the obvious nods to the obvious forebears, and her own take on supernatural fiction is basically ersatz. But it's thoroughly conceived, well-executed ersatz, and it does the job it's supposed to do. I snarfed this down in a single sitting.
January 31, 2016
Okay so I read the blurb - did all the other stuff, interested, drawn by the "dolly" on the front and other books by Susan Hill..
Yet this was boring from the start, I wasn't interested in all the descriptions of the house and being pulled by an entity or ghost/ paranormal figure.
I always find this with small novels.. they lack something desperately whether it's creativity or plot line, I'm not sure, maybe both. On the blurb I was intrigued but it was extremely frustrating and annoying and it was extremely disappointing after the first two negative points had been drawn out of me.
The characters didn't seem to work for me, Edward was a bit of a fraidy cat, his aunt, sweet old woman, housekeeper, a bit of a bitter woman that irritated me and Leonora (an utterly ridiculous name that reminded me of washing powder) who was just a vicious character. This DIDN'T impress me, when reading a book I like to gel with at least ONE of the characters, maybe even the main, yet I felt annoyed by them all. -_-
This failed to hold my attention, it was filed in the "Supernatural / ghost story" section of the library but.. I wouldn't have put it there, it hardly counted as that, I couldn't even class it as a horror, it made absolutely no sense to me, it was like she missed out on half of the plot and I had lots of questions too...
Like why did Edward hear tissue paper rustling to begin with? Why did he hear noises of a baby crying? What drawn him there?
I think on this book she just wrote half arsedly - like she knew she had a talent of writing horror/supernatural because of her previous books where she actually created pure terror and fear which you could feel bouncing off the pages.. but on this occasion well I was expected to feel this automatically from her writing was the sense I get from the book itself and the creepy "dolly" on the front, and the "a ghost story" written underneath the title, tremendously disappointing.. Definitely NOT a Gothic Novel.
To me books are fantastic sources of imagination and tickets to other worlds.. this was a chore, bore and snore piece for me.
I give this a one.
Yet this was boring from the start, I wasn't interested in all the descriptions of the house and being pulled by an entity or ghost/ paranormal figure.
I always find this with small novels.. they lack something desperately whether it's creativity or plot line, I'm not sure, maybe both. On the blurb I was intrigued but it was extremely frustrating and annoying and it was extremely disappointing after the first two negative points had been drawn out of me.
The characters didn't seem to work for me, Edward was a bit of a fraidy cat, his aunt, sweet old woman, housekeeper, a bit of a bitter woman that irritated me and Leonora (an utterly ridiculous name that reminded me of washing powder) who was just a vicious character. This DIDN'T impress me, when reading a book I like to gel with at least ONE of the characters, maybe even the main, yet I felt annoyed by them all. -_-
This failed to hold my attention, it was filed in the "Supernatural / ghost story" section of the library but.. I wouldn't have put it there, it hardly counted as that, I couldn't even class it as a horror, it made absolutely no sense to me, it was like she missed out on half of the plot and I had lots of questions too...
Like why did Edward hear tissue paper rustling to begin with? Why did he hear noises of a baby crying? What drawn him there?
I think on this book she just wrote half arsedly - like she knew she had a talent of writing horror/supernatural because of her previous books where she actually created pure terror and fear which you could feel bouncing off the pages.. but on this occasion well I was expected to feel this automatically from her writing was the sense I get from the book itself and the creepy "dolly" on the front, and the "a ghost story" written underneath the title, tremendously disappointing.. Definitely NOT a Gothic Novel.
To me books are fantastic sources of imagination and tickets to other worlds.. this was a chore, bore and snore piece for me.
I give this a one.
May 16, 2014
The perfect little horror story. "Dolly" totally captivated me and horrific it certainly is. I love how Susan Hill does this kind of quiet horror that leaves you with a stabbing wound. The opening is so haunting and so subtle and sets you up for quite a ride with these two young children who spend a summer in Iyot Lock. It's a short book, 153 pages, but don't think it's thin on story or character. Hill delivers a heartbreaking experience. I call Dolly an experience because Edward and Leonora will continue to haunt you after you close the book. Looking at a doll's face won't ever be quite the same again.
May 12, 2021
I really liked this story, got it free from Audible, and was pleasantly surprised with it. The ending was a letdown with no explanation leaving it wide open for speculation.
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