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Loading... The Doll Collectionby Ellen Datlow (Editor)
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. What I was hoping for was a collection of eerie, unsettling tales and this collection did not disappoint. "Handmade Monsters" was my favorite. The story was wonderful and the author made some pop-culture references that I could relate to: Godzilla v the Smog Monster and G. I. Joe with kung-fu grip! ( ) Another high-quality collection of tales of horror from Ellen Datlow; unquestionably the best editor working in the genre. As the title indicates, "dolls" are the theme. The one stipulation here was that the contributing authors avoid the frequently-used trope of the 'evil doll.' The dolls here might not be evil, but some of them are damn well spooky! **** Skin and Bone - Tim Lebbon Hallucination meets madness - and possibly something more eldritch - in this tale of two modern Antarctic explorers on an ill-fated expedition. I'm not sure how well this piece fits in with the theme of the collection, but it's an excellent story. **** Heroes and Villains - Stephen Gallagher Ventriloquist's dummies (excuse me, 'dolls' or 'figures') are pretty much automatically creepy. However, this story brings both a wealth of authentic detail and a new twist to the old horror trope. A town has had the idea of hiring a ventriloquist to animate an old doll found in the museum's archives for a local festival. But the interview with a ventriloquist doesn't quite go how the curator expected. **** The Doll-Master - Joyce Carol Oates While, in general, I don't think that there's anything wrong with little boys playing with dolls, there's certainly something quite, quite wrong with this specific boy playing with dolls. **** Gaze - Gemma Files Slightly reminiscent of a 'Friday the 13th' episode (the TV show, not the movie series, of course). I love the 'haunted antique' trope, and it's done well here. When a dealer is contacted by a stranger asking if she might be interested in a matching item to one of her pieces, she's intrigued. Miniatures featuring only an eye are rare, and her new contact has a fascinating and extensive provenance for his item. But answering his e-mail has opened the door to far more than she could have expected. **** In Case of Zebras - Pat Cadigan A teenager has been sentenced to community service - she's required to volunteer at the local emergency room. She throws herself into the work willingly - but when a small, intriguing doll falls out of a patient's pocket, her fascination with it seems likely to lost he co-workers' newfound trust. But is there truly something odd about this doll, that no one else seems to have seen? **** There Is No Place for Sorrow in the Kingdom of the Cold - Seanan McGuire Hobbyists might have many reasons for crafting their dolls. However, it's fairly certain that you won't have guessed at the one this narrator has. I loved the supernatural background here, was slightly less enthused by the domestic violence/office aspects of the plot. Overall, a very good story. Loved the Pinocchio tie-in! *** Goodness and Kindness - Carrie Vaughn New York City - maybe the 1950s? An aspiring reporter is willing to put his career before anything else in his life - but doesn't have the instincts needed for the job. And there are an awful lot of kewpie dolls. *** Daniel’s Theory of Dolls - Stephen Graham Jones Weird, weird fiction. The narrator tells us there's always been something... off... about his younger brother. And then he tells us about how his family handled the miscarriage of a much-anticipated infant, and how that incident scarred them all. And then things just keep getting stranger... *** After and Back Before - Miranda Siemienowicz This is one in the subgenre I might describe as 'Children of the Apocalypse,' where after a disaster, young survivors, expecting to die, have formed a dysfunctional kind of society. There are some 'adults' here as well, but I was still reminded in tone of Star Trek's 'Miri,' for example. It's good, but there are a few disorienting shifts, and I don't think the 'shocking reveal' fully worked as a dramatic climax. *** Doctor Faustus - Mary Robinette Kowal In this genre, it's always a bad idea to mess with ancient magical symbols found in an old book you don't know much about. No, your theatrical production doesn't have to be *that* accurate. Here, some well-intentioned set design goes horribly wrong, in a brief and bloody tale. *** Doll Court - Richard Bowes An older man begins to have dreams where he is called to account for all his alleged misdeeds against dolls, both in the recent past and in his childhood. When these dreams start intruding into real life, there's a potential for true eeriness - but that's undercut by a thread of silliness to the whole thing. *** Visit Lovely Cornwall on the Western Railway Line - Genevieve Valentine A series of random travelers encounter a girl, alone with her doll, on a train en route from London to Cornwall. The writing here is beautiful, and the imagery memorable. I also like how the piece plays with the readers' preconceptions and expectations. However, I still wish that it had all been tied up a bit more conclusively. **** Ambitious Boys Like You - Richard Kadrey A pure horror tale; would make a great start to a late-night movie. Two lowlifes decide to burglarize the home of an old man whose eerie, doll-festooned, dilapidated house was always rumored to be haunted. The house looks like it was upper-class, once upon a time, and they suspect he's got something good stashed away. However, the 'something' in the house is more than they bargained for. ** The Permanent Collection - Veronica Schanoes This story is clearly inspired by a visit to this now-closed business. http://www.yelp.com/biz/new-york-doll-hospital-new-york. You know, you could've just written a bad yelp review instead of this story. All I can say is, I'm sure it's true enough that the elderly proprietor may have been cantankerous, and his prices were surely high, but I actually feel like this piece is an uncalled-for slandering of the dead. *** Homemade Monsters - John Langan An effective description of childhood bullying - and a strange and ambiguous incident that's finally triggered when the bully decides to mess with his 'friend's' "Godzilla" figure. **** Word Doll - Jeffrey Ford As an archivist with a personal interest in anthropology & history-related topics, this one pushed all the right buttons for me. A man (coincidentally sharing the author's name) has his curiosity piqued by a small sign for a "Word Doll Museum." He goes to see what on earth a "Word Doll" might be, and meets a woman who tells him a fascinating (and strange) story of local history. **** Miss Sibyl-Cassandra - Lucy Sussex Presented as the description of an item up for auction at Sotheby's. (I have to give a bonus point for an off-hand mention of a Sotheby's employee named Althea... no, I never worked there, but I did consider applying...) The item is a fortune-telling doll, and the letters that are included as provenance tell the strange story of the fortunes that she 'told.' Many thanks to Tor and NetGalley for the opportunity to read! As always, my opinions are solely my own. I picked this book up without even investigating it much; as far as I’m concerned, most dolls are creepy on their own, even without a scary story written about them. The list of authors in this anthology is impressive, containing Joyce Carol Oates, Pat Cadigan, and many other award winning writers of fantasy and horror. The dolls cover a gamut of androids, ventriloquist dummies, regular baby dolls, poppets, imaginary dolls, dolls that hold emotions, and many more. Not all the stories are horrific, but all are at the very least odd. And I mean that in a good way. Editor Datlow always does a great job of selecting stories for her collections no reviews | add a review
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"The Doll Collection is exactly what it sounds like: a treasured toy box of all-original dark stories about dolls of all types, including everything from puppets and poppets to mannequins and baby dolls. Featuring everything from life-sized clockwork dolls to all-too-human Betsy Wetsy-type baby dolls, these stories play into the true creepiness of the doll trope, but avoid the cliche that often show up in stories of this type. Master anthologist Ellen Datlow has assembled a list of beautiful and terrifying stories from bestselling and critically acclaimed authors such as Joyce Carol Oates, Seanan McGuire, Carrie Vaughn, Pat Cadigan, Tim Lebbon, Richard Kadrey, Genevieve Valentine, and Jeffrey Ford. The collection is illustrated with photographs of dolls taken by Datlow and other devoted doll collectors from the science fiction and fantasy field. The result is a star-studded collection exploring one of the most primal fears of readers of dark fiction everywhere, and one that every reader will want to add to their own collection"-- No library descriptions found.
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.0873808Literature English (North America) American fiction By type Genre fiction Adventure fiction Horror fiction; Ghost fiction Horror fiction CollectionsLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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