Baby Doll by Hollie Overton was a book that had been on my radar for a very long time before I finally got round to picking it up. From the start of this review I can safely say that I found this particular book to be a brilliantly addictive and gripping read that I flew through in less than 24 hours. I very much regret leaving it sat on my Kindle neglected for so long!
In this book we meet Lily who we soon learn has been held captive for the past eight years of her life but who, thanks to her captor making a mistake, has the opportunity to break free. Having given birth during her time in captivity, Lily has a six year old daughter called Sky and now that they are free Lily’s priority is to keep her daughter safe as they return home to her family. Being reunited with her family, particularly her twin sister Abby, is far from easy but Lily is determined to ensure that her captor is appropriately punished for what he put her and her family through. This is the story of how a family adjusts to seeing someone who they all thought they would never see again.
One thing that works really well for this book is the way in which the story is told from the viewpoint of several different characters, including Lily, her mother Eve, her sister Abby and her captor Rick. This really allows the reader to get to know each of the characters, get inside their heads and discover exactly what each of them were thinking. I have to say that Rick’s chapters really made me understand just how twisted he was and they evoked some pretty strong emotions in me - I felt incredibly angry towards him and sickened by the way he seemed to feel no remorse for what he had put Lily through. Meanwhile Lily was a character who surprised me as despite all that she had endured she was by far the strongest person in the book and one who I admired greatly.
From beginning to end this is a wonderfully fast-paced novel that is packed full of many twists and turns throughout that were completely unpredictable and which I did not see coming. In recent times I’ve seen a lot of books about people being held captive in which you never get to read about what life is really like for them when they are released. In this respect Baby Doll is a book which really stands out from the crowd and I thought that it was really interesting to read about how Lily adjusted to her new-found freedom after such a long time without it.
Whilst reading this book I discovered that it has been selected as a Richard and Judy Book Club read for Spring 2017 and honestly believe that it fully deserves to be on that list. Hollie Overton has written a mightily impressive debut novel in Baby Doll and I both predict and hope that this is just the first of many great novels that I will read by this author!
