Deadly Dolls: Midnight Tales of Uncanny Playthings by Elizabeth Dearnley

Book Review

Sarah Deeming

Dolls are a childhood staple, something most children will have, whether it is a realistic baby-type doll or an action figure, but they are also a long-standing source of inspiration in horror stories. This collection of stories from the British Library covers our obsession with haunted or creepy dolls from all different angles. The stories range from 1817 to 2022 in date of publishing, so there is quite a gap between some of them, and yet all of these stories are timeless and work well together.

The stories are grouped by theme, so you know what you’re getting before you read it; Dancing Dolls, Troublesome Toys, Doll Lovers, Possessing Puppets, Fashion Dolls, Doll Houses. Each theme has two to three stories on this theme, but each story is different. For example, in Dancing Dolls, we have The Sandman by E. T. A. Hoffman, where a young man falls in love with a young woman whom he thinks dances well, but everyone else feels she danced mechanically and without soul, and Jerome K. Jerome’s The Dancing Partner where an inventor attempts to create the perfect dance partner for young ladies. Both have a similar theme and a touch of humour, but both are different in terms of how they handle the subject matter.

My favourites, though, were the ones about possessed or haunted dolls, particularly The Devil Doll by Frederick E. Smith and Agatha Christie’s The Dressmaker’s Doll. Again, these two stories have similar themes but tackle them from different perspectives. In The Devil Doll, a young socialite wants a renowned hypnotist at her birthday party. The hypnotist is recreating himself as a ventriloquist after his partner has died and is taking advantage of the rumour that the spirit of his dead partner haunts his puppet to further his reputation. Is it all a ruse, or is there something sinister going on? In contrast, the reader never sees the eponymous dressmaker’s doll moving, as we do with the puppet, but we are shown that the doll has moved through the conversations of the seamstresses. Again, is it one of the staff members playing a joke on everyone and moving the doll, or is it something else?

Another favourite is The Doll Maker by Adèle Geras. It is about a woman who repairs all the dolls in her community. When the girls get their dolls back, they notice something strange about their cherished toys and decide to investigate. It was creepy and sinister, a child’s prized possession coming back to them altered, and all the joy had gone from their toy. It was also told from the children’s point of view rather than an adult’s, making the story stand out.

This is just a snapshot of some of the stories in this collection; there are plenty of others for you to discover on your own. I appreciated the grouping of the stories into different themes and was even surprised at how futuristic some stories written decades ago had been. The Dancing Partner, for example, has the underlying message of not allowing machines to take over roles that should be done by people. That story was written in 1893, yet in 2024, we’re having debates about AI taking over creativity from humans.

Once again, the British Library has created a quality collection where every story hits home and it is perfect to read on dark nights in front of the fire. Just make sure there are no dolls in the room with you.