ARC Book Review: Broken Dolls by Tyrolin Puxty

I received an e-arc of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. This did not affect my opinion of the book in any way.

Publisher: Curiosity Quills

Published: December 2015

Series: Broken Dolls #1

Pages: 175

Summary

Ella doesn't remember what it's like to be human; after all, she's lived as a doll for thirty years. She forgets what it's like to taste, to breathe...to love. She watches the professor create other dolls, but they don't seem to hang around for long. His most recent creation is Lisa, a sly goth. Ella doesn't like Lisa. How could she, when Lisa keeps trying to destroy her? Ella likes the professor's granddaughter though, even if she is dying. It's too bad the professor wants to turn Gabby into a doll, depriving her of an education... depriving her of life. With time running out and mad dolls on the rampage, Ella questions her very existence as she unearths the secrets buried in her past; secrets that will decide whether Gabby will befall the same fate...

My Thoughts...

This was definitely a very surprising and original read! Broken Dolls kept me glued to the page, desperate to find out what would happen next. Ella, our main character, is a doll who used to be a human. She's content spending the days in the attic of the professor who created her, dancing and watching the human world from the television. Until a new doll, Lisa, comes along and tries to destroy her, and starts to put the idea in Ella's mind that the professor may be hiding a terrible secret... 

I really enjoyed trying to figure out what the professor was hiding, and I was oh, so deliciously wrong! I love being surprised by a twist in the plot, and so I was delighted to find out that just when I thought I had figured it all out, I actually had understood nothing at all... 

This was a very quick read, both because I kept reading, wanting to know more, and because it's actually very fast-paced. And some parts were definitely pretty creepy!

The characters and their relationship dynamics were definitely intriguing, though I think they could have benefited from a little bit more development, especially Gabby, the professor's granddaughter. Although, this is the first in a series, so it's highly possible that she will be developed more in the next books. Ella was definitely a very difficult character to relate to. In the beginning, I found it easy to sympathise with her: she's living her "life" as a doll, content with the little she has, until Lisa comes in and tries to destroy everything. But as the story progressed, Ella found out more about the professor, and started to long for being human again, even envying the very sick Gabby.

From that point on, I definitely started to have great trouble in relating to Ella, and I borderline disliked her by the end of the book. This is definitely something that doesn't happen often for me, so it was a pleasant change to the main characters I usually encounter (and end up loving). By the end of the book, my mind was full of complex questions of ethical nature, and it did keep me thinking on them long enough.

Broken Dolls is definitely a solid start to a new series, a fast-paced read to entertain you, creep you out and leave you thinking.

Rating: 3.5/5