YA Book Club 2025 (paused) discussion

Hi, this is the discussion topic for week 2's progress with our January book, Frozen Charlotte.

This topic can include spoilers up to the end of chapter 10, so only continue reading this post if you have read up to this point.

I'd forgotten how scary this book was (and most of the plot), so it's like I'm reading it for the first time! I'm loving how Alex Bell build's atmosphere and her characterisation.

- Who is your least favourite character at this point?
- Is it scary?
- What do you think about the mythology and atmosphere in the book?

I will open up the next topic in a week for us to talk (with spoilers) about up to page 257/the end of chapter 16.

I'm not quite at chapter 10 yet but is it OK to say Rebecca lol. The incident with Shellycoat cat did it for me. I was wondering if maybe she was possessed or something (could be way off) but still... :-)

I’m so in love with this book, Alex bell’s writing is phenomenal, something seems off about piper so her place on my character list is falling. I love Lilias.
It’s definitely one creepy read but I’m not scared quite yet 😅
I love everything about frozen Charlotte I looked it up after the first dove chapters! 🤦🏼‍♀️😂

I'm loving the atmosphere. the isolation of the house really adds to the intensity. Piper is starting to get really sinister. I think Lilias could end up being a big help to Sophie as things unfold. I have a feeling that Sophie is going to put her foot in it at some point with her uncle and not really be welcome there anymore. Cameron reminds me of an old point horror brooding boy character

I finished this already but yes, this was so so scary - I've got to say Lilias really creeped me out, but I also felt sympathetic to her, and all the children really... It felt like such a cold and unloveable household :(

The very first sentence of the novel introduces the Frozen Charlottes in the 1910 timeline, where we also learn that the dolls were used to foster young Ladies' handiwork skills like sowing or knitting clothes. The dolls also talk to children.

But in the present timeline, until now, we have only been introduced to them indirectly through the epigraphs set at the beginning of each chapter, verses from the American folk ballad "Fair Charlotte" based on the poem "A Corpse Going to a Ball" by Seba Smith. Now, Sophie actually sees them and learns about how they came to be in Rebecca's room. And the dolls make their presence known as Sophie has nightmares and hears voices.

Sophie finds one of Rebecca's exercise books, with entries that reminded me of the way teachers occasionally give their pupils lines, make them do lines to remind them they should not do bad or nasty things. It's only, the lines have a sinister quality and are getting darker with each new line, such as "I must not bite my sister. ... I must not be cruel to cats. ... I must not tear off butterflies' wings." If you combine them with the whispering from the dolls, and the signs we were given in earlier chapters - both cats and the girl with the blindfold - it increases the suspense and the atmosphere of terror. And then we learn that the dolls are able to move?

In which way are the dolls connected to the death of Rebecca? Was it really Piper's boyfriend or did the dolls damage the family piano beyond repair? The siblings live through one trauma after the other. There's an inevitability to it that adds to an atmosphere of dread. And Uncle James draws mermaids by using his daughter as his model, despite his other daughter Rebecca having drowned? This is beyond creepy!