Marie at 1 Write Way

Dolls Behaving Badly – a review

Thank you Susan Toy for posting another one of my reviews! This one is not a “different kind of review,” but it is about a book I truly loved: Dolls Behaving Badly by Cinthia Ritchie.

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Dolls Behaving Badly
by Cinthia Ritchie

Purchase copies here

Ritchie has written a uniquely structured novel that uses a diary format, employing first-person narration, letters, and recipes. The structure adds considerable depth to what would otherwise be an ordinary story of a single mom trying desperately to support herself and her young son in an economically depressed small Alaskan town. Much of the novel reminded me of the TV show, Northern Exposure, except there is no outsider to pass judgment on the quirky, eccentric characters. Instead, the reader immediately feels the normality of the community: the bill collectors demanding payment often do so with dry humor; the crisscrossing of romantic relationships raises few eyebrows; and seeing and talking to ghosts seems a natural result of stress and loneliness.

Ritchie draws an Alaskan territory that is otherworldly beautiful and yet cruel at the edges. The cold darkness of winter seeped…

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Marie A Bailey

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