Andrés Barba

Lisa Dillman

Such Small Hands

Sam Kiszonka

“A dark uncanny jolt of literary perfection.“

 I was expecting a creepy, dark thriller set in the classic ghoulish orphanage. This, however, was not the case, this book was deep and ominous story about a little girl who just wanted to belong.
This story examines the fine line between love and hate. This is explored through the complex emotions of a young orphaned child and her doll, she is desperate for companionship and to fit in with the other girls in the orphanage. The other girls in the orphanage torment her mercilessly as they are threatened by anyone different.

Our protagonists need to fit in with the other girls in the orphanage leads to a made-up game involving her beloved doll. The game quickly turns disturbing and deadly.
The author manages to pull you in from the start with the use of short, simple sentences. I am glad that the author has kept this story short and sweet as it leaves you to contemplate what could have happened.

This short story paints a vivid and disturbing picture and I highly recommend it if you are after a short yet fulfilling read.

I would like to thank Allen & Unwin for providing me with a copy of this book.
This has in no way influenced or affected my thoughts or opinions of this book.

Shirley Jackson meets The Virgin Suicides, set at an all-girls orphanage.

Chloe Kaydee

What do I think of this book? If you can figure it out, please let me know. Maybe I'll have my thoughts organised by the time I film my November reading wrap up but... we shall see 😂 

Leah 

erin alise 

✮⋆˙

Her father died instantly, her mother in the hospital. She has learned to say this flatly and without emotion, the way she says her name (Marina), her doll's name (also Marina) and her age (seven). Her parents were killed in a car crash and now she lives in the orphanage with the other little girls. But Marina is not like the other little girls. In the curious, hyperreal, feverishly serious world of childhood, Marina and the girls play games of desire and warfare. The daily rituals of playtime, lunchtime and bedtime are charged with a horror; horror is licked by the dark flames of love. When Marina introduces the girls to Marina the Doll, she sets in motion a chain of events from which there can be no release. With shades of Daphne du Maurier, Shirley Jackson, Guillermo Del Toro and Mariana Enrquez, Such Small Hands is a beautifully controlled tour-de-force, a bedtime story to keep readers awake.

Such Small Hands

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