Baby Dolly by Ruby Jean Jensen

It was such a lovely baby dolly. With its tiny , delicate hands, its cunning wrought features, its hand-stitched gown. It was a doll any little girl would long to hold tight. Instead it has been kept hidden in the china cabinet all these years... — But now it was time for the doll to be taken out. To be carefully placed in a child's bed. So that it might once again claim its victims in the darkest hours of the night. 


Since Ruby Jean Jensen's books are slowly starting to be re-released and available in hard cover for the first time in decades I thought I would pull out an old paperback to read. These books can still be found in thrift stores, but many are now available to order for kindle or pre-order for hard cover.


This book was not all I hoped it would be. I don't think I'm spoiling anything for you to say it's about a doll that kills people. The doll originally came from somewhere in South America and was given to a 12 year old girl in 1882 who resented it immediately because she was too old to play with baby dolls. She was the first to discover that the doll could be used to do away with people. I loved the first third of the book because it was not only creepy but read like a historical fiction. As time passed and the doll continued to kill through several generations it became so repetitive that I've lost track of how many times people began to suspect the doll of causing deaths and then miraculously forget their suspicions in 477 pages that could have easily fit into 300. 
3 out of 5 stars