Broken Dolls (Jefferson Winter)

Product Information

Well, I didn’t DNF it because I’m a stubborn bitch who wants to suffer apparently. It’s definitely a lot more extreme than Mique’s debut Them and that was already pretty violent, so expects to even worse with this one. Broken Dolls takes you on a claustrophobic journey through torture, mutilation, sexual violence and so much worse as you follow Lauren and her daughter Tully in their own personal hell. A door opens and A-Huei enters. She stops and looks around at the others. Then closes the door and sits down. Ella è un bel personaggio, dotato di molte sfaccettature, non tutte positive. Lisa è antipatica, è il suo ruolo nella storia e lo compie a dovere. Non c’è una ricchezza esagerata di descrizioni, per esempio manca il tempo e il luogo, ma molte cose si possono intuire lungo la storia, e non se ne sente troppo la mancanza, perché siamo troppo coinvolti dai personaggi e la soffitta e la scatola da scarpe in cui abita Ella ci bastano per capire il suo mondo e farci sospirare per il prossimo capitolo. Rhi is a private investigator, based in London, UK, using her psychic talents to expedite her work – and she’s good at it. Snarky, confident and dismissive of her physical beauty, she is a wonderful, strong and independent female lead.

Broken Dolls starts off with some promise. The synopsis/summary alone had me quite curious. The whole book takes place around Rhiannon (also known as RB or Rhi) when she is requested for a special assignment.So did Broken Dolls do it for me, well I'd have to say it did and it didn't. I'm still in two minds about Jefferson Winter the whole likening his intelligence to Da Vinci was cheap as was the model like detective. The thing that wasn't really exploited was the hunter’s killer father and the likelihood that he could go the same way, there could be a darkness to this character that may come in future episodes of his story and that's the intriguing element. There was a couple of surprises that caught me but nothing really earth shattering, a familiar false trail exercise but on the whole the paths are familiar, so it's down to the characters and there's just enough there to revisit this series. I did thoroughly enjoy Mique’s descriptive writing and the passion he has for crafting gorey scenes really shines here. There is no doubt that he is a talented writer and has a gift for creating visuals, whether those visuals are beautiful or twisted. Killer shows up, demands people commits crimes on others, killer doesn't do anything to touch people, and killer leaves. In that sense it felt very predictable and it followed a certain pattern. So Broken Dolls is my latest and a return to the crime thriller stuff that I liked to read before turning to fantasy and my latest thing, dark fiction and horror.

I WAS GIVEN A COPY OF THIS BOOK IN EXCHANGE FOR MY HONEST OPINION. I DO NOT PROFIT OR BENEFIT FROM THIS IN ANY WAY.

Quando ho richiesto questo titolo alla Curiosity quills press per il tour di dicembre, sono stata attirata inizialmente dalla copertina. Per la trama mi aspettavo una storia alla Doll bones, che ho letto più o meno un anno fa e che non mi ha colpito particolarmente. This story went left field on a lot of genres so I opted out of my usual genre rating because you'll find equal amounts of fantasy, and mystery, with a touch of science fiction. I wish there was more imagery. The book is very fast-paced, and while I could visualize a lot of the story, I think the action overpowered some of the novel, leaving me unable to "see" things.

Ella has never known a life outside of the professor's attic. She loves trees, painting, and, most of all, to dance. Ella is also a doll who, the professor says, was once human. The professor dresses her in a new tutu everyday, and her life, while limited, is happy. Then the professor introduces her to another doll named Lisa. Lisa is not happy. Lisa is quite possibly crazy ad tries to kill Ella. Lisa runs away from the attic and discovers secrets about the professor, secrets that make Ella question everything about her existence. She also begins to wonder if the professor is really a gentle man that wants to help those that are broken, or if he is a mad man that turns girls into dolls for fun. I LOVE a book with a Profiler in it, yes, I am a fan of the FBI's Academy at Quantico and those that rise through it's training and field experience to be able to get into the heads of the world's worse killers. I wanted to be a Profiler when I left school (true!). But as odd as it might be, I enjoyed the aspect of humans being turned into dolls and living a supposedly ideal life with no emotions or feelings and a life controlled by the Professor. I didn't expect Ella to have much of a voice or a personality aside from what she knew during her time as a doll (also more robotic sounding), and it is definitely the case in the early parts of Broken Dolls when Puxty sets up Ella's world in a Toy Story-esque fashion. The major theme seemed to be that "The strong do as they will, the weak endure what they must". I think that that is a quote from Thucydides. Sad but true almost two and a half millennia later.

Cast & Crew

Lisa is a goth doll. We're told that the Professor has made her into a doll because she was "broken" and used to harm herself. Aw. How sad, right? First, the plot. I had honestly started the book and immediately assumed that it was going to be like a lot of the YA dystopian that I've read. But the book proceeded in a completely different way from what I expected, and that was awesome. (POSSIBLY SLIGHT SPOILERS) I distrusted Libby from the start, but I'm not exactly normal when it comes to judging characters (sometimes), so I thought that I was just reacting weirdly to the story. Turns out I wasn't. I think that the characters are the strength of this book, I loved the dolls’ concept, how they interact and especially how and why they are made.

Additionally, one of the main features I enjoyed in “Them” was the meaningful commentary, and there was almost none that I could gather from this story. Books are obviously allowed to be “just for fun” and don’t always have to have something to say, but that’s just what I prefer to read. I also think if there was some kind of commentary, it may have helped me to align with the characters a bit more. But again, this is just personal preference at the end of the day. I don’t remember being human. Probably because I don’t want to. The professor tells me how cumbersome the body is and how aches and pains are a way of life. He says this way, I’ll never feel any pain and can dance for as long as I like, never growing old, never changing my joints. In Kingsolver’s ‘Telepathic Clans’ saga the definition of a ‘succubus’ is rather different to what readers might be familiar with (meaning they aren’t demonic ladies who cruelly steal the respectability of sleeping/dreaming men *eye roll*). The telepaths (RB included) have numerous ‘gifts’. The succubus gift involves numerous talents and physical attributes. Of course those talents and attributes are linked to attractiveness and sexual prowess. RB, as all telepaths are, is very beautiful and sexy but not a succubus. She’s just really awesome. BR Kingsolver’s ability to create fantastic extremely likeable characters seems inexhaustible. RB is definitely my favourite so far.The same applies to all the characters – so many characters from so many clans on different sides and different factions. This was somewhat worse than the world building because I actually had one of her allies confused as a bad guy for a time before realising my mistake. So this little book really got my attention! I read this book on a train while travelling at the start of November from Naples to Turin and I was super excited during that period and was super hard to find something that actually distracted me from the crazy week that I was living.