Title: The Dollhouse Family.
Series: Hill House Comics #2.
Writer(s): Mike Carey.
Layouts: Peter Gross.
Finishes: Vince Locke.
Colourist(s): Cris Peter.
Letterer(s): Todd Klein.
Publisher: DC Comics.
Format: Hardcover.
Release Date: October 13th, 2020.
Pages: 144.
Genre(s): Comics, Science-Fiction.
ISBN13: 9781779504647.
My Overall Rating:
Also in the Hill House Comics series:
Basketful of Heads by Joe Hill.
THE LOW, LOW WOODS BY CARMEN MARIA MACHADO
Daphne Byrne by Laura Marks.
Plunge by Joe Hill.
There are objects in life that tend to naturally convey an eerie atmosphere without much effort. Their mere design makes them terrifying as you pray that they don’t do something impossible, whether it’s to move around on their own or to suddenly talk to you. As part of the Hill House Comics line-up, writer Joe Hill reaches out to another well-known horror writer who has a gift to build unique worlds that make you wish that anything he shares remains in the domain of fiction. Teamed up for an original vintage horror story is writer M.R. Carey (The Girl with All the Gifts, Lucifer), artist Peter Gross (The Books of Magic), and Vince Locke (A History of Violence), as they present to us the life of Alice and the Dollhouse family.
What is The Dollhouse Family about? At the age of six, Alice receives a mysterious and stunning 19th-century dollhouse containing a family of five little antique dolls. Absorbed by the joy it brings to her life, especially in the midst of her parent’s tendency to indulge in domestic violence, she quickly learns that her dollhouse comes with a bit of magic, magic that allows her to enter the dollhouse and discover a family unlike anything she ever knew before. However, deep in the dollhouse lies the Black Room and it has an offer that Alice could never refuse. It wouldn’t take much for her to have exactly what she wants if only she says the word. But will she accept the offer and allow the dollhouse to have what it wants or will she fight on to live the life she’s given?
“One by one, go down, be weighed. Be weightless, come up, only one.”
— Mike Carey
You bet that I don’t want to be near these kinds of dollhouses in my life. Dolls tend to be creepy no matter what and, rest assured, I’ve seen some repulsive ones in my life. Writer Mike Carey builds his story around this one relic, an absolutely innocent dollhouse, that has an age-old history across multiple generations. The story shifts across two narratives, the first one following Alice throughout her life as the dollhouse continues to haunt and entice her into accepting its offers, and the second one following an 1826 Ordnance Survey mapping project of Ireland where a supernatural plot is at play amongst humans. While the story-telling is very heavy in world-building, successfully so, most of the reward of this tale comes in the form of intrigue where only those curious enough to stick around until the revelation at the heart of this horror story will truly find something worthwhile in this graphic novel. Many of the events that occur throughout this story do feel bland on the surface but the mythological overcoat laid upon the horror elements makes this story interesting enough to not suffer too much from the linear and dull narrative building it all up.
The artwork is on the rougher side of things as artist Peter Gross and Vince Locke work together towards building a cohesive style that matches the time periods explored in the story but to also allow readers to grasp a sense of claustrophobia in how the events unfold, especially through characters trapped in schemes that are beyond their control. The colours by Cris Peter convey a relatively numb tone that often alludes to sickness and torment. Together, the artistic team succeeds in maintaining an artistic vision that works for the story but doesn’t do much more than it could’ve to give it the edge it needed to stand out from the crowd. The horror elements are spectacular and creative by the end of the story but remain enclosed in the same tonality as the rest of the volume. If there is something to be said about the artwork, it is that it remained entertainingly mundane through and through.
The Dollhouse Family is a coherent yet insipid horror story centered around an ancient dollhouse and one girl who did everything she could to ignore it.
Thank you Penguin Random House Canada for sending me a copy for review!
Roars and Echoes 
I agree 100% with you, dolls ARE creepy.
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Yep. I remember having an absolutely random mini troll doll. I have no idea where it came from but I hated seeing it. I don’t even know to this day what the appeal was for those things!!!!
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I agree ( I was really going to start with that line before I read Mr. Bookstooge’s comment, so I’ll just leave it there, you can whack me with a newspaper later ) that the art style is messy. I’m a sucker for clean lines and consistency, even with the thicknesses, etc, looks like the story saved it for you, then, Lashaan?
By the way, how many books you stacking up over there in Canada, I really hope a tsundoku avalanche doesn’t happen for our sake’s downstairs here in USA. 😜
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Hahahaah no worries. It’s good to know that we’re not alone to hate them dolls! And yes, the artwork isn’t absolutely bad but it sometimes just hits all the wrong chords on my end. The story just makes that art style work for what it is.
Oh, but, you see, I own a Batcave and, alongside my Batcomputer and my Batmobile, my Batlibrary can hold an unlimited amount of books. No way are you getting any kind of avalanche from my end! You should worry more about your fellow American fellows out to wreak havoc amidst the inauguration of your new president and whatnot! 😛
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Yep! Scallywags, the lot of ’em. 🤣
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“Entertainingly mundane.” Now that’s an interesting description! 🙂 I suppose there is a reason so many horror movies have used dolls as part of the story. Clowns have been that way for me, too, ever since reading It when it came out.
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Hahaha it’s not exceptional but it was a fun read. I think it could’ve been better if it had a different art style to go with it, a different narrative structure, or even more issues to better develop the characters. And yes. Clowns are awesome. Not surprising when I adore the Joker in his most insane moods! 😀 It, at least the new movie version, had a solid fear factor to his character. I still need to read the book someday though. 😮
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Have you watched “The Haunting of Bly Manor?” This review made me think of that series. The plot wasn’t exactly like this one, but a doll house (and dolls) was involved. It was a good series.
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I haven’t but I heard wonderful things about both “Haunting of” series. Glad to get your seal of approval on those though. 😀
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Having three grandchildren, my house has a lot of dolls or figures and a couple of dollhouses, but none of them are antique. 🤔
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Then I think you and your grandchildren might be safe from evil spirits in that case, Carla! 😛
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This sounds good. I would be more interested in mythological aspect and characters trapped in doll house. Great review, Lashaan!
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Those were pretty fun! Thanks for reading, Yesha. 🙂
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Oh Gosh Lashaan! That sounds CREEPY! I could never sleep after reading such book LOL
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Hahahaah I can imagine that! 😀 Thanks for reading, Sophie!
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It felt like a weak mix of Neil Gaiman’s Coraline plus Hill’s Locke and Key. I wasn’t a fan of the story.
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Well said. Now that’s a comparison I wouldn’t mind seeing on the blurb for this one too hahah
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The story sounds really interesting. I would like to see this be made into to a movie.
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It would be quite an ambitious movie but all of these stories in the Hill House Comics line-up could make some pretty decent episodes for a TV series though! Each with its own episode. 😀
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Good idea!
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