From LA Times bestselling author Barbara Truelove, She’s a Doll is a ghoulish and gleeful tribute to the unstoppable power of female rage and a love letter to the friends who have our back—in this life and the next.
She’s a Doll by Barbara Truelove
Published by Bindery Books; October 6, 2026
Genres: Horror | Fiction | Adult | LGBT
Pages: 336 pages
Format: Kindle
Source: NetGalley
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T/W: LGBT, Murder, Grief, Sexual Assault, Domestic Violence, Suicidal Thoughts, Strong Language, and One Very Large Spider.
Rated: Adult
★★★★☆ | 4 / 5
Summary
Lucy isn’t a normal girl. Ghost. Victim. Killer. She’s a doll on a mission—to find the man who killed her and return the favor.
Lucy McQuinn has been murdered, but she’s not about to go quietly.
If she doesn’t get to keep breathing, then neither does Kyle, her killer. Possessing the body of an antique doll, she sets out on a quest for revenge. But it’s hard when you’re eighteen inches tall and made of porcelain.
For help, she turns to Nicola, a human and fellow outsider with her own reasons to hate Kyle. But in their small idyllic town, no one wants to hear the truth, especially not about such a promising young man. If they can’t expose his crimes, Lucy will have to roll up her lacy little sleeves and teach him a lesson the old-fashioned way—as slowly and painfully as possible.
My Review
Thank you, Netgalley and Bindery Books, for allowing me to read this fast-paced and engaging story.
When we think of haunted dolls, the first one that comes to mind is Chucky. This is far from that. It is a revenge story, not typical of your hack-and-slash horror. It is comedic. There is found family. There is a happy ending, even though it’s not what you would expect it to be. I am unsure of what the word is used here for that genre, but it’s not a crawl-under-your-skin horror that one might think, filled with fright and dread.
Oh no. This story was very engaging, and I finished it in the span of 2 days. It was a page turner and had me wanting to read more and more. That’s how entertaining it was.
I have read Barbara Truelove’s Of Monsters and Mainframes, so I knew what the writing style would be like and expected it to be just as fun to read as that one was.
When I thought of Lucy as a porcelain doll, this is what I thought of:
However, she goes through many transformations up until the very end, so her visual isn’t so much this anymore by that time.
If you’re looking for something different, then look no further. There is a big content warning at the beginning of the book, which I have tagged at the top of this post under Trigger Warnings. If the content is something you’d rather avoid, then your mental health is more important.
I still don’t know why Kyle did that. But the thing is, these kinds of people don’t even need a reason to be that way. They are inherently evil, and I think that makes the whole situation frustrating to think about. No matter what, they will have created a narcissistic persona of themselves that everyone will love and believe. Yet deep down, they are far worse than what they appear to be. And for those who are wronged, finding justice becomes a sticky situation.
Overall, a 4/5 book for me.
★★★★☆ | 4 / 5
