The Doll Funeral

July 3, 2017
How desperately do the dead wish to interact with the living? This is a strong underlying theme in Hamer’s second novel (after The Girl in the Red Coat). Ruby can see dead people, an ability she’s been peripherally aware of since she was very young. On her 13th birthday, Ruby learns she was adopted; she confides this to someone she refers to as Shadow, an ever-present ghostlike companion who has tried to protect her all her life. Ruby, energized by the desire to find her birth parents, finally fights back against her abusive adoptive father. The consequences lead to her taking up with an odd group of siblings living hand-to-mouth in their family’s rundown mansion while their parents are away in India on a spiritual quest. As Ruby’s history becomes clearer, Hamer—with evocative and vivid prose—explores the depths to which a mother will go to connect with her child, while Ruby discovers her family’s secrets and learns a true family can be the people we choose to live with, not just the family into which we are born.

As a novel, this is an engaging and well-written story about the way our past shapes who we are and the family ties that bind us. As an audiobook, though, there are times when it's disjointed and confusing. Narrators Shaun Grindell and Emma Powell create compelling voices for the main characters, Ruby, Shadow Boy, and Anna. They also breathe life into each of the supporting characters. However, the alternating points of view and shifting timelines can be difficult to follow, particularly if one is listening in shorter increments. The story itself is a dark fairy tale, skirting the lines between the real and the imaginary, life and death. K.S.M. � AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine