Review: The Dollhouse - Nicole Thorn

Review: The Dollhouse - Book #1 Paper Dolls - Nicole Thorn - September 2016

I had been looking forward to reading this book, after all, I do like my Dark Fiction stories, and The Dollhouse sounded quite promising. Four girls were taken seven years ago when they were all twelve years old and held captive. Now seven years later they have escaped their captors and are free. The four girls Layla, Riley, Kylie, and Adalyn, return to their families and learn how to cope in the real world as adults. The transition to the real world and back to reality is hard, and they have difficulty adapting to their new lives and their instant fame as The girls who escaped the Dollhouse. The story is written from Riley's POV as she was the mastermind behind their escape and the "strong one." I have to admit this story however frustrated me, and I felt let down as her parents treat her like this fragile butterfly and a little girl, and I get that she was kidnapped at 12, but she is now 19 years old. Riley has captured the attention of her next-door neighbor Wilson, and the pair explores their sexuality together as Riley learns. The girls though treated as dolls should have known a bit about sex even though they weren't exposed to it while kidnapped.  Can the girls survive living in the real world or will it get too hard for one of them in particular? I had hoped personally for a bit more story about the kidnapping and what went on while she was kidnapped, or the parents search for their daughters rather than the blossoming relationship between Wilson and Riley and snippets of their adjustment which neither of them wanted to talk about.  I think my expectations were more of Pretty Stolen Dolls series by K. Webster rather than like the TV show Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt without the comedy aspect.