📖📖 Book Review 📖📖 Grief is cruel and so difficult to capture on paper and yet this story does such a remarkable job with the complex emotions. The Doll’s House House is a beautifully dark short story, a haunting reminder that life is not always as it seems. Lisa Unger packs a powerful punch in this atmospheric and immersive read! The Doll’s House is a deliciously dark and twisty story perfectly paced for one captivating sitting.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Review is on Goodreads and will be posted on instagram closer to publication date and on Amazon when published!

This book was short but definitely not sweet…

In such a short space of time, the author has created nothing less than a creepy masterpiece. I was hooked from the off, intertwined with the mystery unravelling before me.

I loved how lifelike and vibrant each of the characters were and how in such a short space of time, I didn’t suspect once how the story was about to unfold.

What a deliciously, creepy thriller! Really loved the flow of this one. It was a really quick page turner with a surprising ending!

This little 98 page thriller really packed a punch!

Recommend this short story to all thriller lovers.

Title: The Doll’s House
Author: Lisa Unger
Publisher: Amazon Original Stories
Genre: Mystery Thriller
Pub Date: September 12, 2024
My Rating: 4.5 Rounded up

This is my thirteenth Lisa Unger novel - I call myself a fan!
I am not big on short stories as they just are not long enough to satisfy my reading taste- this is my first short story by Lisa Unger and since I enjoy her stories I was willing to give it a try.

Story is told from the POV of Jules and her daughter-Scout
Jules is a thirty-seven year old widow who believes she has been lucky enough to have enough love for a lifetime. She certainly was not interested, needed, or expected to find love again. However, handsome artist Kirin changed that!
Scout is a teenager who misses her father and not happy that mom is willing to leave their home filed with love and move into Kirin’s mansion.
Scout goes exploring in the mansion and ends up in Emma’s room. Emma was Kirin’s sister and went missing twenty-five years ago when she was a teenager. Scout sees a doll and as she is picking it up Kirin walks into the room. He tells her that as a puppet and doll maker this was his first doll. He made the doll using Emma’s items- pieces of clothing, jewelry etc.. He tells Scout that she may have the doll.
She accepts and it seems to transfer a connection and a desire to find the truth.

I enjoyed this story – I knew Ms. Unger would not disappoint.
I am good with paranormal so found this very interesting.

Thank you to NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories for this early novella.
Publishing Release Day scheduled for September 12, 2024.

Short story. Creepy. Good. I absolutely loved it. Themes - grief and scary dolls

I would like to thank NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories for the ARC.

From the get-go, I have to say this book is packed with action, and I honestly wished it was a full-length novel. There’s so much happening, and while everything is crystal clear and straight to the point, I craved a bit more build-up to the events that unfolded. I was blown away by how well the characters were developed in such a short span—by the end, I felt like I knew each one personally. I wouldn’t have minded an extra epilogue from Kirin’s perspective, just to get inside his head a bit more. But overall, I’m really satisfied with how it all wrapped up. Big thanks to Netgalley and Amazon Original Stories for letting me read and review this ARC!

A good short story about a grieving mother and daughter who move in with the mother’s fiancé. The story was unique, fast paced and a quick read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories for providing me with an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

This short story drew me in with an intriguing story told from multiple perspectives. A haunting look at how wrong we can be about those closest to us and where things can go wrong in our relationships.

It's supposed to be a fresh start—a new romance, a sprawling mansion, an easier life. And it is...at first.

I was just eyeing a Lisa Unger book at the library (literally, it's the next tab open on my browser), so it felt like perfect timing when this short story (novella? what's the cutoff?) turned up. This hits a lot of classic notes, from the isolated house to the creepy dolls. (Fortunately these are themes that I enjoy in a mystery!)

There aren't a lot of surprises here, I think largely because it's a short story with (again) a lot of those classic notes; there isn't a lot of room for guessing or red herrings, and almost as soon as the characters know something is wrong, they're rushing to resolve it. I enjoyed this as a short story/novella, but I'd enjoy it more as something full length—something where we see more of the house unfold, where Vivi gets creepier as time goes on, where there's more time to raise the stakes.

Recommended to those who want something short and straightforward, without too many twists. As I think this would be a better fit for me in a longer format...it might be time for me to find one of Unger's full-length books to read after all.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

The Doll's House: A Short Story by Lisa Unger

Mother Jules and daughter Scout are still feeling the intense grief of losing husband/father, Doug. But Jules has met a man, a well off artist, Kirin, and after a year of dating him, Jules and Scout are moving into Kirin's old family home, with a fancy, and to me, overly controlling home AI system. Seventeen year old Scout was so angry about moving but maybe it won't be so bad. Her city two bedroom apartment that she didn't want to leave has been sold but her new bedroom in Kirin's house is pretty awesome and she just may be happy at her new school, too.

In her room she finds a handmade doll that belonged to Kiran's sister and Scout is fascinated by this doll. Jules is glad that her daughter is settling in so well but Jules isn't having an easy time of it. She's seeing things and it seems like she's losing some of her house and property privileges thanks to the "smart" house controlling her movements.

Scout is a good kid and she's the part of the story I like best even though the story has more of a YA feel than I was expecting. I liked the teens, I think it's Kiran who brings the story down, for me. For all his many talents, he's just there, doing what he does, leaving me with the feeling he's such a blank wall of a person. It's hard to imagine Jules falling for this boring guy (am I allowed to call an artist boring...gasp!) and I can't help feeling that moving in with him was convenient rather than a healthy relationship move. I don't know, maybe I'm way too judgmental for someone who barely knows these people, but I'm judging! Of course, when it comes to Horror, life is never very normal, so events soon get wild and crazy for everyone.

Thank you to Amazon Original Stories and NetGalley for this ARC

Oh Lisa Unger, you get me every single time! I can no even begin to explain how good this book was. It drew me in from the beginning and kept me hanging on until the end. So well done! Incredible talent.

This short story by Lisa Unger was so good. The puppets, the ghosts, Vivi (the smart home voice)... I found them all creepy in the best way. This was a quick read, and I was disappointed when it was over. This would have been a great full novel, but it is also an excellent short story. Look for it on Amazon on September 12, 2024. If you're a Kindle Unlimited subscriber, you'll be able to read it for free. If you aren't, you should buy it.

Thank you to Lisa Unger, Amazon Original Stories, and Netgalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This short novella ticks all the creepy boxes, from an ultra-modern mansion with an AI that may not be all too good, to possible ghosts and a cold case. Jules thought that she was done with love after losing her husband, but then she met Kirin. He’s handsome, talented and rich, so she marries him and brings her teenage daughter Scout with her. I loved the descriptions of the house in all its designer glory. Teenage characters are usually not my favorite, but I liked Scout enough to be concerned with her safety. Even her friends are likable and funny. My only problem is how short this is. There wasn’t much time to get to know Jules or Kirin. The creepiness factor would have been higher had there been time to build tension. That said, I was engrossed and invested in the story, I enjoyed the dialogues and I can’t say how creeped out I was by the house and the puppets that Kirin creates for a living. When the worst that you can say about a book is that you wish it had been longer, you know you enjoyed it.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley/Amazon Original Stories.

Thank you NetGally and Amazon Original Stories for this ARC! When Jules meets Kirin after the death of her husband, he was everything her late husband lacked - security, huge house and stability. Jules and her daughter Scout move in to his ultra high tech home in upstate New York where they’d need for nothing. Scout still missing her father and not too happy to be moving. Kirin comes from a wealthy family where his sister went missing in high school and never found. Great short story by Lisa Unger.

read if you like:
📚 short stories
🦄 whimsical fiction
🪆 dolls

summary:
I love Lisa Unger, so I jumped at the chance to read her latest short story. It’s about a widowed woman, Jules, and her daughter, Scout, who move in with her wealthy doll maker boyfriend, Kirin. While Kirin makes every effort to make the house welcoming to his new roommates, he gifts Scout with a lifelike doll that looks like his late sister who was never found. The doll opens up the door for Scout to wonder more about Emma, and wonder what role Kirin played in her disappearance.

I should lead with the fact that I am not a fan of dolls, and think they’re creepy, so I was probably destined to be weirded out by this book. Given it’s a short story, it moves fast, it’s an easy read and it grips you quickly. I struggled with the mystical aspect of it, as I typically love Unger’s more realistic thrillers, but I finished it quickly regardless. The story itself is pretty far fetched, but if you like more mystical or fantasy thrillers, this short story is probably for you! She does do a great job with character development, and even in the short lead up, I found myself attached to them!

Thank you to Net Galley and Amazon Short Stories for the ARC. This book releases on September 12!

Nailed it! Excuse me while I hide all my daughters dolls, they won't be allowed out for a while after this book. It was creepy, fast-paced, nail-biting, and exactly what I wanted in this short story.

After her husband, Doug, dies, Jules finds love again with Kirin. Jules sells her apartment in the city, and her and her teenage daughter, Scout, move into Kirin’s mansion. Not long after they arrive, strange things begin happening to them.


.

I enjoyed this short, creepy story! It’s a great quick read that is perfect for the fall season.


Publishing September 12, 2024


Thank you Amazon Original Stories and NetGalley for the digital arc.

Such a great little story! It felt like more than just a short story. It was well written and oh so spooky! I really enjoyed this so much!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Read if you like:
👻 spooky reads
👻 quick read thrillers
👻 haunted house setting
👻 creepy dolls
👻 dual POV

I love Lisa Unger, and I really enjoy her short stories! They are the perfect palette cleanser in between longer reads that take a bit more commitment 🤪 The short stories have just as much action and excitement as the longer novels, without all the extra fluff. I honestly wish most books were short stories actually 🤪 so much unnecessary detail.
The creepy mood and atmosphere was building right from the very beginning; this is the perfect spooky season read (and we ALLLL know how much I love a spooky read 😁😁🎃)
I love a dual point-of-view thriller so much because it just makes the story so much more twisty and dramatic jumping back-and-forth between 2 stories. I also enjoy seeing more than one side of the story.
This one really packed a punch!! Short and sweet and right to the point 🤪 It was so tense and dramatic the whole time! I read through in a single sitting, I definitely could not put it down. I can’t wait to read Lisa Unger’s next masterpiece!

Seriously sayin'.......

The name Lisa Unger led me to The Doll's House. It will probably do the same for you. I'm sure that it will have a great response from fans. I'm one. But there wasn't a lot of the sizzle that we usually get from this author. There's the pity. Short stories sometimes just come up short.

Chance meetings happen all the time. Certainly by chance. Jules, a recent widow, walked into a shop in New York City owned by the very successful Kirin who creates remarkable puppets and dolls. They struck up a conversation and the next thing you know it's romance. They're now newly engaged.

Her seventeen year old daughter, Scout, is not taken with the handsome Kirin or the idea of moving out of the city and into Winslow House. She sets her heels into the ground. And it's here that we experience the usual teenage angst. But Scout is the one who feels the bad vibes with this new situation. Soon Jules will come face-to-face with the shadows herself.

The Doll's House is a readable read. It just seems to take on the usual sign posts of mother/daughter relationships tipped over by daddy replacement. The WooWoo vibes don't actually have much woo to them. Short stories always run out of running space. It also had the feel of a YA story with so much emphasis on teenage Scout. Nonetheless, it still is Lisa Unger and worthy of a looky look.

I received a copy of this short story through NetGalley for an honest review. My thanks to Amazon Original Stories and to Lisa Unger for the opportunity.