- Hardcover: 192 pages
- Publisher: Profile Books (October 5, 2012)
- ISBN-10: 1846685745
- Source: Personal copy
Two young cousins, Leonora and Edward, are sent to stay with their spinster aunt at her home, Iyot Lock. Edward, an orphan, becomes his aunt’s ward for the summer while Leonora is there while her mother travels the world, embarking in one affair after another. The cousin’s couldn’t be any more different: young Edward is small, meek, and respectful. Leonora, on the other hand, is breathtakingly gorgeous, conceited thanks to her beauty and wealth.
Edward has found ways to occupy himself while at Iyot Lock, but Leonora is unbearably bored. Her mother’s lack of attention and contact while she is away worsens the girl’s already spiteful attitude. For her birthday she craves a doll, a doll that she already has pictured in her mind. When her birthday comes and there is no sign of the gift from her mother, Edward (the empathetic and caring child that he is) suggests to their aunt that she buy the doll for Leonora. He takes the time to sketch the doll as she describes it. Yet when the aunt returns with a doll that is unlike the one she has requested, Leonora throws a fit, tossing the doll aside.
It is then that Edward begins to hear soft crying at night. Certain that it is the doll crying, he takes it away to bury it, it’s face broken after being so carelessly tossed aside by Leonora.He act of outrage makes quite an impression on Edward; he vividly remembers it years later.
Fast forward a few decades. Edward and Leonora have learned they are the sole recipients of their aunt’s estate after she passes away. They return to Iyot Lock for the first time in several years. It is then that they finally realize the implications of Leonora’s childhood fit, decades later, an outcome that is truly haunting and terrifying.
I was about to pick up my book and read a few more pages to lull myself off again, when my ears picked up a slight and distant sound. I knew what it was at once, and it acted like a pick stabbing through the ice of memory. It was the sound of crying…
Fans of Hill’s work will be pleased to be granted with yet another classic ghost story. As with her other novels, the atmosphere of the novel evokes quite the chilling setting. A dark, remote English home, a doll destroyed by a young girl’s wrath. Truly, anything involving dolls is pretty much guaranteed to send chills down anyone’s spine.
At just under 200 pages, this is the perfect book to curl up with on a cold, fall night. It’s not difficult to find oneself immersed in this story; I was expecting to hear the sound of the crying doll myself. Simply terrifying, in the best of ways. Highly recommended.
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