"Eighteen months after her daughter vanished, Kate sees her again on a stranger's livestream, seated among hyper realistic dolls."

You had me at summary. I have never read a book with this premise before and was immediately interested in learning more. The author did not let me down.

This whole book is one giant mind game after another. Every time you - or Katie - think you know what's going on, something unexpected happens. Nicole, the one hosting the livestreams, is very thorough, very intelligent and ridiculously prepared. There were so many times where I thought the book was close to going one way or another just for something to happen. It's definitely an edge of your seat book.

To explain how good the story is, I'll say this - you have your main answer by less than 30% in. Of course, there's still a million questions, but your main question is answered. So how is there another 70%? Well, I told you Nicole was smart. She's very good at playing mind games with people and whilst it's easy enough to do with children, her ability to do it with adults as well is nothing short of genius. Every time you might think she's not in charge... well.

The children or dolls in this book were sufficiently creepy. Whether they were ones that were silicone or ones of possible flesh, they were unsettling and definitely crossed the boundaries between hyper realistic dolls and doll-like children. Which is not something I ever thought I'd be thinking much about, but here we are.

I don't want to say too much about things because I don't want to get flagged for a spoiler, but this book is DEFINITELY worth reading. It's unsettling, it's confusing, it's frustrating at times because Nicole makes such a good antagonist. Good thing we have Kate, right? ;) She does her best.

On a technical side, the writing was really good and easy to get through. I enjoyed reading the author's writing style. It was very engaging and I could picture the scenes easily in my head.

Play Dead is a psychological horror which will have you thinking twice about the live creators you follow online. As a parent, it tugged at my heart and I found the initial start of the story mesmerizing. The story was both creepy and full of parental hurt, as the FMC and her husband do everything in their power to find their missing daughter. I enjoyed a majority of the story and felt the characters and setting were appropriate for what the premise promised.

It fell a little flat for me after a while because it is a dialogue heavy book, with some dialogue feeling unnecessary or even stiff and formal compared to the situation. I also struggled with aspects of the climax at the end. It fell short compared to how the book originally started and the story was dragged out a bit and occasionally repeated information already given. Overall though, Play Dead delivers that creepy feel you'd hope for from a psychological horror stemming around dolls and missing children.

Wow! Such a shocking intense book that will keep you hooked from the first page. As a mother I felt for Kate and what she had to go through. It was so suspenseful and intense. I was expecting it to be a bit darker. But I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this arc.

Play Dead is the kind of psychological horror that gets under your skin because its central idea is so deeply unsettling: what if a missing child could be hidden in plain sight, and everyone watching had already been convinced she wasn't real?
Eighteen months after her five-year-old daughter Mia disappears, Kate sees a little girl on a stranger's livestream. The woman behind the camera, Nicole Perry, insists the child is Annie, one of seventeen hyperrealistic dolls she treats as her children. But Kate knows every tiny detail of her daughter, and she knows what she saw.
What follows is an incredibly disturbing exploration of grief, obsession, manipulation, and the question of what happens when a lie is repeated so convincingly that the truth begins to sound irrational.
The concept of Nicole's online world was easily the most chilling part for me. There is something so creepy about thousands of people watching this carefully constructed "family," accepting exactly what they're shown while Kate desperately tries to prove that something is wrong. The hyperrealistic dolls only make the atmosphere more uncanny.
But beneath all the horror, this is ultimately a story about a mother trying to get her daughter back and gradually realizing that rescue isn't necessarily as simple as bringing a child home. The ideas surrounding identity, manufactured memories, and the lasting effects of trauma give the story an emotional weight that I wasn't expecting.

I have to start by saying this is one of my favorite reads this year. We have Kate who has been looking for her 5 year old daughter for the last eighteen months. Kate happens to see who she thinks is her daughter on a live video. The issue is that the streamer says the little girl is a doll. Kate claims the doll is actually her daughter. In the book we find out what lengths Kate will go to in order to prove the streamer is lying and get her daughter back. I really enjoyed this book and loved how the author brought us into her world. She describes the lengths a mother will go too in order to get her child back. She also shows us what a streamer will do to keep her misdeeds hidden.

This book had me hooked from the first page. It is unsettling, terrifying, creepy and disturbing. The atmosphere is unsettling and it keeps you on edge the entire time. Think dolls, secrets, trauma, and obsession. If you like psychologial trauma that is terrifying and will keep feeling uneasy then add this to your list. Easy 5 star

Thank you M. Boudreaux for an amazing read!

Play Dead delivers a unique blend of psychological horror and emotional tension that really worked for me. The mix of stolen children and the unsettling doll imagery is strange in a way that feels fresh rather than overdone. I liked how Boudreaux keeps the story focused and readable while still giving it a dark, memorable edge. A solid five stars from me — it’s the kind of horror that sticks because of its ideas, not theatrics.

Book Review:
👭 Play Dead 👭
By M. Boudreaux

Okay, so 👭 Play Dead 👭 was NOT what I expected. I knew it was supposed to be psychological horror about stolen children and creepy living dolls, but apparently I thought I was mentally prepared for that. Spoiler: I was absolutely not. 😂

The story follows Kate, whose daughter Mia has been missing for eighteen months. Right away, I felt so bad for Kate because imagine not knowing where your kid is for that long. Then she sees a livestream from Nicole Perry, who has this whole weird online “family” with seventeen insanely realistic dolls. And then Kate notices one of them looks like Mia.
I’m sorry, but if I saw my missing child randomly sitting in some stranger’s house on a livestream, I would lose my mind. Like, forget being calm and reasonable. I’d be grabbing my phone, screaming, “THAT IS MY CHILD,” while everyone around me is probably like, “Ma’am, it’s a doll.” Nope. Absolutely not. 😂
And that’s what made Kate’s situation so frustrating. She knows what she saw, but nobody else really believes her. I would have been going crazy too because how do you explain something like that without sounding completely unhinged?

Nicole was probably the character who creeped me out the most. This woman has seventeen “children” that she treats like dolls and controls basically everything about them. The whole thing is so weird because from the outside, it looks like this cute little online family. But once you realize what's actually going on, you're sitting there like, “Ohhhhhh... nope. Nope nope nope.”
The livestream stuff honestly made the book creepier for me because it felt way too believable. People online are watching Nicole’s family and thinking everything is adorable, meanwhile there are all these disturbing things happening underneath the surface. It made me think about how easy it is to make something look perfect online when you have no idea what's actually going on.

I really enjoyed this one so much!
Thank you @netgalley and @m.boudreauxbooks for the arc!

This was a fantastic book from start to finish!

Following the story of Kate after being linked to Nicole's livestream, containing an uncanny and moving lookalike doll that's the spitting image of her missing daughter, this read takes you on a journey with suspense and tension at every turn.

At one point, I felt so involved, I wanted to crack out the red string to follow the complex plot!

You observe the frustration of a husband and wife who have spent eighteen months not knowing the truth, their relationship fragile, and the overall dialogue being short and precise, like no one wants to say too much and give away what they really think or know. But throughout, you can really feel a mother's love for their child, both human and doll, and the lengths Kate goes through for the truth really is a testament to that, especially when her reality is questioned constantly on what she saw and experienced. Was it real? Or was it the delusions of a mother who just wants her daughter back?

It does give a chilling afterthought as a parent, especially in this day and age about how much can be absorbed about family life and our children by strangers through pictures we share on social media, and how it can be used for terrible things. It adds a certain mindfulness about the lengths a person can go to when a tiny bit of information is revealed when you don't realise it.

Absolutely smashing book.

I feel like I need a Valium after reading this book.

Felt like an episode of Law and Order SVU

This book drew me in from the start. I could not put it down and at times I was yelling at the book.


Thank you NetGalley for this amazing ARC!

I was instantly drawn to this book’s cover. If a cover intrigues me, I’m more likely to read it. This one really struck a chord. I couldn’t imagine my child going missing and searching for them for 18 months, with no leads until someone claimed to have seen them on an online forum about a family. Kate and Matt have been searching for their daughter for 18 months, with no success. The situation is starting to unravel. One day, Kate is asked to check out a website featuring a “doll” who looks just like her daughter. When the site’s owner, Nicole, posts looking for help, Kate knows she must investigate further. This psychological thriller will keep you on the edge of your seat. It’s almost like human trafficking, exploring how far one woman might go to sell children and how far a mother will go to reclaim them. It’s definitely a great read for October.

Thank you to NetGalley, M. Boudreaux, and Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op for a copy of Play Dead in exchange for an honest review.

Okay, first and foremost… those reborn babies FREAK ME OUT. 😳😂 And apparently M. Boudreaux knew exactly what they were doing because after reading this, I was absolutely looking at reborn dolls online like, “Okay… did that one just move?” 👀

When Katie spots one of the reborn babies move—and thinks it could possibly be her missing daughter, Mia—she immediately starts digging for answers. And honestly, I was right there with her.

I have to wonder if this book had anything to do with that woman on TikTok with all the reborn babies because, M. Boudreaux, you picked one hell of a creepy topic! 😂 If it wasn't inspired by her, the timing is still hilarious because now I’m side-eyeing every reborn doll I see.

When Katie goes into the home to work and hopefully find out more, I could completely understand the three things running through her mind:

Please let my eyes be deceiving me.
Please let me be able to go home at night.
Please let Mia actually be in this house, disguised as Annie.

That last one especially kept me invested. When you're dealing with a missing child, every tiny possibility becomes HUGE, and I thought the author did a good job capturing that desperation and hope.

This book definitely tackles some heavy topics, so it isn't exactly a fluffy Saturday-night read. But weirdly enough, it was exactly what I needed for a lazy Saturday night. It was creepy, unsettling, and definitely had me questioning what the hell I was looking at. 😂

I have to give M. Boudreaux credit because I will never look at a reborn baby the same way again.

Final Verdict:

3.5 stars rounded up to 4 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Creepy? ✔️
Unsettling? ✔️
Had me checking whether dolls were moving? ABSOLUTELY. 😂

A solid Saturday-night thriller that managed to creep me the hell out—and apparently that's exactly what I needed.

📖 Play Dead by M. Boudreaux

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫✨ 3.75 stars

I knew I was going to like this book from the premise alone, and thankfully, it did not disappoint. Play Dead is a deeply unsettling and emotional thriller that touches on some incredibly difficult topics, including children being exposed online, mental health, and human trafficking.

The story follows Kate and Matt, whose lives are turned upside down when their child becomes connected to a terrifying situation involving missing children and a world far darker than they could have imagined. As the story unfolds, we get a glimpse into the devastating impact these events have on families, and I honestly had so much sympathy for Kate and Matt. I just wanted to give them both a hug. I cannot imagine what it must be like to go through something like this.

Was I frustrated with the plot at times? Absolutely. There were definitely moments where I wanted the characters to make completely different decisions. But at the same time, we have the luxury of sitting outside the situation and judging their choices. None of us really knows what we would do when faced with something this horrifying.

And Nicole… I hated that woman. She irritated me from the very beginning and somehow only managed to make me dislike her more as the story progressed.

Also, I have never been a fan of dolls. I have always found them creepy as hell, and this book definitely did absolutely nothing to change my mind. If anything, it just reinforced my belief that dolls are terrifying.

What really got to me, though, was how heartbreaking this story is, especially knowing that things like this can happen in the real world and aren’t just something we encounter in fiction. The book explores some incredibly heavy subjects and definitely leaves you thinking about how vulnerable children can be in today’s world, especially when so much of their lives are shared online.

Despite the difficult subject matter, I really enjoyed reading this one. I ended up reading it in one sitting because I had to know how it was going to end. It definitely kept me hooked.