A few things before this one even gets started: this is a book about an abduction of a teenager. Said teenager is abused for eight years before making her escape. If your brain fills in all the horrific things that must have happened to her and you need to walk? Then walk now. Baby Doll, the debut novel from author Hollie Overton, shies away from nothing. Doesn't shy away from how sociopathic her captor is, doesn't shy away from the quasi-Stockholm Syndrome mental paths Lilly (one of our heroines) strays down, doesn't shy away from how the whole thing carpet-bombed her family, especially her twin sister Abby.

I barely breathed as I read this book in one indulgent sitting. I ignored the buzz of my tumble dryer, the insistence of my to-do list, and any other thoughts in my brain and I climbed inside this story and walked around. Immediately upon finishing, I grabbed my phone and texted a fellow bibliophile who loves thriller/suspense books with a command: you must read this. You simply must.

There are so many suspense books which are worth your time this summer, so let me tell you quickly why this one super is. The connection between the twins, the dance between the pain of their pasts and the hopes of their future; that's a dynamic I've never seen explored. Additionally, this book shifts focus between the sociopath, the survivor, the survivor's mother, and the survivor's twin. We're in all their heads at different points, understanding motivations that would have otherwise perhaps remained oblique had we not been given that privilege.

There's a lot about pregnancy and childrearing and reproductive choices in this book. Lilly was repeatedly raped during her captivity and escaped with a 6-year-old daughter named Skye. While the book is careful to let us know that Skye never suffered first-hand abuse, there is acknowledgment of second-hand trauma and I appreciated how deftly that was dealt with.

If you liked Room, then I think you should get BABY DOLL immediately. Just get a snack or something before you start, because once you read that first chapter, you're not coming back up for air until it's finished.

Book Summary

You've been held captive in one room, mentally and physically abused every day, since you were sixteen years old.

Then, one night, you realize your captor has left the door to your cell unlocked.

For the first time in eight years, you're free.

This is about what happens next ...

Lily knows that she must bring the man who nearly ruined her life to justice. But she never imagined that reconnecting with her family would be just as difficult. Reclaiming her relationship with her twin sister, her mother, and her high school sweetheart, who is in love with her sister, may be Lily's greatest challenge. After all they've been through, can Lily and her family find their way back after this life-altering trauma?

Baby Doll is a taut psychological thriller that focuses on family entanglements and the evil that can hide behind a benign facade.