The Doll's Eye

by Marina Cohen

All Hadley wants is for everything to go back to the way it used to be—back when she didn’t have to share her mother with her stepfather and stepbrother. Back when she wasn't forced to live in a musty, decomposing house. Back when she had a life in the city with her friends.

As Hadley whiles away what’s left of her summer, exploring the nearby woods and splitting her time between her strange, bug-obsessed neighbor Gabe and the nice old lady that lives above the garage, she begins to notice the house isn’t just old and creaky. It’s full of secrets, just like appearance of a mysterious dollhouse and the family of perfect dolls she finds.

Oh, how she wishes her family were more like those lovely dolls! Then one day, Hadley discovers a lone glass eye rolling around the floor of the attic. Holding it close one night, she makes a wish that just might change her world forever.

Genres: Horror, Middle Grade, Mystery, Canada, Fiction, Childrens, Juvenile

208 pages, Paperback

First published February 28, 2017

About the author

Marina Cohen is the author of several horror and fantasy books for children and young teens. Her novels THE INN BETWEEN, THE DOLL'S EYE, A BOX OF BONES and SHADOW GRAVE have been nominated for various awards in Canada and the United States including, The Sunburst Award, The Ontario Library Association's Red Maple and Silver Birch Awards, The Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award, The Rocky Mountain Book Award, The Manitoba Young Reacher's Choice Award, and The Pacific Northwest Library Association Children's Choice Award. THE INN BETWEEN and A BOX OF BONES and SHADOW GRAVE are also Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selections.

Marina loves old castles, hot cocoa, mysterious doors of all shapes and sizes, gingerbread and all things dark and creepy. She spends far too much time asking herself "What if?"

Reviews

[Zyra · Rating 4 out of 5]

perfect combination of creepy & spooky for middle grade. i did not like that ending. at least hadley did get her perfect family in the end.

[Martha Brack Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book! As an elementary teacher librarian, I'm constantly asked for "scary" books by middle graders, and this book really delivers. The images are certifiably creepy -- an eye rolling around on the floor is just one example -- and the historical backstory and mysterious elements ramp up the "freaky" factor. My students already loved Cohen's previous book, The Inn Between, and I can't wait to share this one! Sooo good!

[Suze · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hadley misses the way she and her mother used to be. They've recently moved out of their apartment in the big city and Hadley now has to share her mother with a stepfather and stepbrother. The house they moved into is in the suburbs. It isn't a pleasant place and it constantly gives Hadley an uneasy feeling. She longs for a warm and comfortable home, but instead she has to get used to a house that's musty and chilly. She doesn't feel completely at ease in her new surroundings and spending time with the additional family she never wanted makes Hadley feel deeply unhappy.

The house comes with a large number of items that have been left behind by the previous owners. One of those items is a dollhouse. The lovely tenant who's lived on the premises for a long time even gives Hadley new dolls for her treasured possession. However, something strange is going on with the dolls and the house and Hadley is curious to uncover their secrets. When she finds a glass eye she thinks it belongs to another doll, but which one? She knows something sinister is happening, when one night she accidentally makes a wish. Wishes can't be undone and it's the beginning of a very different time for Hadley. Will she be able to uncover the mystery behind the dollhouse before it's too late?

The Doll's Eye is a fantastic creepy story. I love frightening stories about dolls, so I was immediately intrigued by the subject of this book. Hadley is a sweet girl whose world has been turned upside down because her mother suddenly found love. Hadley has to get used to having a stepfather and a little brother and this isn't easy. She wants things to go back to the way they were, but that isn't what happens when she makes her wishes. Hadley knows something worrisome is going on with the house she's living in and the dollhouse she has in her room, but the question is if she can uncover its secrets quickly enough and fight the magic that's messing with her. Her search kept me on the edge of my seat and I read the book in one sitting because I was so anxious to discover if she'd eventually be okay again.

Marina Cohen has written a terrific eerie book. I was mesmerized by her writing from the start. It's captivating, descriptive and vivid. She knows how to divide tension and this constantly made me curious. I love it when an author manages to surprise me and Marina Cohen has definitely done that with this story. I was constantly amazed and loved the many unexpected twists and turns and overall scariness of her subject matter. The ending is sublime and gorgeously suffocating. I really loved The Doll's Eye, it's creative, distressing and enchanting.

[Belles Middle Grade Library · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m definitely LOVING Marina Cohen’s books. They’re dark & creepy, & this 1 is no exception. So good. All Hadley wants is for everything to go back to the way it used to be―back when she didn’t have to share her mother with her stepfather & stepbrother. Back when she wasn't forced to live in a musty, decomposing house. Back when she had a life in the city with her friends. As Hadley whiles away what’s left of her summer, exploring the nearby woods & splitting her time between her strange, bug-obsessed neighbor Gabe & the nice old lady that lives above the garage, she begins to notice the house isn’t just old & creaky. It’s full of secrets, just like appearance of a mysterious dollhouse & the family of perfect dolls she finds. Oh, how she wishes her family were more like those lovely dolls! Then one day, Hadley discovers a lone glass eye rolling around the floor of the attic. Holding it close one night, she makes a wish that just might change her world forever. There’s a history with this creepy house & the dollhouse, & we slowly get some backstory as to how it all began through some alternating chapters that show the story of a long time ago when it started & how. Those even got very creepy lol. I loved those chapters so much as well though, & they added even more to the story. I think dolls can be extremely creepy, so I love a good scary story about dolls & a dollhouse. This author always seems to grab me, & put me in a trance with her writing. Vivid, descriptive, & eerie. So full of twists & turns, & so much suspense. I flew through this. Great themes & messages in here as well. Blending families, change, & be careful what you wish for. You will either love or hate the ending, or be somewhere in between. I’m in between. It just felt unfinished in a way, & wasn’t as satisfying for me personally. Other than that, I loved this scary story so much, & highly recommend. BEAUTIFUL cover, & inside illustrations by Nicoletta Ceccoli well.💜

[Debbie Ohi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deliciously creepy; I read this in two sittings and was inspired to some fan art. Read this with the lights on!

[Renegade Librarian Extraordinaire]

Here's a throwback question for you:

Remember That One Episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark? You know the one I mean. The one with the creepy door in the attic that leads to...somewhere else. The one where the main character's best friend gets trapped inside the dollhouse that looks exactly like the actual house (complete with creepy attic door) and starts to get transformed into a doll. And the same thing almost happens to the main character, except she is, fortunately, smart enough to figure out how to escape before it's too late.

The one that gave you nightmares afterward and is the reason you're STILL irrationally creeped out by dolls and dollhouses even though you know it's just something from an old children's TV show and, in the cold, bright light of day, really isn't THAT scary. Or shouldn't be. But it IS.

Yeah...this book will bring it ALLLLLLLL back.

And maybe with a dash of Coraline mixed in...just to make it even more nightmarish.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh to be able to choose half stars. A 4.5 for sure. From the opening page Cohen creates a sense of foreboding that was quite delicious. The historical scenes added depth and understanding to the story and were wonderfully written. I had to read the last half of the book in one sitting. A creepy middle grade read with an unexpected ending. Young readers drawn to creepy will love it.

[Abby Pechin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't realize this was supposed to be a children's book until I checked it out from the library. However, it was a creepy little romp that kept me entertained. It is extremely easy to read and I was able to finish it within an hour because the writing was large and there were a few pictures. I really enjoyed this novel, and any little girl who is into haunted, gothic, or creepy stories would enjoy it as well!

[Angela De Groot · Rating 4 out of 5]

Creepy, twisty, scary. Sooooo good!

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

A cute read that was just slightly spooky. Nice ending.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is another Silver Birch nominee and is a great piece of suspense/horror for this age group. It's creepy enough to engage but not over the top scary. This is a wonderful book.

[Saba Rahman · Rating 2 out of 5]

That ending 0_0

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most of the book was fine. There were some plot points that didn't matter to the story as a whole, and I never COULD figure out how big the dolls/dollhouse were supposed to be. I also wasn't fond of the chapters set in the past -- they sort of ruined the buildup of tension because they were just abruptly there, even though I definitely understand why they were included. I also noticed some inconsistencies in the world-building, like some of the people who disappeared were remembered and others weren't. Like, the previous family had gone missing... but Hadley's stepfather and stepbrother were also turned into dolls and no one knew who she was talking about? A little bit more consistency would have been nice, particularly in light of the ending. Also, WHY DIDN'T ALTHEA USE HER DAD'S EYE?! That would have been a stronger story decision! But it also probably would have worked, and I guess the doctor took it with him? But not the nasty bloody bandages from the enucleation? I don't know. I just wanted her to use her dad's eye.

That said, this book has one of the ballsiest endings for a middle-grade horror book I think I've ever read. Most middle-grade authors won't do straight-up unhappy endings. If it's not a happy ending, it's at least bittersweet; if it's not at least bittersweet, it's actually a cliffhanger because there's going to be a sequel where everything turns out all right in the end. Not so in this book! Hadley got herself into a big mess, and she can't fix it. She asks people for help, and it doesn't work. Nope, our protagonist gets turned into a doll and forced to live in a dollhouse, and it is very likely that the people she'd asked for help won't remember her at all. No sequel hook. No chance of fixing it herself. And when a new family inevitably moves into the house and a new child inevitably finds the dollhouse, Hadley and her family will be thrown in the trunk. It's delightfully hopeless, and I commend Marina Cohen for being willing to end her book this way. I get the feeling a lot of readers won't like the ending, but I absolutely loved it.

One last thought: Ed and Isaac should have been killed in some gruesome way to really follow the Monkey's Paw inspiration.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

   Hadley just wants things to go back to the way they were before her mother married Ed and brought a kid brother, Isaac, into their family of two. But instead, they moved out of the city to a large creepy house where everything seems to be about "we four" instead of "we two," and Hadley misses her old life and friends. One day a doll's eye comes rolling towards her, then she finds an old dollhouse in the attic which matches her new house along with some dolls, and she makes a wish. What she didn't realize was someone was waiting to grant her wish...
   My family knows I don't much like dolls (staring, porcelain, you know, the type that often figures into horror movies involving dolls), so of course they would give me this book as a gag birthday gift. And with Halloween around the corner, I figured I might as well read it and get it over with. This was a slow build initially, but then everything starts to happen very quickly as things spiral out of Hadley's control and understanding. It shares quite a few elements with Coraline by Neil Gaiman, though it does take its own path with some of them. If you haven't seen or read Coraline, Ms. Cohen's story is quite novel, but having seen Coraline, I found there to be rather a few similarities (dolls, eyes, not-Mother, I think even a bit of how Coraline and Hadley feel and get themselves into their respective messes - it's been a few years since I saw Coraline, and I haven't read it).
   The characters are fleshed out enough for the purposes of the story, and the way events go, the choices/wishes Hadley makes make sense as they move the story. The creepiness/horror factor slowly builds until it reaches the aforementioned tipping point and spirals, with quite a good number of clues and foreshadowing for a young reader to catch on to. Of course, there are some embedded messages about appreciating what you have and being open to new things/people in your life, but it doesn't get overly preachy - it keeps thing succinct on that front. Would I read it again? Personally probably not (once was enough, thankyouverymuch!), but I would recommend it to readers who enjoy this sort of story.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Normally, I try to sell you on every scary book that I bring. It doesn’t take much. Usually, reading a scary part of the book aloud works. But guys and girls, I can’t do that with this one. There isn’t just one part of this story that is creepy. It’s the whole darn thing.

Hadley has just moved into a new house with her mom, stepdad and stepbrother. She’s still adjusting to the idea of having to share her mom. It is not going well. One night, while trying to sleep in her new room, a doll’s eye rolls out from under her bed. She sticks it on her nightstand and wonders. The following day, while exploring the house, she comes across an old dollhouse in the attic, one that looks exactly like the house she lives in. Then, she meets the kindly woman who lives in the spare room above the garage. She happens to make dolls and offers to make some for Hadley, small replicas of her own family members…

You might be able to see where this is going. If you don’t, that’s ok, too. Maybe it’s better not to know. I can tell you that even I was surprised at the ending. Not all ‘once upon a time’s’ end with ‘happily ever afters.’

[Alicia · Rating 3 out of 5]

All Hadley wants is for everything to go back to the way it used to be, back when she didn't have to share her mother with her new stepfather and stepbrother. Back when she wasn't forced to live in a musty, decomposing house. Back to when she had a life in the city with her friends.
As Hadley whiles away what's left of her summer, exploring the nearby woods and splitting her time between her strange, bug-obsessed neighbor, Gabe and the nice old lady who lives above the garage, she begins to notice the house isn't just dark and creaky. It's full of secrets, like the appearance of a mysterious dollhouse and its family of perfect dolls. Hadley wishes her family were more like those lovely dolls! Then one day, she discovers a lone glass eye rolling around on the floor of the attic. As she holds it close one night, her whole world changes forever.

[Shelley Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Doll's Eye is a delightful gluten & dairy-free middle grade novel. It has just the right amount of creepy, and would make a perfect modern day episode of Twilight Zone. A girl and her new family move to a new house in a new city. She finds a dollhouse in the attic and a glass eye marble, and then things are never quite the same. Can the upstairs neighbor, Granny, help? Is her new friend who loves bugs able to save her? Along with the present day, the story tells the narrative of the little girl who first owned the dollhouse. Her housekeeper tells her about the kobold, a house spirit which can grant wishes but is also tricky and dangerous. This is a quick read that dramatically shows you the two sides of wishing for perfect. "If you believe you are happy, then aren't you?"

[AEK7300 · Rating 3 out of 5]

The way this story is told, is interesting and spooky.
There is the story of Hadley, who's mother's remarriage brings about many changes to her life, including a move from their city apartment to an old house in the suburbs. Hadley is unhappy with all the changes and wishes for things to be like they were before. But wishes don't always come true in the way you envisioned!
Then there is the historical back story of the girl who lived in the old house years ago before Hadley. She becomes fascinated with Frau Heinzelmann's story of a kobold, a house spirit or little sprite, that if captured, can do your bidding.
These two tales eventually intertwine for an unexpected and creepy ending.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book because a student recommended it to me. It is a story about a girl whose mother remarries and they moved into a spooky old house. When noises in the attice wake her during the night, Hadley goes up to the attic and finds an old doll house. She brings it downstairs and discovers some strange dolls in the doll house. Also, it is revealed to her that the previous residents of the house have disappeared. When Hadley innocently wishes that it could just be her and her mom again, this wish sets off a strange series of events causing Hadley to realize wishes are very powerful things. A good blend of suspense and spooky making this a good book for middle grade.

[Rhiannon's Reading Corner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hadley misses her old life, when it was just her and her mom sharing an apartment in the city. Now that they’ve moved to a big house in the country with her new dad and brother, nothing is the same. It doesn’t take long to realize the house has some dark magical secrets. What start as simple wishes soon become curses Hadley cannot reverse. Can she save herself and her family before it’s too late?

AGES 12-14

This book expertly handles the difficult feelings that come with changing family dynamics, combined with spooky fantasy themes that will satisfy young readers. A good scary read for middle schoolers that still has some meaning beneath the creepy story.

[Colette · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Doll's Eye is a creepy page turner that will appeal to kids who love spooky stories. Hadley and her mother move into a dilapidated old farmhouse with Mom's new boyfriend Ed and his son Isaac. Hadley discovers a beautiful hand blown glass doll's eye and an antique doll house version of their house. Strange coincidences abound and Hadley must try and be brave in the face of the evidence that her house is haunted. The supernatural elements are well explained in the backstory of the glass eye and the ending was quite chilling. Recommended for middle grade readers.

[Someone · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Doll’s Eye, by Marina Cohen, is about a girl who moved into a creaky, old house with her mother and her new stepdad and step brother. She then finds a glass doll eye, and realizes this house is more darker than she thought. When she holds the eye close to her one night, her life changes forever. This book was a really fun and scary read. Once you start reading, you can never stop. Each page is so surprising and cliff hanging, that you just have to read the next. This book is perfect for people who love and mysterious and spooky plot. Have fun reading!

[Julie Guzzetta · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was okay. It was creepy, interesting, a quick read, and overall not really my thing. But that ending took me by surprise! And I kind of liked it!! It actually made me like the book a little better than I had initially.

I'm typically the type of person that wants resolution at the end of a story - that's usually when I'm most satisfied with my reading experience. However, the ending to this book isn't necessarily wrapped up in a neat bow, but it was a fascinating ending.

[Sarita · Rating 4 out of 5]

Creepy middle grade read. Hadley is not happy about moving in a new house with her stepdad and stepbrother. Even worse, her mother never seems to have time anymore. When she finds a creepy dollhouse, Hadley makes a wish. But soon, Hadley realizes the horrible truth behind the house and that she might not really want what she wished for.

[Sherrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A dark and twisted middle grade read that is perfect for the month of October. When Hadley moves into a new home and discovers and old dollhouse she learns firsthand what that old adage “ be careful what you wish for means”. She doesn’t realize what she had until it’s gone and she’s desperate for her old life. Spooky and unsettling, perfect for cold, dark fall nights.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a good horror book. It has no flaws at all and is amazing. Also, it has lots of suspence and figurative language. There a some spots when the main character is put in tough spots. A really good component that all books should have is making the main character go through really tough spots that no one would ever expect.

[Niki · Rating 3 out of 5]

A simple, spooky story appealing to grades 3-5, The Doll's Eye has a fantastic cover and beautiful artwork sprinkled throughout. Hadley and her mom move to an old house with her new step-family, but the special dollhouse and dolls that Hadley finds cause more trouble than good. Be careful what you wish for...

Short-listed for the 2019 MYRCA Sundog.

[Therearenobadbooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't pass a novel with a dollhouse that is a replica of a real house or a story of a haunted house.
A family moves into a house with a strange story of disappearances.
First, the main character only wants her relationship with her mom to include no stepfather or stepbrother but the wishes start to make things worse.
Spooky and unforgettable. Great story. Couldn't put it down.

[Carrico · Rating 3 out of 5]

I always find her books slow to start and hard to get into, but once you get about 30 pages in, it picks up and becomes better! This one was just okay for me, nothing like The Inn Between, that book I really enjoyed! The beginning and ending weren't the greatest but the middle was decent enough for a middle-grade book.

[Lisa Day · Rating 3 out of 5]

Creepy. It was not scary enough that I had to keep the lights on, but I am hesitant to share it with the little people in my life. This is the second Marina Cohen book I have read (loved Inn Between), and each have offered really cool concepts with endings I didn't figure out.