Bad Dolls is a collection of four horror short stories that combine modern life, the trials of being a woman, and what happens when everyday objects aren’t as they seem. The stories include one about a Magic 8 Ball influencing a woman looking for change, one about a bachelorette party that doesn’t go as expected, another about an unusually dark dieting app, and finally, the titular story about a strange doll that appears to a woman after the death of her sister.
These are longer short stories which felt very fleshed out, which I enjoyed. You get to really delve into the mind of the protagonist in each story, rather than feeling too fleeting and not really getting to know them. I particularly liked the first story, ‘Reply Hazy, Try Again’, as the Magic 8 Ball horror combined with a woman needing a push to throw away her apparently neat life worked well, building a sense of ‘what have you done’ combined with ‘good for you’ that made it feel quite complex by the end. ‘Bachelorette’ felt quite similar to a recent novel I’ve read in terms of the plotline, which let it down a bit, though it had a good vibe. ‘Goblin’ was unusual, exploring dieting and disordered eating through a horrific goblin, which was interesting. And ‘Bad Dolls’ was dark and intriguing, with a flawed protagonist, but I did feel like I wanted to know more so maybe it should’ve been a slightly longer novella at least to delve a bit deeper.
These tales are a great kind of horror, bringing horror elements into what are otherwise quite everyday yet sometimes horrific situations. The extended length of the stories meant that they were narratively satisfying and quite character-focused. I don’t read a huge amount of short stories (though horror can be an exception), but I’m glad that Harrison’s Such Sharp Teeth made me want to read Bad Dolls, as it was a fun horror collection.
Fiendfully Reading 
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