10 Horror Books About Dolls
Are you afraid of dolls? Feel a little uncanny valley’d when you look at a mannequin’s face? If so, I’ve got just what you need below. These 10 horror books about dolls, puppets, and dummies will have you sleeping with the lights on — and rethinking all your childhood playthings.
The older I get, the more people I meet who are downright terrified of dolls. I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t understand the fear; I grew up sleeping in a tiny bedroom with a dozen dolls facing the bed, and never thought twice about it — except for the one time I dreamed one doll’s head turned 180 degrees while I was holding it, but who’s counting?
Still, there’s something about dolls, mannequins, puppets, and other inanimate humanoids that makes large swathes of people uneasy. It’s the uncanny valley, sure, but it goes beyond that for many — condensing into abject terror. Others, like 3-year-old Briar Rose Beard and myself, remain unfazed. There doesn’t seem to be a neutral camp; you’re either down with the dolls or “Down with the dolls!” if you know what I mean.
We’ll take a look at 10 fantastic horror books about dolls below, but first: a brief and incomplete history of doll horror.
A Brief and Incomplete History of Doll Horror
Creepy dolls, puppets, and mannequins have long been a horror staple. Contemporary films like M3GAN and The Boy are just the tip of the iceberg. Real-life dolls named Robert and Annabelle allegedly haunted their owners for years — more than a century, in Robert’s case — before much creepier-looking versions of them became Hollywood fodder. The fictional dolls from Algernon Blackwood’s The Doll and One Other, Richard Matheson’s “Prey,” and William Goldman’s Magic came to life in Rod Serling’s Night Gallery (“The Doll”), the “Amelia” segment from Trilogy of Terror, and 1978’s Anthony Hopkins-led Magic.
Speaking of Serling, The Twilight Zone deserves a special mention here. The 1960s anthology series served up more than a few chilling dolls in its time. Beyond the murderous Talky Tina (“Living Doll”), department store mannequins (“The After Hours”), and ventriloquist dummies (“Caesar and Me” and “The Dummy”), The Twilight Zone managed to make even the friendliest of humanoids majorly unsettling (“The Lateness of the Hour” and “The Lonely”).
During the 1980s horror boom, Child’s Play, Dolls, Poltergeist, and Puppet Master brought pediophobia and pupaphobia to the filmgoing masses. In the ’90s, one Are You Afraid of the Dark? episode, “The Tale of the Dollmaker,” scarred many Millennials with its yarn about an evil Dollhouse that turns children into dolls. And who could forget Slappy from the Goosebumps series?
In short, creepy dolls are here to stay. Here are some creepy books about dolls you owe it to yourself to check out.
Horror Books About Dolls
Frozen Charlotte by Alex Bell
Taking its title from the morbidly named doll, Alex Bell’s Frozen Charlotte follows Sophie as she takes a summer holiday at her disturbed cousins’ home. Inside the house — formerly an all-girls school — are three children who’ve been scarred inside and out, a room filled with porcelain dolls, and a fourth child: the ghost trapped among the figurines.
The Voice of the Clown by Brenda Brown Canary
Still out of print at the time of this writing, Brenda Brown Canary’s The Voice of the Clown has been in high demand ever since the publication of Paperbacks from Hell, some 35 years after its release. Those who aren’t #blessed enough to own a copy will have to make do with the premise alone, at least until we get a second round of Paperbacks from Hell books.
The Voice of the Clown centers on 6-year-old Laura, whose beloved clown doll has been possessed by a malevolent force out of Native American myth. Problematic? Yes. A whole lot of fun? You betcha.
The Girl from the Well by Rin Chupeco
As if the onryō weren’t scary enough, Rin Chupeco went and added possessed dolls to the mix. The story here centers on Okiku: a vengeful spirit in the vein of Kayako and Sadako/Samara. Rather than hunting down anyone who crosses her path, however, this ghost targets child-killers. The creepy dolls here number in the hundreds, but the doll-horror shenanigans get cranked up to 11 in the sequel novel: The Suffering.
Fun fact: Okiku is also the name of a purportedly haunted doll in real life.
Magic by William Goldman
From the author of Marathon Man and The Princess Bride comes Magic: the story of a down-on-his-luck purveyor of close-up magic. Corky Withers’s career had stagnated before he added a ventriloquist dummy named Fats to the mix. On the brink of superstardom, Corky gets the opportunity to reconnect with his high school crush. He can’t escape the ghosts of his haunted childhood, however, and the secret to his success may also be the catalyst for his downfall.
The Toymaker by Sergio Gomez
With shades of Stephen King and R.L. Stine, The Toymaker follows five kids as they set out to stop the evil force possessing an elderly toymaker’s handcrafted ventriloquist dummy from destroying the town. This 2020 novel from the author of Camp Slaughter has more ’90s nostalgia than you can shake a control at.
Took by Mary Downing Hahn
Old Auntie and her pet razorback, Bloody Bones, are something of a local legend in the West Virginia town where the Andersons have relocated from Connecticut. Thirteen-year-old Daniel thinks it’s all a bunch of hooey — until his kid sister disappears. Erica had a doll that looked just like her, one she carried everywhere and told everything. It’s missing too. Is it part of Old Auntie’s plot to lure Erica up the hill to her house…or is something more mundane but just as sinister afoot?
Dolly by Susan Hill
The Woman in Black author Susan Hill is behind this overlooked 2012 horror gem. Set in a crumbling Fenlands manor, Hill’s novella follows two young cousins on an ill-fated summer holiday. Staying with their aunt and her housekeeper isn’t exactly the most exciting way to vacation. Edward’s just trying to make the best of it, but the house — and the people in it — are starting to crack his pleasant demeanor. But all hell is about to break loose over Leonora’s birthday present, and no one who witnesses what’s to come will ever be the same.
Night of the Mannequins by Stephen Graham Jones
Another novella, Stephen Graham Jones’s Night of the Mannequins centers on an innocent prank gone horribly wrong. I won’t spoil the fun for you. Just read this helluva opening line and then go read the book for yourself: “So Shanna got a new job at the movie theater, we thought we’d play a fun prank on her, and now most of us are dead, and I’m really starting to feel kind of guilty about it all.”
Nothing but Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw
Getting married in an ancient manor where a woman was buried alive was a mistake. Who’d’ve thunk it? The ohaguro bettari starts stalking her victims the moment they arrive. Too bad they’re all too distracted by the abundance of alcohol and creepy dolls to notice.
The Puzzle Master by Danielle Trussoni
It’s been five years since Jess was imprisoned for murdering her boyfriend in a house full of creepy dolls. She hasn’t said a word since. Now, it’s up to the titular Puzzle Master, Mike, to solve a riddle Jess has crafted just for him. Will the answer reveal the truth about what happened to the murder victim, or will it only serve to put Mike in the line of fire? With well-earned comparisons to the works of Dan Brown and Alex Michaelides, this is a must-read for any crime-fiction reader.
Want more creepy books to add to your TBR? Check out these horror books about evil kids, cursed objects, and — yes — creepy dolls.
