What do you think?
Rate this book
The Doll
PLAYMATES
From the china-blue eyes and silky blonde hair to their clear piping voices, Gretchen and Mary were identical in every respect. If it weren’t for the doll that Gretchen started carrying around with her, no one would have been able to tell them apart. And oddly enough, the doll was a miniature replica of the twins…
DEATHMATES
Gretchen knew from the moment she opened the gift-wrapped box that the doll was special. Its round eyes stared back at her. Its soft-sculptured face glowed with a life of its own. And when Gretchen cradled it in her arms, it told her things -- secret, evil things that Mary could never know about. For it hated Mary just like she did. And it knew how to get back at Mary…forever.
From the china-blue eyes and silky blonde hair to their clear piping voices, Gretchen and Mary were identical in every respect. If it weren’t for the doll that Gretchen started carrying around with her, no one would have been able to tell them apart. And oddly enough, the doll was a miniature replica of the twins…
DEATHMATES
Gretchen knew from the moment she opened the gift-wrapped box that the doll was special. Its round eyes stared back at her. Its soft-sculptured face glowed with a life of its own. And when Gretchen cradled it in her arms, it told her things -- secret, evil things that Mary could never know about. For it hated Mary just like she did. And it knew how to get back at Mary…forever.
348 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1986
251 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
February 27, 2024
This is one of the Zebra paperbacks-from-hell with the over-the-top creepy glossy raised cover... which is kind of misleading, because there are no animated dolls in the book, knife-wielding or otherwise. It's a rather slow-paced story about a recently divorced woman named Barbra with twin daughters who goes to a new town where she works to put a failing business back into shape and has to deal with chauvinistic attitudes, typical of 1986. The two daughters are Mary and Gretchen, one of whom is nice, but the other is a stone-cold sociopath. Their estranged father sends them gifts: Mary gets an apron and Gretchen gets a creepy doll that's been cursed by an Aztec sorceress. It all ends up rather badly... It's a typical Zebra chiller, better than some but not among the most memorable.
December 21, 2018
Twins Gretchen and Mary have moved with their mother Barbra to Canaan, after Barbra divorced their father. He sends both girls gifts. Mary gets an apron, but Gretchen gets a lifelike doll that looks just like her. Little does anyone realise, the Doll-Maker creates these dolls using Aztec mythology, enabling them to take on the child's personality and grant their wishes. Unfortunately, Gretchen is a budding psychopath, and what she wishes for most of all is to hurt Mary and get rid of her!
The cover is a bit of a lie - there are no live dolls running around with knives in the pages of this book! Think of the movie "Annabelle" and you'll get a better idea of how the doll in this one operates. The plot actually went in directions different than I was expecting. There's a bit too much padding in regards to Barbra's job (she's been sent in to modernise a lumber mill), and the perspective of characters often changes within the same paragraph.
However, I loved the 80s horror vibe this tale sported. With its book cover looking just like a video might have done back then, I almost felt transported back to a different time! It's cheesy, but fast-paced and a real guilty pleasure to read!
The cover is a bit of a lie - there are no live dolls running around with knives in the pages of this book! Think of the movie "Annabelle" and you'll get a better idea of how the doll in this one operates. The plot actually went in directions different than I was expecting. There's a bit too much padding in regards to Barbra's job (she's been sent in to modernise a lumber mill), and the perspective of characters often changes within the same paragraph.
However, I loved the 80s horror vibe this tale sported. With its book cover looking just like a video might have done back then, I almost felt transported back to a different time! It's cheesy, but fast-paced and a real guilty pleasure to read!
August 14, 2025
3.5 stars
January 18, 2021
You can NEVER have enough of creepy dolls with a messed up little girl or two....can you? This was so much 'Vintage Horror' fun, I loved it!
So first off, you must go into this book, if you read it remembering that is was written and published in 1986, that is 35 years ago! Okay. So before I go into what i thought of this book let me tell you that I loved this book. It was so much fun to see these two 10 year old twin girls, Mary and Gretchen go thru HELL and torment with each others jealousy for one another, then this damn doll 'Mary' comes into the picture......what could you not want here? I wanted more bloody horror and scares. But, with the little there was here, I still gave it a 3.7 👻👻👻👻 for the ghostly imagery, the revenge of a mother grieving, and the suspense! Yes, I believe this was one of Websters first, if not his first book, don't quote me on that though.
So the story is about two little twin girls Gretchen and Mary who are 10 years old, they are moving from California to Washington state (my stomping grounds growing up) to the small town of Canaan with their mother who is going thru divorce. In the meantime there is a handmade cloth sewn doll factory called 'Adoptable Dolls' ( yes, on the same vein as the ORIGINAL Cabbage Patch Dolls craze of the 80's!) and one of it's original workers is going thru some trauma of herself and lays claim to a curse on one of the dolls she has made herself while working there.....and, she sells this doll to the girls father; Matt. Upon the girls arrival in Canaan their gifts arrive at the house, Mary gets an apron with her name embroidered on it, and Gretchen gets the gorgeous blond haired and china blue eyed doll (that looks JUST like the girls may I say) NAMED 'Mary' Hmmmm, now why would a father give a doll named Mary to his daughter Gretchen? There is a point here.....and it has to do with the revenge part. Now, with these two girls, once they start 5th grade at their new school, like always, Mary has all the friends and is good at sports, tetherball and all that fun stuff while Gretchen is the one that everyone stares at and talks about. The kids say she is weird and acts like she is talking to imaginary people that no one else can see or hear....that is because she does and can, and they are inside her doll! Now, you are going to say....'oh, a 'Childs Play' rip off of Chucky......' NOT, this was before 'Chucky' and killer Charles Lee Ray. So, if you think about it knowing this before you read it.....it made it very original and very creepy.
Now these twins are kinda like all twins, i know i grew up with older twin brothers who did this same kind of thing, these girls can feel each other's pain when one is not feeling well or gets hurt. However once Gretchen starts taking 'Mary' around with her everywhere she goes, once she cuts or hurts herself her sisters gets cut and hurt too.......and this means she bleeds! Well, you can use your imagination what is coming along here, but you will be surprised, the book takes turns where i was really surprised that it did, and let me tell you it is not what you think it is going to be. This could have easily have been a 5 stabby review if it would have had the violence to the bullies in it that i was expecting....that is where the author did NOT take you.....damn!
It was still a really fun and page turning take on 'i'll get revenge on you all!' stories.
Enjoy.
So first off, you must go into this book, if you read it remembering that is was written and published in 1986, that is 35 years ago! Okay. So before I go into what i thought of this book let me tell you that I loved this book. It was so much fun to see these two 10 year old twin girls, Mary and Gretchen go thru HELL and torment with each others jealousy for one another, then this damn doll 'Mary' comes into the picture......what could you not want here? I wanted more bloody horror and scares. But, with the little there was here, I still gave it a 3.7 👻👻👻👻 for the ghostly imagery, the revenge of a mother grieving, and the suspense! Yes, I believe this was one of Websters first, if not his first book, don't quote me on that though.
So the story is about two little twin girls Gretchen and Mary who are 10 years old, they are moving from California to Washington state (my stomping grounds growing up) to the small town of Canaan with their mother who is going thru divorce. In the meantime there is a handmade cloth sewn doll factory called 'Adoptable Dolls' ( yes, on the same vein as the ORIGINAL Cabbage Patch Dolls craze of the 80's!) and one of it's original workers is going thru some trauma of herself and lays claim to a curse on one of the dolls she has made herself while working there.....and, she sells this doll to the girls father; Matt. Upon the girls arrival in Canaan their gifts arrive at the house, Mary gets an apron with her name embroidered on it, and Gretchen gets the gorgeous blond haired and china blue eyed doll (that looks JUST like the girls may I say) NAMED 'Mary' Hmmmm, now why would a father give a doll named Mary to his daughter Gretchen? There is a point here.....and it has to do with the revenge part. Now, with these two girls, once they start 5th grade at their new school, like always, Mary has all the friends and is good at sports, tetherball and all that fun stuff while Gretchen is the one that everyone stares at and talks about. The kids say she is weird and acts like she is talking to imaginary people that no one else can see or hear....that is because she does and can, and they are inside her doll! Now, you are going to say....'oh, a 'Childs Play' rip off of Chucky......' NOT, this was before 'Chucky' and killer Charles Lee Ray. So, if you think about it knowing this before you read it.....it made it very original and very creepy.
Now these twins are kinda like all twins, i know i grew up with older twin brothers who did this same kind of thing, these girls can feel each other's pain when one is not feeling well or gets hurt. However once Gretchen starts taking 'Mary' around with her everywhere she goes, once she cuts or hurts herself her sisters gets cut and hurt too.......and this means she bleeds! Well, you can use your imagination what is coming along here, but you will be surprised, the book takes turns where i was really surprised that it did, and let me tell you it is not what you think it is going to be. This could have easily have been a 5 stabby review if it would have had the violence to the bullies in it that i was expecting....that is where the author did NOT take you.....damn!
It was still a really fun and page turning take on 'i'll get revenge on you all!' stories.
Enjoy.
April 4, 2015
Edge of your seat, bite your nails, cant put it down if a tornado was coming,fast paced, short chapters, AWESOME story, creepy book!
I give it 5 stars all the way. It had everything you could want in one of those 80s horror books. It did NOT have a bunch of gore or any of that. It was perfect.
The characters are twin girls and a mother who has just separated from their father. One twin is ok with it and is supportive to her mother and one twin is horrible, evil, ugly and will do anything to get even with her, "goody two shoes" sister and mother. The evil twin received a doll as a gift from her father, this isn't just any type of doll. It was hand made miles away by a special lady. The personality of the child who gets one of these dolls, decides on what type of attitude the doll will have.
Very engaging story.
I give it 5 stars all the way. It had everything you could want in one of those 80s horror books. It did NOT have a bunch of gore or any of that. It was perfect.
The characters are twin girls and a mother who has just separated from their father. One twin is ok with it and is supportive to her mother and one twin is horrible, evil, ugly and will do anything to get even with her, "goody two shoes" sister and mother. The evil twin received a doll as a gift from her father, this isn't just any type of doll. It was hand made miles away by a special lady. The personality of the child who gets one of these dolls, decides on what type of attitude the doll will have.
Very engaging story.
November 10, 2016
For a Zebra horror it's not bad. The cheez level hits the roof right from the start when the reader is introduced to an old Malayan priestess? who is basically putting some kind of voodoo enchantment on what sounds like rip off Cabbage patch dolls to make them more 'real'. But that's not really the horror angle. The doll isn't really the problem.
The story is more about twin girls one ultra good (she has the unbelievable maturity of a sixteen year old) and the other a lunatic (she has the immaturity of a toddler) and about their mother who is ultra feminist. Feminism plays a huge and almost annoying part of the works. You may cheer or groan at the transparency.
First off the mother has a high profile job turning businesses around and has moved to a small town to pull an old Mill into shape. She's recently divorced from her piggishish ex who's major gripe is her job (he tells her to go overseas and get the operation to become a man to finalize her transformation - charming), and plays favorites with the twins giving the brat, Gretchen, the doll, and the good twin, Mary, a frilly apron reading mother's little helper.
The doll, also called Mary, becomes a wedge driving antisocial Gretchen further away from her family and over the edge. She pours her evil into the doll and takes their condition of twin sympathetic pain to the next level. It's quickly paced and rather freshly imagined.
The story is more about twin girls one ultra good (she has the unbelievable maturity of a sixteen year old) and the other a lunatic (she has the immaturity of a toddler) and about their mother who is ultra feminist. Feminism plays a huge and almost annoying part of the works. You may cheer or groan at the transparency.
First off the mother has a high profile job turning businesses around and has moved to a small town to pull an old Mill into shape. She's recently divorced from her piggishish ex who's major gripe is her job (he tells her to go overseas and get the operation to become a man to finalize her transformation - charming), and plays favorites with the twins giving the brat, Gretchen, the doll, and the good twin, Mary, a frilly apron reading mother's little helper.
The doll, also called Mary, becomes a wedge driving antisocial Gretchen further away from her family and over the edge. She pours her evil into the doll and takes their condition of twin sympathetic pain to the next level. It's quickly paced and rather freshly imagined.
November 12, 2012
The cover of this book really has nothing to do with that the book is about. This story is really about twin girls and one of then is evil. The doll comes into play but not as much as you would think. I found the story creepy and catchy.
August 3, 2019
3.5 stars
Interesting, unique take on the haunted/cursed toy trope. Webster's "The Doll" is a highly progressive, feminist book, especially for its time (it was published in the eighties). All of the strong characters are women, including a woman who can break open doors with one hand and throw men around like dolls. There is a lot about the struggles of being a woman in a man's world, and supervising men, as the novel's mother is a powerful executive who takes companies like lumber mills that are struggling and turns them around.
While this is better than 90% of the horror fiction I've read, it's not perfect. It suffers from adjective overload sometimes, and odd descriptors. (A faceless voice? Since when do any voices have a face?) In the prologue, the author tells us the woman being described is large in about a hundred different ways. "Massive breasts, great folds of flesh, tree-trunk thighs, massive, sausage-like fingers"...and that's just on the first page. We get it.
There are a lot of unrealistic things in this book aside from the cursed doll. A doctor who constantly makes house calls. The ending is a bit disappointing. Still, if you can manage to get through all that, it's worth a read.
Interesting, unique take on the haunted/cursed toy trope. Webster's "The Doll" is a highly progressive, feminist book, especially for its time (it was published in the eighties). All of the strong characters are women, including a woman who can break open doors with one hand and throw men around like dolls. There is a lot about the struggles of being a woman in a man's world, and supervising men, as the novel's mother is a powerful executive who takes companies like lumber mills that are struggling and turns them around.
While this is better than 90% of the horror fiction I've read, it's not perfect. It suffers from adjective overload sometimes, and odd descriptors. (A faceless voice? Since when do any voices have a face?) In the prologue, the author tells us the woman being described is large in about a hundred different ways. "Massive breasts, great folds of flesh, tree-trunk thighs, massive, sausage-like fingers"...and that's just on the first page. We get it.
There are a lot of unrealistic things in this book aside from the cursed doll. A doctor who constantly makes house calls. The ending is a bit disappointing. Still, if you can manage to get through all that, it's worth a read.
October 20, 2011
One of the very few books I couldn't finish because it was so damn boring. I even bought this book thinking it looked good and the cover scared me, but I just couldn't get into it.
Read
January 24, 2020The Doll is a story of two twin girls and their mother, who recently separated from their father. Mary, the "good twin, receives an apron in the mail from her father while Gretchen, the "bad" twin receives a doll. Throughout the story, we find out that the doll is alive because of an Aztec spell that gives the doll the personality of the owner of the doll. The tone of this book is dramatic theatrical and I enjoyed the cheesy tone of the story throughout. I enjoyed how the roles of each twin girl were obvious and dramatized. Mary is stereotypically nice and kind. She is often wise beyond her years and her maturity around other people's feelings drives most of her decisions throughout the story. Gretchen, however, is evil to her core and her biggest goal in the story is to destroy and get rid of her sister. I also enjoyed the feminist undertones of the book. The twin's mother has an important career that is highlighted as one of the main reasons that her and her husband separated. This added an interesting layer to the story, even with all the cheesiness of the relationship between the two twins. I enjoyed the creepy atmosphere of the book and I had fun figuring out what was going on with the doll. It was theatrical and sometimes the dialogue between characters was unrealistic, but I enjoyed the story in spite of this.
March 14, 2024
For some reason I remembered this book out of the blue. I read it in secret at a family member’s house when I was about 10 years old, stuck visiting out of town for thanksgiving and not wanting to be there. Thankfully my aunt had a bookshelf full of bad paperbacks and a lot of V C Andrews and Joan Collins. This was like a bad horror parody of Sweet Valley High.
January 26, 2021
it was published in 1986 so there are a few outdated things but pretty much things you’d expect to see during that time. Without giving anything away this actually didn’t go the direction I thought it was going to but it was definitely still a fun fast read for me
March 14, 2023
this book sucks, did not finish
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews