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3.58 AVERAGE
3.58 AVERAGE
This is the perfect book to read on the first day of October to get you ready for the season of the spooks. It isn't particularly scary (I don't think kids would have trouble with it) but it does have a bit of a creep factor. The concept is very enjoyable.
Doll Bones can be enjoyed by children or adults and it's a super quick read.
Happy Halloween!
Doll Bones can be enjoyed by children or adults and it's a super quick read.
Happy Halloween!
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Well. That was freaky :P
It had its flaws, but I still enjoyed the read! It was short enough to whiz through, though I would have liked the author to establish whether or not the ghost was real, though that would have gone against the mystery element she wanted for the story. I just felt like I couldn’t be fully invested in the story because I didn’t know the boundaries of the story world.
But I loved the realism of the characters and Zach’s struggle, even though I couldn’t fully understand it. I would read it again just to get a clearer understanding of it!
Overall, it was a good read and I’d recommend it to MG horror lovers.
It had its flaws, but I still enjoyed the read! It was short enough to whiz through, though I would have liked the author to establish whether or not the ghost was real, though that would have gone against the mystery element she wanted for the story. I just felt like I couldn’t be fully invested in the story because I didn’t know the boundaries of the story world.
But I loved the realism of the characters and Zach’s struggle, even though I couldn’t fully understand it. I would read it again just to get a clearer understanding of it!
Overall, it was a good read and I’d recommend it to MG horror lovers.
• Three longtime friends enjoy playing a game where they imagine and act out elaborate storylines
• Recently, a china doll has factored into the game – she acts as the “queen,” ruling over the lands of the game
• Everything grinds to a halt when Zach’s father throws out the action figures he uses to play the game, saying that Zach is too old to play
• Zach is crushed, but doesn’t want to tell the other two the real reason why he can’t play, so he tells that that he just doesn’t want to anymore
• Zach is drawn back into the game when Poppy says that she had a dream about the queen – that she’s made out of the bones of a dead girl, and that they need to bury the doll in order for the girl to rest in peace
• So the three friends take one last adventure together, traveling by themselves to a town in Ohio in order to bury the doll.
• The part of the book where they’re on the road with the doll is very fast-paced – they keep running into obstacles that they need to get out of
• Then there’s the question of whether or not there’s a dead girl who is haunting the doll – did Poppy just make it all up in order to keep the friends together, or is there really a ghost?
• The ending is very satisfying, and leaves readers with the impression that maybe there is some unexplainable magic in the world. This is the kind of book that will stick with kids long after they’ve finished reading it.
• In addition to the fantastic story, the writing is great – includes lots of details that make it easy to fall into the world of the story.
• I loved this book and highly recommend it – I think that a ghost story would be an unusual choice for the Newbery, but I think it definitely has a shot!
• Recently, a china doll has factored into the game – she acts as the “queen,” ruling over the lands of the game
• Everything grinds to a halt when Zach’s father throws out the action figures he uses to play the game, saying that Zach is too old to play
• Zach is crushed, but doesn’t want to tell the other two the real reason why he can’t play, so he tells that that he just doesn’t want to anymore
• Zach is drawn back into the game when Poppy says that she had a dream about the queen – that she’s made out of the bones of a dead girl, and that they need to bury the doll in order for the girl to rest in peace
• So the three friends take one last adventure together, traveling by themselves to a town in Ohio in order to bury the doll.
• The part of the book where they’re on the road with the doll is very fast-paced – they keep running into obstacles that they need to get out of
• Then there’s the question of whether or not there’s a dead girl who is haunting the doll – did Poppy just make it all up in order to keep the friends together, or is there really a ghost?
• The ending is very satisfying, and leaves readers with the impression that maybe there is some unexplainable magic in the world. This is the kind of book that will stick with kids long after they’ve finished reading it.
• In addition to the fantastic story, the writing is great – includes lots of details that make it easy to fall into the world of the story.
• I loved this book and highly recommend it – I think that a ghost story would be an unusual choice for the Newbery, but I think it definitely has a shot!
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Tra tutti i libri che ho letto di Holly Black, questo probabilmente è quello che mi ha colpito e mi è piaciuto più di tutti (tra quelli scritti solo da lei, ovvio, la saga Magisterium è su un altro livello, ma lì pesa parecchio la Clare). La trama ti cattura, è interessante e inquietante al tempo stesso, non dico che si legga tutto in un fiato ma quasi. Anche la lettura è molto più scorrevole rispetto ad altri suoi lavori.
***
Among all the books I have read by Holly Black, this is probably the one that struck me and I liked it most of all (among those written only by her, obviously, the Magisterium saga is another story, but it's written by Cassandra Clare too). The plot captures you, it's interesting and disturbing at the same time, I'm not saying you can read it all in one go but almost. The reading is also much smoother than her other works.
***
Among all the books I have read by Holly Black, this is probably the one that struck me and I liked it most of all (among those written only by her, obviously, the Magisterium saga is another story, but it's written by Cassandra Clare too). The plot captures you, it's interesting and disturbing at the same time, I'm not saying you can read it all in one go but almost. The reading is also much smoother than her other works.
It's nice?
Although the review on the back of the book is kinda misleading since it says that it will make you want to sleep with your lights turned on or something like that. So yeah, it's not actually a horror book.
All in all, I like it. I enjoyed reading it. Imma give a 4.5.
Although the review on the back of the book is kinda misleading since it says that it will make you want to sleep with your lights turned on or something like that. So yeah, it's not actually a horror book.
All in all, I like it. I enjoyed reading it. Imma give a 4.5.
I'm not sure how it happened but somewhere in the early years of my YA craze, I missed Holly Black. Just never got around to reading her, even though I *think* she might have come to my elementary school when The Spiderwick Chronicles came out.
This was a good read. I wanted something creepy for Halloween and this was definitely creepy but also surprised me with the eloquence of a seasoned MG writer. It checks all the boxes and I'd be happy to give it to any kid looking for something a little twisted but who isn't into fantasy. A little unbelievable that 12-year-olds could get that far without being caught but I'm willing to suspend my belief for the sake of a well-told story.
This was a good read. I wanted something creepy for Halloween and this was definitely creepy but also surprised me with the eloquence of a seasoned MG writer. It checks all the boxes and I'd be happy to give it to any kid looking for something a little twisted but who isn't into fantasy. A little unbelievable that 12-year-olds could get that far without being caught but I'm willing to suspend my belief for the sake of a well-told story.
Zach, Poppy and Alice know they are too big to play with action figures now that they are in middle school, but they have so much fun doing it, that it is hard to stop. The whole story they have made up of pirates, thieves and mermaids revolving around the figure of the Queen, a doll made of bone china and kept locked in a cabinet in Poppy's house, is just irrestible.
All three players come from dysfunctional families so getting lost in the game has an added benefit. It gets Poppy away from a messy, disorganized and undisciplined life at home, and it gets Alice away from an overbearing, overly protective grandmother and it gets Zach away from the home his father has recently returned to after a failure business venture. Now that he is in middle school and on the basketball team, that is all his dad is interested in.
So when his dad throws away his action figures, including William the Blade, pirate and captain of the Neptune's Pearl, Zach is too ashamed to tell Poppy and Alice. Instead, he tells them that he no longer has an interest in playing the game. Both girls are baffled, but keep trying to get Zach back to the game to no avail.
Then late one night, Poppy and Alice convince Zach to go on a real quest. The Queen has come to Poppy in dreams and told her that she was made from the bones and ashes of a dead girl named Eleanor Kerchner and that she would never reat until she was properly buried.
Carrying the Queen in Poppy's backpack, the friends decide to go on one last quest before they end their game forever. And what a quest it is - a little fun, somewhat supernatural, a lot creepy, totally compelling.
I wasn't sure about reading this book. In fact, I really didn't want to. I just don't like creepy doll stories.
But it really wasn't about the creepy doll as much as it was about the quest the kids undertake. Thinking a short bus ride to another town will be easy enough, things don't work out quite a smoothly as they did in the planning stage. First, they meet Tinshoe Joe on the bus who tells them that when the driver make a rest stop and gets off the bus, aliens abduct him and send back another bus driver. Sufficiently creeped out by Tinshoe Joe, the kids get off the bus and run. And then there is the baker who makes Pepto-Bismal favored donuts, and the librarian with the bubble gum pink hair.
Holly Black has done such a wonderful job of creating a game that felt as real and imaginative as any I ever played when my friends and I were young and recreating that wonderful feeling of being so swept up in the game, you forget about everything else around you.
Doll Bones is really a fun novel, but, actually, not far into the story, I realized that while the story has this totally eerie quality to it, what it really is about is the quest each of us must make as we leave childhood behind and come of age. Well, with an exception. Black has done something not many authors do - she has shown us that not all 12 year old mature at the same rate. Poppy's desperateness about this last quest is really about her knowing that Zach and Alice are growing up and away from her, and she just isn't there yet.
Is Doll Bones scary? Yes, it is, but so is growing up when you are 12.
This book is recommended for readers age 10+
This book was borrowed from the NYPL
This review was originally posted at Randomly Reading
All three players come from dysfunctional families so getting lost in the game has an added benefit. It gets Poppy away from a messy, disorganized and undisciplined life at home, and it gets Alice away from an overbearing, overly protective grandmother and it gets Zach away from the home his father has recently returned to after a failure business venture. Now that he is in middle school and on the basketball team, that is all his dad is interested in.
So when his dad throws away his action figures, including William the Blade, pirate and captain of the Neptune's Pearl, Zach is too ashamed to tell Poppy and Alice. Instead, he tells them that he no longer has an interest in playing the game. Both girls are baffled, but keep trying to get Zach back to the game to no avail.
Then late one night, Poppy and Alice convince Zach to go on a real quest. The Queen has come to Poppy in dreams and told her that she was made from the bones and ashes of a dead girl named Eleanor Kerchner and that she would never reat until she was properly buried.
Carrying the Queen in Poppy's backpack, the friends decide to go on one last quest before they end their game forever. And what a quest it is - a little fun, somewhat supernatural, a lot creepy, totally compelling.
I wasn't sure about reading this book. In fact, I really didn't want to. I just don't like creepy doll stories.
But it really wasn't about the creepy doll as much as it was about the quest the kids undertake. Thinking a short bus ride to another town will be easy enough, things don't work out quite a smoothly as they did in the planning stage. First, they meet Tinshoe Joe on the bus who tells them that when the driver make a rest stop and gets off the bus, aliens abduct him and send back another bus driver. Sufficiently creeped out by Tinshoe Joe, the kids get off the bus and run. And then there is the baker who makes Pepto-Bismal favored donuts, and the librarian with the bubble gum pink hair.
Holly Black has done such a wonderful job of creating a game that felt as real and imaginative as any I ever played when my friends and I were young and recreating that wonderful feeling of being so swept up in the game, you forget about everything else around you.
Doll Bones is really a fun novel, but, actually, not far into the story, I realized that while the story has this totally eerie quality to it, what it really is about is the quest each of us must make as we leave childhood behind and come of age. Well, with an exception. Black has done something not many authors do - she has shown us that not all 12 year old mature at the same rate. Poppy's desperateness about this last quest is really about her knowing that Zach and Alice are growing up and away from her, and she just isn't there yet.
Is Doll Bones scary? Yes, it is, but so is growing up when you are 12.
This book is recommended for readers age 10+
This book was borrowed from the NYPL
This review was originally posted at Randomly Reading
Holly Black, cocreator of The Spiderwick Chronicles, has written a fascinating story about a group of friends who set out on a quest to lay a ghost to rest. Zach, Poppy and Alice have been friends for years. Their favorite game is a make-believe world of adventures that they people with their favorite action figures and dolls. The most powerful character in their game is the Great Queen, which is actually a china doll in Poppy's mother's curio cabinet. But Poppy insists that the doll holds the bones and ghost of a real girl and that the ghost wants them to return her to her grave for a proper burial. The trials the friends endure on their quest to fulfill the Great Queen's wishes are hard, frightening, and carry them far from home. As much as it is a story about friendship, childhood, and the power of shared dreams and secrets, this is also a story of how difficult growing up can be.
If you enjoy the other worlds glimpsed in stories like The Spiderwick Chronicles, or ghostly tales like All the Lovely Bad Ones, then you should give Doll Bones a try.
If you enjoy the other worlds glimpsed in stories like The Spiderwick Chronicles, or ghostly tales like All the Lovely Bad Ones, then you should give Doll Bones a try.
adventurous
dark
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Diverse cast of characters:
No