BOOK REVIEW | DOLLFACE | LINDY RYAN

 

BOOK REVIEW | DOLLFACE | LINDY RYAN

 

ABOUT THE BOOK

Barbie meets Scream with a 90s nostalgia twist in this horror romp from Bless Your Heart author Lindy Ryan.

 Horror author Jill has just moved to suburban New Jersey, hoping to fit in with the new PTA moms and maybe not weird everyone out with her Final Girl coffee mug. You know. Make some real friends.

 But then a plastic face-masked serial killer begins slashing their way through town, one overly made-up mom at a time. The police are incredulous. The moms are indignant. And Jill is slowly wrapped into a killer’s murderous spree, until she might just be the last woman standing.

 A delightfully murderous novel that is equal parts scathing and salacious, Dollface will win you over with its gossip and gore, one body at a time.

 “A whimsical, bloody, unsettling suburban slasher with an unexpected twist." – New York Times bestselling author Delilah S. Dawson

REVIEW

Slashers seem to be having a bit of a renaissance at the moment. Where once they were reviled for their violence against women. In recent years, both on film and in fiction, writers are taking the genre and filtering it through a more self aware lens. One that reflects more modern sensibilities in that they explore issues of gender dynamics and other issues more relevant to today’s shifting values.

Of course, many of the tropes of the slasher genre still frequent this little corner of horror, such as the virginal blonde fighting off the knife wielding killer, the masked murderer stalking unsuspecting victims. However, there is a growing number of authors pushing beyond those familiar beats and using protagonists that don’t fit the mold, such as Rose Dubouis in Philip Fracassi’s excellent The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre, or the insecure Hannah in Brian McCauley’s Breathe In Bleed Out.

To join this ever growing roster of genre breaking heroines (and yes,  I am using the female noun as I believe that the term should be embraced rather than replaced through the masculinisation of strong female characters) comes Jill Marshall, a horror obsessed suburban mum thrust into the spotlight with her ever faithful group of PTA mums.

Witnessing the mental collapse and suicide of their mother, Jill and her sister Kitty are placed in the system.

Decades later, Jill is now a writer of horror fiction and has moved to the suburban part of Brunswick with her husband and young son. Almost immediately, she is befriended by her eighties throwback neighbour and is subsequently recruited into the local group of PTA clique.

Then tragedy strikes.

Following the murder of a local barista is murdered,the group soon finds itself hunted by a masked killer.

Don’t be put off by the tag line of Barbie meets Scream as Dollface is so much more than that. It readily embraces the slasher formula wholeheartedly and manages to use them to create something that is gruesomely addictive.

Once the plot takes hold, the book barrels along at a vicious pace, twisting and turning back on itself so that it pulls the rug from under your feet when you get to the final denouement.

However, not only is it a well realised slew of tropes and nods to the genre. It is also a warm hearted look at female friendship and the acceptance of being who you are, including all the baggage that we all trail around behind us.

Ultimately, Dollface was a hell of a lot of fun that embraces the slasher tropes: sharp brutal, emotionally grounded, and an exciting glimpse at what the modern slasher novel can become.