SWEET MISS HONEYWELL’S REVENGE

Reiss’s deliciously creepy tale is a solid addition to the haunted dollhouse genre. When Zibby, under the influence of a compulsion not her own, buys an antique dollhouse on her 12th birthday, she finds herself caught up in a decades-old haunting: Primrose, the former owner of the dollhouse, is haunted by the controlling governess whose death Primrose caused as a child. Both dollhouse and doll representing cruel Miss Honeywell are tools by which the dead governess wields her revenge, and Zibby soon discovers that she and those around her are in danger. Chapters about Zibby as she tries to sort out the mystery are interspersed with ones about Primrose’s childhood under the thumb of “sweet” Miss Honeywell and her self-serving attempts as an adult to rid herself of haunted doll and dollhouse. As with most horror stories, it doesn’t do to examine the motives of the evil personae too closely. Reiss has reworked material from an earlier paperback series here, and the result, while a bit long, delivers a good dose of shivery entertainment. (Fiction. 11-14)