Dollface by Lindy Ryan

March 16, 2026

This was really fun on audio.

Released February 2026

Source: Netgalley
See more @ Goodreads

This is a fun thriller/slasher with a horror writer as the main character that grabbed me from the chilling opening scene. It’s not heavy or depressing, even though it could have been due to the content, and it’s pretty fast paced and a fun slasher is always a good way to escape the world for a few hours. If you enjoy audio, it’s definitely the way to go with this one. The narrator does a fantastic job voicing all of the characters but especially the main character who sounds appropriately stressed and relatable.

Jill, her husband, their young son and their golden retriever Lugosi have recently moved to a creaky not creepy house in suburbia for his job. She’s a horror writer struggling with a new story idea and has some insecurities about fitting in and being known as the horror tee wearing weirdo mom. But she is who she is, and I liked that she didn’t try to change herself for anyone. Fortunately for her she is quickly befriended by the almost too friendly PTA queen Darla but not-so-much by the grown mean girls who also infest the group. After their first meetup a rude person dies and thus begins a series of horrific incidents and a search for the Dollfaced killer.

I know I keep harping on this and I know the reason it is done (probably for the same reason some publishers are now using author/reviewer blurbs on covers instead of telling a reader about the actual story) but I really wish pubs would stop doing the comparison game of movies or other popular media/books. Sometimes it gets me to buy a book and then I’m disappointed when the book is nothing like what they’ve compared it to OR the even worse thing happens, and the comparison ends up giving too much away. I won’t tell you which way it goes here and ruin things, but it does go one of these two ways so I encourage you to skip the comparisons if you can. I wish marketing would just let a book be its own thing.

Despite that, I still had a fun time guessing who might be the killer. I did manage to guess it somewhat early on, but the fun is watching it all play out and discovering the why of it all. And if you begin to worry when a pet is introduced, Lugosi is never harmed. Phew, I don’t know if I could’ve handled that, so I am very thankful the author didn’t go down that road. Writers are allowed to do what they want but I’m so tired of reading about dog torture in horror that feels gratuitous.

There are some sexy times between Jill and her husband (sorry his name has left my brain already) that felt out of place. I think it’s because he popped in for moments of support and sex and then popped out again. There was zero sexual tension or buildup, so it felt unnecessary. Maybe it was there as a shortcut to show that they had a healthy relationship? Maybe I read too many romances? I don’t know, but for me it felt unnecessarily shoehorned in there and if you see some of what I read I don’t say this in a “clutching my pearls” kind of way. It just felt weird but not as weird as when Dean Koontz does it, lol. So, there’s that.

Anyhow, I recommend this one if you're looking for a lighter horror-adjacent read that has some icky scenes and moments of dark humor. I hate the numbers, but I’d have to give it a 3.75 because I did blast through it at a time when very little is holding my attention, so I’m bumping it up to a 4.

Final Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Publisher Plot Synopsis

Horror author Jill has just moved to suburban New Jersey, hoping to fit in with the new PTA moms and maybe not weird everyone out with her Final Girl coffee mug. You know. Make some real friends.

But then a plastic face-masked serial killer begins slashing their way through town, one overly made-up mom at a time. The police are incredulous. The moms are indignant. And Jill is slowly wrapped into a killer’s murderous spree, until she might just be the last woman standing.

A delightfully murderous novel that is equal parts scathing and salacious, Dollface will win you over with its gossip and gore, one body at a time.

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