e-ALC, 04:35:53
Narrated by: Lee Osorio
Release Date: August 26, 2025
Published by: Simon & Schuster Audio
Read from: August 26, 2025
Stand-alone
Source: Libro FM (I received a free ALC from the Simon Audio and Libro FM. This did nothing to influence my review)
Content Warning: Large Arachnids
For Readers Interested In: Horror (Doll Possession), MG, Racial/Ethnic Diversity (Latinx-Mexican), Most Anticipated, Sparkly CoversRick Riordan meets R. L. Stine in this fast-paced debut middle grade horror packed with adventure about a Mexican American boy who starts hearing the voice of a haunted doll while visiting family in Mexico City.
Diego feels trapped. He’s confined in an arm cast, stuck with his tía and tío for a week in Mexico City, and smothered with the sickening fear that he’s the one who really caused his parents’ divorce. But most of all, he’s trapped in his own secret. Because ever since he got to Mexico City, he’s started having strange dreams of a doll calling his name.
Then Diego learns of La Isla de Muñecas, an island full of legendary magic that can make children’s wishes come true. If Diego can harness the power there, maybe he could fix everything that has gone wrong in his life.
So, with the help of two new friends, Diego takes a boat to the legendary island. From the moment the kids step ashore, nothing is as it seems—with dolls disappearing and reappearing in the blink of an eye. Suddenly, Diego is more trapped than ever before, and as the night goes on, he’s not sure he can escape.
*MY THOUGHTS*
As soon as I saw the cover of this I knew I needed it. And then I realized what the title was and learned that there was an actual Doll Island and then I gave myself nightmares. It was a real hot mess lmao But that made this book and my anticipation for it so much more brutal.
Ok so first things first….. Idk how this is MG because this have me the heebee-geebees. I’m actually scared of dolls, so I have no idea why I wanted to read this so bad lol And of course that’s not the only thing that made this creepy. There was a TERRIFYING man-eating spider in this book as well that’s not tagged as a content warning and this also gave me nightmares. And omg one of those last scenes at the house with the little things following him?! OMG I was terrified lol This was so creepy lol
The only thing I didn’t like was the world-building. I wanted to know what the island looked like. There was a time where the hanging dolls were mentioned, but there was no, “they were hanging from the tree, missing an eyeball, and had bugs crawling on it…” Just a little more description would have been good. I wasn’t super irritated by this since I looked up the island before-hand and knew what to expect. But the book island doesn’t hold a candle to the real one. (Which I’m sire I’ve made painfully obvious now that I have mentioned it so much lol)
The pacing of this was so good tho. It was like as soon as my heart slowed down from the last scare, it was up again for the next one. I wasn’t really expecting to actually be scared with this one, so that was kind of intense lol But other than that, it was like your normal story pacing. Not too fast and not too slow either. This was definitely a good time.
It’s not usual that I get scared of MG books at my big age. But when its a MG book that has scary dolls and creepy spiders, then it doesn’t seem so scary lol I have to say this was a story that was weird af, but it was a really cool weird af and I know that there are going to be so many kids (and adults like me) creeped out by this story. I hope there’s more to come from Cassandra.
Overall, I give this
