Book Review: Doll House (John Hunt) @JohnHuntFiction @brwpublisher

Olivia is a college freshman; bright-eyed, eager for what the future holds until she is abducted and kept hostage locked in a room. For five years she is raped, tortured and abused. Her room is pink. A room fit for a doll. She is a member of their sick collection.  After Olivia escapes her captors, her worries truly begin. Getting out of the Doll House was the easy part; remaining away from the Doll House proves to be the bigger obstacle.

 Doll House by John Hunt was one of the creepiest books that I have read in a long time; it takes quite a bit for me to be truly frightened, but this one had my skin crawling. I was glued to my seat.   I was compelled to keep reading.  I could have read this one easily in one sitting, but I had to take a break when it became too dark.

I had to read this one during the daytime.

The novel opens and immediately jumps into the action; Olivia is abducted and her descent into hell begins. Explicitly written, but not overdone, Hunt relies on the reality of a psychopathic mind instead of ostentatious shows of violence.  In fact, the scariest part of this novel was the fact that it felt so real. There was no paranormal element, nothing supernatural, just the pure, raw and macabre horrors of human nature.

This one reminded me a lot of Riley Sager’s Final Girls the book that I have predicted will be a book everyone is talking about this summer.

From the pace to plot and a kick-ass female protagonist, I found not much to fault in Doll House. This novel is out now, so if you want a “scare your pants off” type horror thriller, then look no further.

This one was a #cjsreads2017 pick, so stay tuned for our group review, as well as a very special Q&A post with the author, John Hunt!

 Thanks to the author, the publisher and Netgalley for a digital copy of this novel; it was my pleasure to provide an honest review.