Status Updates From The Doll's Alphabet

Favourite stories so far have been ‘The Mouse Queen’ and ‘Waxy’. I’ve owned this book for years so very excited to finally get to it! It’s living up to expectations so far - really precise language and weird stories

Edward thought the sound an organ made was like thin, wrinkly hands covered in fake, colourful jewels.

Among the ship's catch that afternoon were a magnificent orange octopus, silver and green fish, black eels, seaweed, glass bottles, small turtles, and chunks of red coral and jellyfish. The catch was a multitude of colours and textures, like the thigh of an old debauched prince squished into a stocking, the bulbous head of the octopus a blister ripe with pus.

Beside the aquarium was a mantel clock that looked like a shrunken train station, a small, long skull - the person we bought it from said it was a rat's - and two winking-face tea cups Nicholas had inherited from his grandmother. We didn't use them because Nicholas thought they would scream if we poured hot liquid into their heads.

She was lumpy and frayed, like a cloth doll stuffed with too much wool. Unclean fleece, I thought, torn from an animal.

I became used to cleaning, and also to the sight of Paul's saggy grey underpants draped over every surface of our room, dripping like rainclouds as they dried.