I picked up this psychological thriller in spite of many people saying that it is, essentially, a Room ripoff. I'd also heard it was a compelling read. Both, sort of, were true.
Baby Doll is the story of what happens to Lilly starting with her escape from 8 years of captivity locked in a basement and sexually used. She also has a 6 year old daughter, Sky. We hear from Lilly, Rick (her captor), Abby (her twin sister) and Eve (her mother). In addition to the recovery story, we learn what happened to Lilly and her family during captivity. From Rick we mostly hear his twisted logic and plans.
I thought Baby Doll was a very compelling read. I wanted to set aside other activities and finish it off. I can often get sidetracked with Instagram, but during reading Baby Doll, that happened only rarely. The only things that kept me from finishing sooner were having two teens for a few days and, well, Once Upon a Time (Anthony and I are working on season 5). Lilly was super strong. Sky was interesting. Abby was broken...I had a hard time with Abby's point of view as she was so self sabotaging. But, at the same time, her point of view was an important part of the story.
Occasionally something about the narration turned me off. There were some trains of thought that I thought were a little awkwardly expressed, but it was fairly minor.
I did also think that there were lots of similarities to Room. However, to say that was an issue is kind of silly. There are lots of books about, say, kids going to boarding school, and, yet, we still read them. Or, I guess I should say I do. Also, Room was set in a bit of a different time frame in that it started with imprisonment, moved on to escape and only spent a bit of time on recovery.
Baby Doll isn't an easy light hearted read, but it was a good read that kept me turning the pages.
No comments:
Post a Comment