Alex’s Reviews > The Doll's Alphabet > Status Update

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.

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.

He had a cruel habit of telling almost every girl he met that they looked like a male star he had seen in a film long ago - so and so, what's his name, the funny chap with the moustache, you're just the image, don't say are you related to...?