Dollhouse by Anya Allyn

Dollhouse was recommended to me by my horror loving hairdresser. She never tells me these books are horror but every books she recommends is. She knows I won't check them out if she does. I'm such a scaredy cat. Dollhouse is straight up creepy. While Dollhouse was outside of the normal books I read, I still found it enjoyable.

Cassie and her mom moved from Miami to Australia. Cassie still feels very much like an outsider at her school. She's really only made one friend, Aisha. But she hangs out with Aisha's friend, Lacey, and Aisha's boyfriend, Ethan. One day while on a school project related hike, Aisha disappears. All fingers point to Ethan even though Lacey and Cassie were there too. Ethan keeps searching for Aisha even after the cops give up. Cassie and Lacey decide to join the search. Off into the creepy, cold woods they all go.

Parts of Dollhouse reminded me of hundreds of horror movies. Pretty girl disappears in the woods. A few months after her disappearance, her friends head off to find her. There's a creepy guy who lives in a creepy remote house with a lot of dogs. And a ton of weird strange secrets even amongst the friends. Even as the reader, I felt left of out what was going on. I wanted more back story on the characters. Maybe there's more in the rest of the series, but I felt I needed a little more at the front end. And because it's set in Australia, Allyn uses some Australian slang that kept confusing me. I wasn't sure if it was a typo or Australian slang. I went with slang more often that not. But I thought it was a solid start to creepy YA series. I will be continuing. Others who shared their thoughts on Dollhouse: I am A Reader, Not A Writer, Book Worm Brandy, and The Fiction Diaries.