As everything begins to fall apart around her, Sophia is left to figure out who or what is causing all the chaos before it's too late.

Fast forward to present day, where Sophie and her best friend Jay are sitting in a diner playing with a Ouija board app on his phone. While Sophie isn’t too keen on the idea, she goes along with it to satisfy Jay’s curiosity, and while doing so, something creepy happens – the lights in the diner go off, Sophie swears she can see a girl standing on a table, and creepy music starts to play. The next morning, Sophie is informed that Jay died in an accident while riding his bike home. Crushed with grief and not understanding how this happened, Sophie decides to go on a trip to see her cousins and her uncle on the Isle of Skye. Thinking that this will help her process her grief and spend time with family she hasn’t seen in years, it’s something that she starts looking forward to. No explanation is ever given for what happened to Jay. We KNOW..or think we do..that it wasn't Rebecca. But Piper wasn't dead. So it would not be her either. So..who? Why was Jay killed? And by whom? No explanation is ever given and I almost rated it a 3 because of that since it was a major plot hole. I really wish someone could fill in the blanks. So the line of creepy dolls adorning this book's front cover should have clued me in to the fact that, upon reading this, I would be unable to have an easy night of sleep for quite some time! I read 'YA horror' and assumed this to be a tame, but thrilling story. Oh boy, how wrong could I be!? 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. 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:Penny’s sleepy little farming town hasn’t been the same since it was terrorized by a masked killer who claimed five teenage victims last Halloween. What sort of stuff did you have to research for this book and how did you sleep at night afterwards?! Although the child is dead, my favourite character in this story is Rebecca due to the way her behaviour is portrayed. She is not the main character. However, the story is based around the strange events that ultimately lead to her death. Throughout the plot, Rebecca does not really develop as a character but she aides the development of Sophie and the plot. She does this by only giving away certain hints at specific points, as well as, only appearing at times that the plot needs developing. Sophie It gets its name from China dolls known as Frozen Charlottes. So, it’s not a surprise these creepy dolls appear in the story.This book has everything you’d expect in a horror or paranormal story. Ouija boards, creepy dolls, ghosts, and an old house with a disturbing past.

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. I think if I'd read this before the age of like, fifteen or so, it would've been a 5-star read, as my taste and expectations weren't quite as developed then as they are now. I tend to lean towards longer and more character driven works, and this didn't really fit the bill. It's creepy, well-thought of, fast paced,... whatever you want in a thriller you got it in this one. 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. I hate dolls. I have to start by saying this because this book is all about creepy little dolls and it really freaked me out. I’ve never been more grateful that I don’t have a load of dolls in my bedroom or I probably wouldn’t have slept since reading this book.

About Alex Bell

It’s commonly accepted that these dolls were didactic tools, physical representations of the consequences of parental disobedience. It’s widely believed that Victorian children were well-aware of the origin story of these dolls and played with them nonetheless. After all, many aspects of Victorian culture are openly macabre and death-obsessed, so this grisly historical narrative isn’t entirely outlandish. Anyway, point is Frozen Charlotte really brings the creeps with the tiniest of dolls. It has a Ouija board (app), a ghost, evil dolls that want you to come be bad with them, and people that are not to be trusted. Despite all of this going on, it's well balanced. There's some great stuff with family and trust going on. Yes, these people are technically Sophie's family, but does she really know any of them that well? Who can she trust? Why should they trust her? We have a wider cast of characters in this book compared to Frozen Charlotte. We have our main character, Jemima, who used to be her mother's assistant on conducting fake séances. She's a very interesting and complex character. She's not perfect but I loved how she cares about the girls and their safety which is quite ironic since she's the one who gave them the dolls without any knowledge of the harm they will bring. Then we have Miss Grayson, the head mistress, who reminded me so much of Miss Minchin (from A Little Princess) but way more evil. Henry, a very nice guy and Jemima's love interest. Estella, one of the schoolgirls and the outcast of the group. And of course, the little Frozen Charlotte dolls. I really enjoyed writing both Cameron and Lilias because they’re both unusual characters with a lot of personal demons. They have quite a special relationship so I especially enjoyed the scenes where these two feature together.

For many beachcombers, the Frozen Charlotte doll is a strange and exciting prize. These beautiful and slightly creepy pieces of Victorian history wash ashore in many different sizes and styles, and have a notoriously dark origin story. The tale is well-known in the beachcombing community: A young woman Charlotte wanted to attend a New Year’s ball on a particularly cold night. She insisted on traveling in an open sleigh so she could show off her beautiful gown, despite her mother’s many warnings and pleading advice to dress more warmly. Foolish and vain, Charlotte disobeyed her mother and froze to death. But should these distinctive beach finds actually be called “Frozen Charlotte” dolls? Dolls scare the absolute daylights out of me at the best of times…so much so that I can’t even have any of my daughters’ dolls even looking at me without freaking out. I never liked dolls (probably because of my love for the movie Dolls, which is where I’m pretty sure this aversion came from), and that hasn’t changed since I got older, either. They just always creeped me out…the way they stare at you…nope, not my thing. At all. Which is probably why this book scared me so much.

Alex Bell Press Reviews

This book is absolutely fantastic as far as horror novels go, and I’ll be the first to admit that I had to put it down multiple times because I was too spooked to keep reading (I refused to even read this book before bed because I was so creeped out). It definitely had plenty of scary stuff going on, so if that’s your thing, it’s on you won’t want to miss out on. Once Sophie is reunited with her family I assumed the chill I felt whilst reading this would abate. If the protagonist is to be continually surrounded by other individuals then surely this high-stakes horror could not continue? And this is where I found that the setting would continue to play as big a part in the tense dread, that pervades every aspect of this book, as the plot line. The characters fell quite flat for me. Our leading lady Sophie was probably the most well-developed, but I can't say that I ever really liked her. Her uncle was barely there at all, almost as if he were just an afterthought. And her cousins? They were weird. Cameron was broody and prone to violent outbursts. Piper was almost cookie-cutter perfect for the majority of the book and then a sociopath for the rest. And Lilias seemed like she was just there as a plot point, someone to move the story along when it came to a halt. Gothic, eerie atmosphere, a secluded school building that now houses a family, an eccentric family where accidents and death seem to hover over them like shadows, whispers in the night, giggles that cause a fright, and so many Frozen Charlottes one could lose count. I’d originally intended for the dolls to be voodoo dolls but it was hard to get too excited about this because they’ve been done so many times before. Frozen Charlotte dolls are quite unique, and not all that many people seem to know about them, so I thought they’d be more interesting.