HOLLOW DOLLS

A young girl with the power to read minds searches for her lost family.

This novel picks up immediately after the events of Connolly’s Shadow Weaver (2018) and Comet Rising (2019) and is set in the same world. A brief prologue summarizes the previous books’ events as mind reader Simone introduces herself. She and her best friend, Sebastian, a memory thief, were among “the talented” held captive by Lady Aisling. They are now free, and together they hope to find Simone’s family. Simone, Sebastian, and Jemma—Sebastian’s sister and now their guardian—set out for the Archives, hoping information found there will lead them to Simone’s village, visiting Lady Aisling in prison first. When a body walker takes Jemma over, Simone and Sebastian must continue their journey alone. They meet Maeve, who is also headed to the Archives; the foreshadowing is blatant as the pair debates Maeve’s trustworthiness before ultimately deciding to join her. While this is written as a stand-alone companion, readers unfamiliar with the previous books will be at a disadvantage in understanding the magical world and the terror surrounding Lady Aisling, which affects character development. The main characters aren’t well developed enough for readers without that background to empathize with their plight; Sebastian stands out as especially fretful throughout the book. Characters are presumed white.

This fantasy quest will be best appreciated by those familiar with the earlier books.