I enjoyed this book, don’t normally read many translated novels as I sometimes feel something is lost in translation but I enjoyed this book. I was expecting a bit more creepiness but the heart of the story is really a crime novel. Recommended for anyone who enjoys this genre and particularly for the descriptions of a stunning country.

I don’t normally like to seek out crime or police novels, but I like to spread out every now and then from my usual science fiction reading to check out what’s new. This title grabbed my attention because it’s from an Icelandic author and I do like a bit of ‘Scandi noir’ television. I also thought it is a horror story, so apologies to anyone who thinks it is… So far I haven’t really been taken by much of the Scandinavian flavour except Larsson’s Millienium trilogy and I’m not sure if it’s the storytelling or the translations or something else. So I wanted to see how The Doll grabbed me.

The story opens with the discovery of the titular doll and then goes into a procedural police narrative centred around a child protection case… for roughly the entire first act. It actually got to a point where I was thinking “where is the doll in all this?” but I suppose you might call this a ‘slow burn’ sort of tale, because things do eventually meet up to finish the first third of the story. I think the story was translated by a British translator, or the author watches a lot of British procedural shows, because there’s quite a lot of British terms and slang used.

The middle of the novel is more of the same, with more police procedural plodding and very little mention of the titular doll. There are a few more mentions of it, however there’s so much tedious police step-by-step description of everything the main characters are doing again I started to wonder ‘when is the doll going to even get mentioned again’. I only grew more anxious to get to what I assumed ‘the twist’ would be in the final act. By this point I was growing a bit tired of the ‘explainer’ way much of the story was written in. For example, a pair of police may be interviewing someone, which lots of quotes going back and forth and around the table, then as if to wrap things up the scene switches to ‘and so and so asked about this, and got that answer with this sort of tone’, etc. This resulted in me feeling out of the scene and like the author (or editor) was literally trying to fast-forward things. Very strange.

The final third starts to wrap up the story with more and more interviews and a slow pace of discoveries. IUltimately the final couple of chapters wrap up things in a very exposition-heavy way, the phrase “show, don’t tell” came to mind because the resolution was literally one character explaining to another how everything happened and came about. I was quite disappointed with the ending, and after being so-so about the rest of the story it ultimately just didn’t add up to be that good for me.

Thank you to #NetGalley for providing me a copy of #TheDoll to review.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. I found the characters well developed and the plot interesting and well paced. I did get a little confused at times, muddling some of the characters but this did not spoil the book for me. It kept me engaged from beginning to end with a twist that I just did not see coming. I would definitely recommend that book!

Loved this one, a gripping read and one that has you from page one, fast paced and punchy this one was a winner for me, defo a must read!

I was really intrigued to discover just exactly what this doll could do. The blurb of The Doll gives a sense of horror to this story but it is certainly a police drama through and through. Police dramas can be a bit touch and go for me. This one met the mark but there are a few things I would change. For one, I would have made this book a little shorter. Somewhere around the middle things began to lag a bit and I found myself skimming. That leads me into the next point, which is detail.

For the most part, I loved the detail in this post. While the doll didn’t bring the creepiness I expected, the vivid descriptions of Iceland sure set the tone the book needed. The excess of detail lay sometimes in the police investigation, and I think some of that could have been left out.

The highlight of The Doll, for me, was the ending. At the start of the book there is three different storylines going on. By the end, the are all woven together to make a satisfying conclusion. The author left no loose ends.

The Doll is a great read for fans of police drama. However, I would recommend starting at the beginning of this series. I think I would have enjoyed it more with the backstory of the long-term characters.

The Doll is the fifth book in the Children's House series but can work as a standalone. It involves a mysterious doll, suspicious deaths and possible child sexual abuse. I thought the premise is interesting but the execution, unfortunately, fell short for me. I usually love the author's intricate storytelling but there's a lot of telling instead of showing this time around which made the story feels flat. There's a shocking reveal in the middle but because we haven't spent time with the characters or people they care about, it was difficult to see the impact of what happened. The pacing also feels slow and I spent a long time trying to finish this book.

I still enjoyed the writing and the Nordic setting. The themes of abuse and drug addiction are explored in heartbreaking ways. I'm also curious about the will-they-won't-they pull between child psychologist Freyja and Detective Huldar, and the book left with more possibilities in the future. I'm still on board this series but this book is not my favourite instalment.

This book was wonderfully creepy and chilling and I couldn’t put it down. I absolutely loved the setting and the author knew how to create an atmosphere. The ending was satisfying and tied up all the loose ends well. Thanks to Netgalley, the author and publisher for a chance to read and review this book.

A fantastic book which is well written and completely engaging. I have been completely pulled in and kept hostage by this one.
This is unique, intriguing and one that I have devoured.

A teenage orphan is convinced both her parents were murdered but when she starts asking questions she is murdered herself. Meanwhile body parts have been recovered from the ocean and the investigative team are perplexed. For child psychologist Freyja, her latest case brings her back into the orbit of detective Huldar. In a small country like Iceland there are few coincidences.
I really enjoy this series of books and this is no exception. The story starts in a slightly creepy way with the discovery of a 'demon' doll but luckily it stays well away from horror territory and develops into a solid police procedural. My only quibble was the ending which was presented 'after the fact' and gave a not very convincing narrative with a deeply unconvincing twist.

This is the fifth book in the ‘Children’s House’ series and a great addition to the series. Very cleverly written with several storylines that all joined up to keep you guessing right to the end . Great read

I have loved the books by Yrsa Sigurdardottir since her debut with the chilling Last Rituals in 2005 and the introduction of Thora Gudmundsdottir. Her books introduced me to Nordic noir. They are always dark, complex and multi-layered, but she always manages to tie everything together at the end.
The Doll, the new book in the Huldar and Freyja series meets all the criteria you would expect from a good Yrsa novel it has missing persons, murder, alleged child abuse and plenty of macabre and as always the backdrop of the stunning Iceland. However, although I enjoyed this book it wasn’t my favourite, I definitely found myself getting bogged down in an avalanche of detail that I feel may put some new readers off.
One for the fans three out of five

I must admit I found the title a little misleading and expected a horror story involving a doll of some sort. What I got was a twisting tale that at first I found a little hard to get into. I learnt afterwards that this book was in a series but I don't think it mattered. If you want a quick fix then this is not the book for you. You need to read it to the end for everything to become clear.

The Doll captured my attention right from the start. Full of dark intrigue, there is twist upon twist. And just when you think all the loose ends are neatly tied up, there's a final shocker in store. And one which, I at least, did not see coming. There are few thrillers that surprise me, but I'm glad to say this one did. Having never read any previous books by this author, it's safe to say I'm intrigued enough to want to read the other books in this series.

I think with thrillers it's unfair to give away any of the plot, but if you like Scandic noir you'll love this.

I really enjoyed The Doll. The plot was complex, the characters were nuanced and had a lot of depth, the characterisation was excellent and the ending came together brilliantly. Highly recommended.

Review posted to Goodreads and Amazon.co.uk, awaiting approval.

This is the first book I’ve read byYrsa, but having read some of the reviews of her other novels, it certainly won’t be the last!

The Doll starts with a hideous doll being uncovered from the sea during a fishing trip. However, things take a dark turn shortly afterwards. Years later some of those involved in the doll’s story are dragged together when a young boy accuses one of the people who cared for him of a crime. Huldar and Freyja work to try and unravel several mysterious cases.

One of my favourite things is when an author is able to wonderfully tie up all the loose ends at the end of the story. Yrsa managed to do that wonderfully with this book, repeatedly blowing me away with the various twists and turns that I encountered during the final chapters of this novel. I found myself on edge and just wanted to keep reading!

I’ve never before read a book set in Iceland, but I love it when a book can help me travel to new countries. However, I had two slight issues with this book, that dampened my enjoyment. Firstly, I personally felt that some of Freyja’s thought processes were quite clearly the author’s, it didn’t seem to fully fit with her professional and academic life. I am aiming to become a psychologist myself and I just struggled to believe some of these parts. Additionally, I was sold by the perception of this book being a horror. I admit that there were horror aspects at the very beginning and at the very end, but the majority of the book didn’t fit this genre, and I was left feeling a little disappointed. That being said, as a detective thriller novel, I really enjoyed it. I also really liked that the doll was inspired by an actual doll that was found, it added a creepy layer to the story!

I would recommend this to anyone who loves a noir detective novel with a satisfying end. I want to thank Netgalley, Hodder & Stoughton publishers and Yrsa Sigurðardóttir for allowing me to read this novel and give my personal thoughts.

Thanks Netgalley for this ARC.

Unfortunately I didn't realise this was part of a series when I requested it. Usually this wouldn't matter as some books read very well as a stand alone but I felt like I had missed out on lots of the relationship building from the previous books.

That aside this turned out to be a great read. Hulder and Freyja are back trying to solve cases of murder, missing persons and alleged child abuse with some gruesome finds along the way. The stories mingle together dipping in to the past and present until everything meets at the end.

A great page turner.

This is the fifth book in the series, and unfortunately I haven't read the previous books. This book however reads nicely as a standalone, and I will read some more of this very talented author. Recommended for anyone who loves Nordic Noir.

Well, firstly, this didn't read like a horror. I am fairly new to the genre, so was a little wary. But, as I read this felt more like a thriller/ police procedural novel.
I hadn't realised this was part of a series, but I didn't feel my following of the story was hampered in any way, although I probably missed some of the full character development.
It was another slow burn, but my following of the story was more hampered by the fact the events seemed to be very confusing and irrelevant, which in turn got me rather frustrated. The Doll doesn't really take centre stage through a lot of the book, and that really irks me when that is literally the title!

The pacing of this is pretty slow, so although it does a good job of creating that sort of slow dread, there are times when you kind of lose track of what's happening and why. The book centres around the discovery of a hideous barnacle covered doll caught in a fishing net - the description of this is pretty powerful, and something about the publisher's description had made me think there would be a touch of the supernatural to the book. But it's actually a real-world detective thriller, with a complex murder case at its centre. I found it kind of hard to get into, but the plot was really well constructed and thought through.

The Doll by Yrsa Sigurdardottir was a very hard book to get into. This is the fifth book in the Icelandic Freyja and Huldar series and I found it really hard to get into and I found it hard to understand. It took several attempts to read this book and I gave up half way through it.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing this novel in exchange for an honest review.