THE TALE OF THE TWISTED TOYMAKER

The Midnight Society, familiar to fans of the 1990s TV series, convenes for a second spooky story.

The protagonist of this volume is Layla, the daughter of a hardworking, cash-strapped single mom who’s cued Italian American. Fourteen-year-old Layla has saved her babysitting money to buy her sister Emily the expensive birthday present the 8-year-old covets: a custom-made look-alike doll from Ms. Mabel’s Doll Emporium. As she leaves the shop, Layla impulsively steals another doll—one that looks exactly like the one Quinn, her former best friend who moved away, was never without. Almost immediately, strange and menacing events begin to happen around Layla and the Quinn doll, while Emily grows weaker and more obsessed with her own doll. Are the dolls harming their owners? Can they be stopped? Valentine excels at conveying unsettling threats without including much actual violence, even as the dolls grow increasingly autonomous and malevolent. Layla teams up with new friend and potential crush Dylan, who presents Black, to unravel the mystery of the soul-sucking dolls and their creepy creator. Unfortunately, the author demonstrates less deftness with this element of the plotting. The supernatural mechanism at work with the dolls is murky at best, and the ultimate solution, telegraphed from midway through the book, may not surprise more perceptive readers. Layla’s family’s financial challenges are relatable and well integrated into the story.

An uneven horror story that’s better at providing chills than narrative thrills.