The Island of the Dolls is a well written story surrounding the Isla de las Munecas legend. What I love about this book is that it is among a series of World’s Scariest Places and I wanna read em all!
Bates has taken a very real location with a spooky backstory and turned it into what I describe as horror historical fiction. He weaves the legend, and the locale into a story surrounding characters that are super likable and others you want to strangle while developing a very solid extension of the legend. I thoroughly enjoyed this book
Jack is an American ex race-car driver, engaged to a superstitious twat named Pita that I can’t stand anymore than I can stand her pretentious jerk of a brother, Jesus or his meat-head friend Nitro. Jesus is dating the Russian beauty Elizaveta and together they all embark on a trip to the Isla de las Munecas aka the Island of the Dolls just outside Mexico city to help their buddy Pepper shoot his documentary about the island. Legend has it that the island is being haunted by a little girl that was found face down drowned in a pond. Due to this ghost, the man, Solano, who found the little girl dead has been stringing up dolls all over the island as an offering to her spirit. (Bates legend follows very closely to the original but with his own twists.) She continues to haunt and spook anyone who dare visit the island. Well despite the legend and despite the boatman not even wanting to take them all the way there, the documenteers decide to push on anyway, but when a tropical storm rolls through preventing them from leaving the island, will they survive the night? After the discovery of a dead body with the eyes removed, the gang starts to question whether or not they are the only ones on the island. Is it a serial killer stalking them and offing them one by one, or is it something much more sinister? Jack looks for any reason to discount the superstition of the dolls being possessed but here on the Isla de las Munecas, anything is possible.
Bates has written this into a few different segments which I found incredibly well written and a good way of explaining the story behind the island with a great flow.
Parts of the book are told through the main character Jack’s perspective and other parts Elizaveta. Throughout the book the reader is transported back to 1957 and tells the story of an unfortunate little girl named Maria who is deemed a moron based on her mental disability. Bates gives life and backstory to the drowned little girl and to the man who found her. Those side stories really tie the book together and makes for a really good read. I loved the author’s style and natural dialogue. Other than Pita, I loved the conversations and the tone the author sets for each person. Pita, just got on my nerves as a character, but that’s the point. The girl’s just not likable. I love the little girl Rosa and even the drama between the characters as things start to heat up on the island is well written.
The ending could almost be deemed a stretch, but Bates did a good job building the story and the characters that it was plausible enough. This author has a whole series based on real haunted locations that I look forward to reading.
MEET THE AUTHOR: JEREMY BATES!!!
Jeremy Bates is the #1 bestselling and award-winning author of more than a dozen novels and novellas, which have been translated into several languages. He writes suspense and horror fiction. The novels in the “World’s Scariest Places” series are set in real locations, and so far include Suicide Forest in Japan, The Catacombs in Paris, Helltown in Ohio, and Island of the Dolls in Mexico. You can check out any of these places on the web, or visit his website at JEREMYBATESBOOKS
You can contact Jeremy Bates via email, jeremybatesbooks@gmail.com, or his website, www.jeremybatesbooks.com
