Frozen Charlotte: 1 (Red Eye, 1)

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I loved reading the Point Horror books when I was a teenager. There always seemed to be that extra element of excitement about them that made you more eager to discuss them with friends. I think the appeal of horror is that it allows us to dip our toe into a pretty murky pool that we have no desire whatsoever to actually dive into! There’s a particular thrill that comes from putting yourself in the mind set of characters who are going through hell. I also like that horror is high stakes (someone is almost guaranteed to die, or be horribly injured at some point) and if there’s a supernatural element then you never know what awful thing might happen next. They’re stanzas from the Fair Charlotte poem by Seba Smith. The poem first appeared in 1843 with the title: A Corpse Going To A Ball. This was rumoured to be based on an article about a real life event that appeared in a New York newspaper in 1840, but that hasn’t been substantiated as far as I know.

I also researched Ouija boards and old schoolhouses. The research was definitely the creepiest part of the process, especially all the stuff I read about haunted dolls. Some of them look terrifying as well! I had to try to put it all out of my mind before turning out the light to go to bed, but I have to admit to being generally more easily startled whilst I’m writing a horror novel!Both Charlotte books hit the nail on the dead, having an excellent balance of fast placed plot, the supernatural, characters you care about, and nasty little dolls ... -- Ginger Nuts of Horror Grief and death are difficult subjects to write about but I find horror stories more effective when they deal with some real life horror as well as supernatural scares. Losing our loved ones, or dying ourselves, is one of our most fundamental fears, so it’s a useful one to tap into for horror. The name of the doll originates from the American folk ballad Fair Charlotte, based on the poem "A Corpse Going to a Ball" [1] by Seba Smith, which tells of a young girl called Charlotte who refused to wrap up warmly to go on a sleigh ride because she did not want to cover up her pretty dress; she froze to death during the journey. [2] Hello Yellow - 80 Books to Help Children Nurture Good Mental Health and Support With Anxiety and Wellbeing -

Beachcombing is published by Etched by the Sea Inc. All rights reserved. All images are used by permission and are the property of their respective owners. Dolls with china heads, 1750-1870, Fairbanks Museum and Planetarium. Jointed doll and penny dolls, Kirsti Scott. Porcelain doll arms, Marylou Forrest. The inspiration for Sophie’s character really came from a lot of gothic romances I’ve read by writers such as Victoria Holt and Madeleine Brent. These often involve a fairly ordinary heroine finding herself in extraordinary surroundings where she has to deal with strange/fascinating/eccentric characters who most often have various dark secrets. There’s very much a sense of not knowing who to trust and things not being as they seem in this type of book, and I really enjoy that kind of ambiguity as a reader. LoveReading4Kids exists because books change lives, and buying books through LoveReading4Kids means you get to change the lives of future generations, with 25% of the cover price donated to schools in need. Join our community to get personalised book suggestions, extracts straight to your inbox, 10% off RRPs, and to change children’s lives. The much-anticipated prequel to the bestselling Frozen Charlotte, a Zoella Book Club title in Autumn 2016. Following the death of her mother in a terrible fire, Jemima flees to the remote Isle of Skye, to take up a job at a school for girls. There she finds herself tormented by the mystery of what really happened that night. Then Jemima receives a box of Frozen Charlotte dolls from a mystery sender and she begins to remember - a seance with the dolls, a violent argument with her step-father and the inferno that destroyed their home. And when it seems that the dolls are triggering a series of accidents at the school, Jemima realizes she must stop the demonic spirits possessing the dolls - whatever it takes. About This Edition ISBN:

Learn more about marbles, dominos, dice, toy vehicles, and more found on beaches around the world. Articles › Buy from our bookstore and 25% of the cover price will be given to a school of your choice to buy more books. *15% of eBooks. Home > Now she happily dwells in an entirely make-believe world of blood, death, madness, murder and mayhem. The doctors have advised that it is best not to disturb her, for she appears to be happy there. I stumbled across the Frozen Charlotte dolls whilst doing research online one day and the idea for the story basically came from there. I thought they were so deliciously creepy and unusual, as well as not being all that well known, so it seemed like a great starting point for a horror novel. I didn’t know exactly how things were going to play out before I started but I had a rough idea. I prefer not to plan my books in too much detail but I do like to know how the book will end. 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.

I like the Frozen Charlotte ballad extracts that appear at the start of each chapter. My favourite lines from the poem are: I absolutely love the cover! I thought it captured the mood of the book really well and looked suitably spooky without giving too much away.Not one to learn from past experience, Alex started the Legal Practice Course in London. There she met some great people and had a lot of fun messing about during lessons that were clearly meant to be extremely solemn affairs. Thankfully, she dropped out just before the point where all students must submit to the personality-removing process that is a compulsory part of being an esteemed member of the legal profession. even gorier and scarier than the first novel [...] the harshness of [the historical setting] made this ever more horrific. Wonderful work yet again from Alex Bell! -- Miss Fay Myers NetGalley After Sophie’s best friend dies in a tragic accident, she travels to the isle of Skye in Scotland to visit her relatives, who live there in an old, possibly haunted mansion. The bleak story of Frozen Charlotte originated in a New York Observer article in 1840 that described the frigid death of a real-life young woman somewhere in upstate New York. Over the next few years, some songs and poems helped to further the popularity of the story, and soon it caught fire in America. The story had a clear and easily-understood moral: listen to your mother and don’t be vain. They were popular during the Victorian period and are based on a ballad about a young woman who refuses to wrap up warm for a sleigh ride to a ball and, when they arrive, her fiancé discovers that she’s frozen to death during the journey. The dolls are normally made of white porcelain and have unjointed “frozen” limbs that are intended to portray a corpse. It seemed so typically macabre of the Victorians to create dead dolls for their children to play with! The dolls all come naked, with only painted hair, facial features and shoes. The idea was supposed to be that children would make dresses for them out of any spare fabric their mothers might have lying around.

I suppose I just think of the things that would most frighten me if I was to experience them! I think that you should always be aiming to scare yourself when writing horror, or else you can’t really hope to scare your readers – which is what we all want from a good horror story! That shivery feeling is why we seek out these types of books and films in the first place. I particularly like subtle, chilling horror, as opposed to big slasher type scenes, because I think this helps create a more insidious atmosphere that can be quite claustrophobic and effective. Teens looking for a novel to keep them up at night will find it in this one.” — School Library Journal 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. Everyone believes that Salil Singh killed his girlfriend, Andrea Bell, five years ago—except Pippa Fitz-Amobi.The winners of The Farshore Reading for Pleasure Teacher Awards 2023, highlighting the work schools are doing to encourage a love of reading, have... I could almost imagine this book being played out as a movie, one with a lot of silence and creep-up-on-you scenes. Reading In Between the Lines I'm not sure that there's anything much more dangerous when it comes to faeryland than a magic mirror.” 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. A wondrously haunting and modern thriller, Frozen Charlotte drips with mystery and madness, secrets and survival, and the chilling sense that the impossible might be all too real.