The Bloodcurdling Book Club is our horror books podcast where Dawn and I rant and rave over dark and disturbing popular fiction. This week’s hair raising read is 1983’s The Dollhouse Murders by Betty Ren Wright. This juvenile classic is the story of Amy, a young girl who escapes the fatigue of being her sister, Louanne’s, caregiver by fleeing to help her aunt prepare to sell her grandparents’ abandoned home. There she discovers a dollhouse that is the exact replica of the family home. But when the dolls begin to move of their own accord, Amy is thrown into a bloody mystery where some secrets are just not meant to stay in the past. An effective read that introduces the horror genre to young readers, The Dollhouse Murders remains relevant for its depictions of generational trauma and its deployment of uncanny dopplegangers.
Listen to the episode here:
You can also watch the documentary on Frances Glessner Lee’s Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death here:
You can find The Dollhouse Murders by Betty Ren Wright on Amazon (ad):
Selected Reading on Doll Houses
Bristol, Olivia, and Leslie Geddes-Brown. Dolls’ Houses: Domestic Life and Architectural Styles in Miniature from the 17th Century to the Present Day. Mitchell Beazley, 1997.
Broomhall, Susan. “Imagined Domesticities in Early Modern Dutch Dollhouses.” Parergon 24.2 (2007): 47-67.
Burns, Sarah. ““Better for Haunts”: Victorian Houses and the Modern Imagination.” American Art 26.3 (2012): 2-25.
Hodgins, Peter. “The Haunted Dollhouses of Diana Thorneycroft.” Jeunesse: Young People, Texts, Cultures 3.1 (2011): 99-136.
Leszkiewicz, Anna. “The Rise of the Creepy Doll’s House.” New Statesman, 31 October 2018.
Maurellio, Thomas. The Dollhouse Murders : A Forensic Expert Investigates 6 Little Crimes. Penguin, 2003.
Millhauser, Steven. “The Fascination of the Miniature.” Grand Street 2.4 (1983): 128-135.
Of Dolls and Murder. Directed by Susan Marks. Starring John Waters. Seminal Films, 2012.
Serrao, Nivea. “Tiny Terror: Horror Fan Transforms Dollhouse Room Into Iconic Scary Movie Scenes.” SYFI Wire, 9 November 2020.
Watkins, Gwynne. “A Guide to the Most Delightful — and Sinister — Dollhouses in Pop Culture.” Vulture, 19 July 2018.
Wohlwend, Karen E. “Monster High as a Virtual Dollhouse: Tracking Play Practices across Converging Transmedia and Social Media.” Teachers College Record 119.12 (2017): 1-20.
