Frozen Charlotte

September 15, 2016
After Sophie's best friend dies in a tragic accident, she travels to the isle of Skye in Scotland to visit her relatives, who live there in an old, possibly haunted mansion.As soon as the white, English teen arrives she encounters hostility from nearly everyone, perhaps partly due to the fact that the family is still grieving her cousin Rebecca, who died some years earlier. Her little cousin Lilias, whom Sophie at last wins over, is terrified of the tiny dolls stored in her dead sister's room. The Victorian-era dolls are called Frozen Charlottes, designed and named after a fairy tale about a girl who froze to death. Sophie is given the room next door and immediately begins experiencing possible ghostly attacks. She believes that Lilias is right to be afraid, as the attacks seem to originate with the tiny dolls, which appear to have moved whenever she looks at them. Sophie eventually will learn that there is a villain present who may be working with the dolls, and her own situation becomes ever more precarious. Bell doesn't bother with too much subtlety as she presents a straight-out horror story. She reveals the identity of the villain suddenly, with an instant change in behavior from that character, leaving readers to decide whether they've just read a ghost story, a murder mystery, or both. The Frozen Charlotte dolls are inventively creepy--an effective device regardless. Gothic ghosts combine with crime for a fast read. (Horror. 12-18)

COPYRIGHT(2016) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

October 1, 2016

Gr 7-10-For Sophie, it was a Ouija board that seemed to trigger the events that turned a visit north to Scotland to see her cousins from a pleasant trip to something much more sinister. Her friend Jay drowns just before she leaves, and it is with a heavy heart that she arrives on the remote island where Uncle James and her cousins Lilias, Piper, and Cameron live. Her other cousin, Rebecca, died in a tragic accident years earlier. Their home is an old school that closed after the deaths of a student and teacher 100 years earlier. Some might blame these deaths on the Frozen Charlotte dolls (china dolls popular during the Victorian era) that litter the property, and Sophie learns that these dolls still seem to have a hold on those living in the old house. During Sophie's visit, Cameron's prized piano is smashed to bits and Piper's boyfriend's eyes are pierced with needles. Sophie must figure out which of her cousins she can trust and decide how to foil the plan to destroy her. Though all the adults in the story seem to be blind to the existence of the dolls and the havoc they wreak, Sophie tries to deal with the peculiar activities around her in a levelheaded way. Readers are brought along for the ride and soon discover with her who has a true heart and who has evil lurking within. Teens looking for a novel to keep them up at night will find it in this one. VERDICT A general purchase for horror collections.-Elizabeth Kahn, Patrick F. Taylor Science & Technology Academy, Avondale, LA

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2016
Grades 8-11 When Sophie's best friend Jay convinces her to play with a Ouija board app on his phone, she has a really bad feeling about it. Her bad feeling seems warranted when Jay drowns on the way home, and though she's shaken by the event, she decides to try to move on and follow through on plans to visit her uncle and his three children on the Isle of Skye. On arrival, she gets a warm welcome from her cousin Piper but a less than friendly greeting from Cameron, the oldest, and Lilias, who's now the same age as their sister Rebecca was when she died in an accident. But that bad feeling that started with the Ouija board continues with a creepy folk song, some ominous dolls, and the truth about her dead cousin. Bell combines supernatural and psychological horror to ratchet up the tension, which escalates at breakneck speed until the climax. This spooky story with a likable and courageous heroine who uses her head is perfect for teen fans of atmospheric horror.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)