Frozen Charlotte

Author: Alex Bell

Genre: YA, Horror, Paranormal

Publisher: Stripes Publishing

Publication Date: January 5th 2015

Format: Paberback (368 pages)

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Synopsis:

We’re waiting for you to come and play. Dunvegan School for Girls has been closed for many years. Converted into a family home, the teachers and students are long gone. But they left something behind…Sophie arrives at the old schoolhouse to spend the summer with her cousins. Brooding Cameron with his scarred hand, strange Lilias with a fear of bones and Piper, who seems just a bit too good to be true. And then there’s her other cousin. The girl with a room full of antique dolls. The girl that shouldn’t be there. The girl that died.

My Rating: ★★★★

I hate dolls. I have to start by saying this because this book is all about creepy little dolls and it really freaked me out. I’ve never been more grateful that I don’t have a load of dolls in my bedroom or I probably wouldn’t have slept since reading this book.

Frozen Charlotte is a book I had heard a lot of people raving about. It is not often that I dip into horror books but the idea of this one just wouldn’t leave me and it had been on my shelf for nearly a year so the Halloween Readathon seemed like the perfect time to read it. Needless to say I absolutely loved it and read the whole thing from cover to cover in one sitting (no, not just because I was too scared to move).

From the very first few pages this book creeped me out. I loved that the book didn’t shy away from modern day technologies and that when Sophie and Jay did an Ouija board it was through an app on Jay’s phone. Little did they know what they were about to unleash and in some very frightening first opening scenes I knew exactly what I was in for during this book, or at least I thought I did.

This book ticked a lot of the typical horror clichés: a mysterious death, a scary house, creepy little girl, weird brother, family secrets and DOLLS. There were a few scenes in the book where I did actually find myself lifting my feet from the floor so that I wouldn’t imagine a freezing cold hand reaching out to my ankle. The horror elements of this book are SO well written and genuinely very creepy. I didn’t realise until after reading the book and doing a Google search that Frozen Charlotte dolls are an actual real thing which definitely creeped me out more!

I don’t want to give too much away about the plot but I really loved all of the twists and turns along the way. Every time I thought I knew where the book was going it took another twist and left me stunned. There is a huge climax towards the end of this book that had my heart pounding and I thought the ending was really sweet too. Although that epilogue definitely sent a shiver down my spine!

Have you read Frozen Charlotte?

What YA horror books do you recommend?

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