The Doll Funeral

On Ruby’s thirteenth birthday her parents inform her that she was adopted. For most people this would be devastating news but for Ruby it’s a relief since she has no affection for her parents. Her father Mick is physically and verbally abusive and her mother Barbara turns a blind eye to his transgre......more

I received a copy of this in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to the author, Kate Hamer, and the publisher, Faber & Faber, for this opportunity. I had expected a thriller and instead this split-perspective tale was as bizarre as it was whimsical and otherwordly. Usually meandering tales, with......more

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review. Weird, meandering, but thoroughly compelling to read. I haven't read anything by Kate Harmer before, though of course, had heard of her previous book The Girl in the Red Dress, so I had high hopes. However, I wasn't at al......more

The Doll Funeral was a novel that attempted to be a great many things, and proceeded to be none of them with great aplomb. It had the potential to be a touchingly deep story about domestic abuse and the difficulties of coping with adoption, both as the adopters and the adoptees, but instead it got b......more