The Doll’s House by Lisa Unger is an Amazon Original Stories. I first heard of Lisa from a book I bought [but sadly have yet to read] called Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six. But this seemed like an intriguing short story, so I decided to read this one first.
Here is they synopsis:
A widowed mother, ready to give love another chance, moves into her fiancé’s old family home with her teenage daughter. But as they try to build a future together, the past refuses to let go in this haunting short story from New York Times bestselling author Lisa Unger.
When Jules first meets the handsome artist Kirin, she’s still mourning her husband’s death, but a fairytale romance soon sweeps her off her feet. Now she and her daughter Scout are moving out of the city and into Kirin’s once-lonely mansion. He’s thoughtfully updated and adapted the home to match their personalities. But Scout is determined to keep her father’s memory alive by rejecting the new life her mother and Kirin have spun for her.
Scout’s sullenness begins to fade, though, when she finds a beautiful handmade doll in one of the many empty rooms in the house. Kirin says that the doll belonged to his late sister and he’d like Scout to have it. Scout’s hopeful for a connection over their shared grief, but as she grows more curious about Kirin’s sister, she can’t escape the feeling that a danger lurks in the house…and its gaze is fixed on her mother.
As this one was the first story I had read by Lisa Unger, I went in with no expectations; even knowing she is a New York Times best selling author. I was curious as to read some of her short form stories and I have to say that I really enjoyed this piece.
Now it could easily be a full length novel AND I could definitely see it made into a film. Who knows, maybe someday I’ll require the rights and make that happen. Until then, I was intrigued by it. Most stories are usually 10 - 15 pages; however, this one was almost 99 pages and was written in chapters. I find that unique…kind of inspires me to write something in the same style.
Maybe I should!
This is an easy read and if you are fan of thrillers you will most definitely enjoy it. I read it as an ebook and was done with it in 2 days, mostly because I couldn’t put my Kindle down. So now I am eager to read her full length novels - so expect a review of Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six in the near future.
Until then, enjoy this short story from Lisa. We need more content like this. Let’s normalize writing and reading short form content - like we do with Youtube and TikTok and fill our kindles with great stories!