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A review by denaiir
Baby Doll by Hollie Overton
2.0
First of all, the blurb "For fans of Gone Girl and Girl on the Train, Baby Doll is the most tense thriller you will read this year" is completely wrong. There is no tension in this book, no mystery to solve (we know who did it from Chapter 1) and no twists; it has absolutely nothing to do with those 2 other books plot-wise. However, I want ot mention that I only read the blurb AFTER I read the book, so this is not the reason why I gave it a bad rating, I was not misled.
The book is about a girl who was abducted and kept in a dark room for 8 years. Chapter 1, she escapes, and the book deals with what happens next to her, her family, and everyone involved.
The first thing I want to mention is that the main character's reaction was absolutely not believable. After 8 years of captivity, there is no way she would react the way she does, it was so overdone! There's no issue with her, no struggles, nothing (ok she's afraid of the dark, wow)... The storyline from Sky's point of view (the daughter she had while captive) was also completely unrealistic: they only decide to start therapy with her after months, which I hope would never happen in real life!
And don't get me started on the other characters. Her twin sister is horrible, I hated her, she is hot-headed and never thinks before she acts, her reactions are never logical, and she keeps getting in the way of the investigation (I laughed when the investigators let her stay during her sister's interrogation and she lost it and asked them to stop questioning the victim, very mature and I'm sure they wouldn't agree to any of this in real life). The ex-boyfriend is the most bland character ever, his storyline is as cheesy as it can get. The mother is as 2-dimensional as can be, a missed opportunity to explore many subjects. Actually all the storylines felt like missed opportunities, but also felt completely unrealistic.
The process also felt undocumented and I don't think the author did much reasearch into the way such an investigation would unfold. Read Karin Slaughter, Mo Hayder, watch The Sinner: they feel realistic. This didn't.
This felt like a direct-to-DVD movie.
The book is about a girl who was abducted and kept in a dark room for 8 years. Chapter 1, she escapes, and the book deals with what happens next to her, her family, and everyone involved.
The first thing I want to mention is that the main character's reaction was absolutely not believable. After 8 years of captivity, there is no way she would react the way she does, it was so overdone! There's no issue with her, no struggles, nothing (ok she's afraid of the dark, wow)... The storyline from Sky's point of view (the daughter she had while captive) was also completely unrealistic: they only decide to start therapy with her after months, which I hope would never happen in real life!
And don't get me started on the other characters. Her twin sister is horrible, I hated her, she is hot-headed and never thinks before she acts, her reactions are never logical, and she keeps getting in the way of the investigation (I laughed when the investigators let her stay during her sister's interrogation and she lost it and asked them to stop questioning the victim, very mature and I'm sure they wouldn't agree to any of this in real life). The ex-boyfriend is the most bland character ever, his storyline is as cheesy as it can get. The mother is as 2-dimensional as can be, a missed opportunity to explore many subjects. Actually all the storylines felt like missed opportunities, but also felt completely unrealistic.
The process also felt undocumented and I don't think the author did much reasearch into the way such an investigation would unfold. Read Karin Slaughter, Mo Hayder, watch The Sinner: they feel realistic. This didn't.
This felt like a direct-to-DVD movie.