Review: Dollhouse (Dark Carousel #1) by Anya Allyn

Title: Dollhouse

Series: Dark Carousel #1

Author: Anya Allyn

Genre: YA, paranormal, mystery

Publication date: May 2012

Published by: Anya Allyn

Source: Kindle Freebie

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Buy it: Amazon

Synopsis:

A spine-tingling Gothic Thriller...

An abandoned mansion, deep in the woods. A dollhouse, filled with life-sized toys. A doorway into other realms. And girls who keep disappearing...

When Cassie’s best friend, Aisha, vanishes during a school hike, Cassie sets off with Aisha's boyfriend and their friend Lacey, determined to find her. Instead, the three teens fall into a carefully-laid trap—deep into the surreal nightmare and dark secrets of the Dollhouse.

Now, Cassie must uncover the mysteries of the Dollhouse and her own connection to it-- before it's too late.

With the horror and otherworldliness of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, the Gothic romance of A Great and Terrible Beauty, and the thrill of American Horror Story, Dollhouse is a tantalizing start to The Dark Carousel series.

My rating: ★★☆☆☆
Dollhouse sounded so interesting and promising I was very excited to read it, but it had such a frustrating end it left a bitter taste in my mouth (so to speak).

They mystery was very intriguing, I mean, where are these girls disappearing to? I enjoyed them looking for the girls and finding the so called “Dollhouse.” Once in the actual Dollhouse, it got super suspenseful and freaking creepy with whatever was creeping around with them down there! I love creepy, but I was definitely rooting for them to find a way out. As I said, it was suspenseful, but after a while of being down there, the suspense turned into mild annoyance--Do something already!

And then we find out what’s been lurking in the shadows down there... well, kind of. There’s promise of some creature from Greek mythology that we don’t see much of in other works of fiction, and I got super excited because I LOVE mythology and all this actually makes sense! Except, by the end of the book, it was neither denied nor confirmed that it was indeed this particular creature (and not something similar) that’d been haunting the Dollhouse.

And then we get to the climax where they’re hatching a plan ready to escape, and then... the book ends. The abrupt ending plus the choice Cassie made there at the end... ugh, just no! I mean, yeah, maybe that was their only choice, maybe, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. After I invested so much time into this book, I was expecting a more resolved ending!

Dollhouse had a promising mystery with a little horror, lots of suspense, and potential Greek mythology roots, all things I love, but in the end it led to nothing. The ending was very frustrating and there were way too many questions left unanswered, like, all of them. All this book was was a setup for the next books in the series. And typically I am more than okay with that, but each book in a series should have some sort of resolution within just it’s own book, right?. Will I be reading the rest of the series? NO. Although I am curious to find out what will happen next, it was just too frustrating. It started off great, with an interesting premise, but in the end it let me down, hard.

Have you read this book? If so, what did you think about it? If not, what do you think? Does it sound like something you might want to read? Leave me a link to your review or comment below! :)