The Doll Twin

Borrowed from my book group friend, Sian, Janine Beacham's The Doll Twin is Gothic horror for middle grade readers. It begins with an orphan, Una, who seems never likely to be adopted from the chilly orphanage. When a pair of prospective parents arrive, warm and welcoming, she is overjoyed. However, her new home proves to be a spooky mansion, filled with strange mechanical contrivances left behind by the former owner, a mysterious doll maker. And then the creepiest discovery of all: a life sized doll, an Animated Curiosity, who looks exactly like Una herself.

The Doll Twin is deliciously creepy and has some important things to say about not judging by appearances, but it was sadly marred by some lapses in editing, such as when the doll, Ani, expresses her love for the Iron-Hearted Sea on one page, then a couple of pages later exclaims, 'The Iron-Hearted Sea? Is that its name?' I'm noticing more and more sloppiness creeping into recently published books like this, and I understand that publishers and editors are increasingly under-resourced and over-worked, and that mistakes are going to happen. But it really does spoil the reading experience, for me at least, and The Doll Twin deserved better, because it is a lot of fun.