Kinda Creepy

Have you ever seen an antique china doll?  If you have you can understand that sometimes they look beautiful and delicate but other times they look kinda creepy.  If you haven't seen one here's a picture. 

Wait a minute, I thought this was a blog about books.  Why are you talking about dolls?  Great question.  It is a bone-china doll (like the one pictured above) that is the centerpiece for Holly Black's Doll Bones.  

In Doll Bones, Zach, Poppy and Alice spend their afternoons playing with doll/action figure type toys.  Now this may seem odd for middle school aged kids but this is no ordinary game they are playing.  Zach, Poppy and Alice have created elaborate back stories for each of their characters and "the game" is filled with quests and adventures.  'The game" is as well developed as any book or movie.  The central character in the game is The Queen, an antique doll who is kept locked in a cabinet.  

But for some reason Zach suddenly quits the game and that is when things begin to get, well...kinda creepy.  There may even be a need for a real-life quest.  But maybe not-no spoilers here.  

I will admit this book started a bit on the slow side but once I got into it I had to see how the story ended.  That being said the overall mood of the books was, for lack of a better word, creepy.  I can name a dozen students right now who would love the creepy factor of this book, but for me it's not my favorite.  

Making your own game...that's kids stuff.