Dolls by Eve L. Fell

3/5 stars

I love a good abandoned warehouse/torture maze plot, so this was right up my alley. Here, we meet two women, Sarah and Lindsey, who go out to celebrate finishing their degrees. Something happens, and they wake up in giant boxes dressed as dolls with several other women. They soon find out that they have to navigate a bobby-trapped maze for sadistic killer, Cutthroat’s, amusement. Who will survive the night?

I liked the character development as I felt like I really got to know Sarah and Lindsey despite the short length of the novella. However, the other characters seemed to suffer a bit for it. The other eleven women in the maze were pretty much just cannon fodder, so I didn’t really get to know them much. I wish that they would’ve been developed more so that I could feel regret for their death; as it was, I didn’t much care when someone died as they didn’t feel relevant.

I liked the different traps in the maze. While most of them were cliché, they were still fun to read and try to guess when they would show up (Hey Eve…..where were the spontaneous flamethrowers??? XD). If it’s not broke, don’t fix it; I liked the nod to old school trap horror rather than trying to have these elaborate Rube Goldberg-esque traps that need a Master’s in engineering to understand.

Honestly, I’d love a longer sequel to this! The relationship aspect seemed to be going in two different directions throughout the book (or maybe one combined?) and I’d love to see where that goes. I’m also really interested to see how Sarah grows as a character and how she shapes the people and scenarios around her.

This was a quick and fairly simple read, but rather enjoyable, nonetheless!