Frozen Charlotte

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Trigger warning for horrific fictional (but in context with the story) animal cruelty, physical abuse and super creepy dolls.

Henry was going to be my second favourite character as he was so sweet and loyal and loving, but he ended up annoying me because no one is that perfect. So, my actual second favourite character/s? The super creepy evil dolls, all named Frozen Charlotte with the exception of the lone male known as Frozen Charlie. Interestingly enough I don't remember Charlie being psychotic but the poor guy was surrounded by some seriously unbalanced female dolls. 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. They were popular during the Victorian period and are based on a ballad about a young woman who refuses to wrap up warm for a sleigh ride to a ball and, when they arrive, her fiancé discovers that she’s frozen to death during the journey. The dolls are normally made of white porcelain and have unjointed “frozen” limbs that are intended to portray a corpse. It seemed so typically macabre of the Victorians to create dead dolls for their children to play with! The dolls all come naked, with only painted hair, facial features and shoes. The idea was supposed to be that children would make dresses for them out of any spare fabric their mothers might have lying around. I obviously did a lot of research about Frozen Charlottes. I also researched other famous haunted dolls, such as Annabelle and Robert. A common theme seemed to be for a child to be given a haunted doll that caused all kinds of problems in the house, which was blamed on the child at first, until the parents came to believe that the doll moved around by itself, or when there was no one home.

Sophie may be the main character in the book but she did not really appeal to me as a character; even though she was like me, blaming herself for things that were not her fault. At points, she did not really seem to be actively trying to figure out what had happened to Jay and Rebecca but was instead letting Rebecca show her things. Some people could say that she needed to be more active in her role of being detective to the death of her cousin but I believe that Bell decided to make her less independent and more reliant on Rebecca to make the story more thrilling. What is your opinion? Other characters Grief and death are difficult subjects to write about but I find horror stories more effective when they deal with some real life horror as well as supernatural scares. Losing our loved ones, or dying ourselves, is one of our most fundamental fears, so it’s a useful one to tap into for horror.

Motivated by a giant spoiler, Sophie heads off to the Isle of Skye to stay with the cousins she hasn't seen since she was young. Cameron is broody. Piper is perfect. Lilias is strange. And Rebecca? Rebecca is dead. In spite of how creepy this book was it isn't a five star read. And now I will say that if you plan to read this: There's a scene where a character from Frozen Charlotte makes a very short appearance and I didn't really get what it means. Probably they can see the future? I don't know. Same with the first book, I didn't really care much about the romance in the story. As a child, while many of my friends were scared of clowns and ghosts and big, angry dogs... I was terrified of aliens and porcelain dolls. I'm sure it was due to being introduced to horror films and The X-Files at a very young age, but I digress. I knew my fear of bug-eyed aliens was still dormant somewhere in there, but I really thought I'd made it past being bothered by dolls until reading this book. NOPE!Bell uses a lot of vivid imagery in the narrative that adds to the tension and suspense of the story, particularly in scenes which are high in conflict. This adds to the thrill and dreadful mood that is depicted throughout the book. Favourite scene When fifteen-year-old Sophie's best friend dies abruptly under mysterious circumstances, Sophie sets off to stay with her uncle and cousins on the remote Isle of Skye. It's been years since she last saw her cousins -- brooding Cameron with his scarred hand; Piper, who seems too perfect to be real; and peculiar little Lilias with her fear of bones.