This has got to be the definitive puppet horror story. I now hate not only dolls but marianettes, taxidermy and hand-puppets too! Hendrix comes up with an impressive variety of ways for toys to terrorise.

Despite the suspense, tragedy, and disgusting injuries, Louise's disbelieving voice and larger-than-life family usually keep the tone from becoming truly dark. Yet, the book still tackles real family angst when not busy wringing every drop out of the puppet horror concept. The siblings are ridiculously determined not to get along and multiple sets of parents let their children down. Beneath the theatrics, there's a nagging reminder that so many of our families would rather grow around a problem like a tree trunk than confront it.

I not only enjoyed the ways in which Louise is toxic, I found them practically educational. It's clear she's a little too anal from the start but I was with her on the value of attacking problems ruthlessly and systematically all the way up to about the last quarter of the book when she herself is forced to take a more nuanced approach. No-one in this book sounds like much fun to be related to initially, except maybe Constance and Brody, but all had things to offer if Louise could humble herself enough to meet them on their own terms. I was surprised how much the writing brought me around.

My only complaints are that it was a slow start and that Louise shook off her injuries too easily. From the descriptions, I was expecting life-altering injuries but not so, and this lessened the impact of future ones. Also the final confrontation featured a monster that I couldn't quite take seriously. One miss when all your horror has to come from rainbow puppets isn't bad though.