Hi,
I'm registered on the site as Ab-Normal and was wondering if I could submit a Name That Trauma?
It's technically for my girlfriend although she doesn't know about it as I am looking for the book in question as a Christmas gift for her.
It's a book with an old lady in it who treats dolls like babies and, I believe, is desperate to have one of her own and eventually steals one; I think the couple she stole it from were quite important in the book as well.
The scene that frightened my girlfriend was one where the woman thinks one of the dolls has been misbehaving, or just bad, and melts the doll's face over the gas ring of the oven.
I have no clue as to how the book ended or anything other than that I'm afraid. I've tried Googling various word combinations but nothing has shown up!
UPDATE: NAME THAT TRAUMA SOLVED! Special thanks to readers Hexjumper & Riverstone22 for closing the book on this one with "Mine" by Robert McCammon.
This sounds a lot like a novel from the 80's called THE DOLLKEEPER. It's about a kindly librarian who kidnaps the town's children and fashions a doll after each one. It's by Jack Scaparro and published by Kensingtion Books under the label "Zebra". Zebra books were those ones that had very lurid cover-art and they almost always displayed creepy dolls or skeletons. You can find in on abebooks.com. If this isn't the one (and I'm pretty sure it is), there's a whole host of similarly themed Zebra books that should give you what you're looking for ( THE DOLL, ANNABELLE, CHILD'S PLAY, and the oddest one of all, TOY CEMETARY). Does this help?
Ooh, sounds promising, I'll do a little research into them and try and find out! Many Thanks!
No – it's Robert McCammon's "Mine", about an ex-60's radical who steals babies due to the loss of her 0wn in a federal raid. The opening bit is horrific because you don't know that it's a doll until the burning is over. Fortunately, it has a happy ending.
http://www.amazon.com/Mine-Robert-Mccammmon/dp/0007622880/ref=sr_1_17?ie=UTF8&qid=1289675219&sr=8-17
I'm almost certain the book is "Mine" by Robert McCammon. I read it about 10 years ago, and while I don't specifically recall the doll-face-melting, everything else about the description matches what I remember. You can see the book cover and read the author's description here:
http://www.robertmccammon.com/novels/mine.html
Oh my god, that's it! I've just done a little bit of questioning and she remembers the woman being called Mary and her stealing the baby from a hospital, which seems to tally with the description of 'Mine' I'm sure that that is the book, thank you both so much for that, you guys rock!
Sorry for ruining the opening melting for anyone who hasn't read it!
Hey, Im Ab-Normal's girlfriend, I kind of spoilt my christmas suprise by hunting for the book too, but you guys did an awesome job! Cant wait to get it and read it!! 🙂
Luce 🙂