When horror author Jill Marshall moves with her family to suburban New Jersey, she’s welcomed by new neighbor, Darla. Perky, saccharine sweet, and looking like she emerged fully formed from an 80s makeup Caboodle, Darla quickly ropes Jill into joining the PTA at her son’s new school. Darla is the PTA president and presides over a pack of grown-up mean girls who don’t even seem to like her, let alone the new horror-writing mom on the block.
Out of place with the other moms, behind on her latest manuscript, and clinging to Darla as her only friend, despite the way Darla’s intensity and obsession with makeup triggers painful memories of her mother’s death, Jill is just trying to keep her head above water.
Then, one-by-one a doll-masked killer slashes their way through the PTA members in grisly attacks, each more disturbingly specific than the next. Paranoia mounts and suspicion grows, as Jill, who thinks she may know who’s behind it all, can’t help but wonder if she’s headed for her very own Final Girl showdown.
Bloody, fast-paced, unhinged, and darkly humorous, Lindy Ryan’s Dollface takes on conformity, trauma, friendship, loneliness, and the masks we all wear in gruesome retro fashion right until the very last twist.
I’m new to Ryan as an author, but this book grabbed me by the throat and pulled me in. I empathized with Jill’s desire for connection and to be accepted while maintaining her individuality. Perfect for readers who like their gore wrapped in social commentary.
DOLLFACE BY LINDY RYAN IS OUT NOW
