8 Horror Novels and 3 Anthologies Featuring Creepy Toys and Games
Be careful what you buy your kids for Christmas
It’s that time of year when we buy our kids presents.
Toys and games are the usual fare. They all look pretty innocent, until the horror genre grabs hold of them and gives them a shake.
Here are eight toys and games horror novels and three anthologies to make you think twice about buying your kid that present.
Contents
1. Puppet Skin (2016)
By Danger Slater
“When she looked at her mom and dad now, when she looked at their wooden movements and glassy doll eyes, Hannah found it hard to believe that they once possessed a heart like her own. That they used to travel through life completely untethered, unstrung, unencumbered, and the only thing that controlled them then were the whims and expectations of their own puppet parents.”
Puppet Skin is a weird coming-of-age horror novel that features puppets.
Hannah graduates from middle school on Friday. That’s the day she transforms into a living puppet, like her parents and teachers before her. No longer a human girl made of flesh and feelings, but a perfect wooden new self, whose strings lead up from her limbs into an endless black void above. With no pain. No sorrow. No sickness. No fear.
But Hannah has begun to suspect that something is very wrong. And in a world where emotion is treated like a disease, and unknown terrors lurk inside everyone, just keeping your soul alive past childhood might be the greatest challenge of all.
Average Star Ratings out of 5
Average: 4.50 | Amazon: 4.70 | Goodreads: 4.30 | LibraryThing: 4.50
2. Frozen Charlotte (2016)
By Alex Bell
“She took Martha’s hand and tugged her, stumbling along, to where the girls were playing in the sunshine. But when she got there she found that they weren’t making dresses for the dolls after all. They were making shrouds. And they’d covered the dolls up with them as if they were corpses. Some of the girls were even making little crosses out of twigs.”
Frozen Charlotte is a supernatural horror novel that features antique dolls.
Dunvegan School for Girls has been closed for many years. Converted into a family home, the teachers and students are long gone. But they left something behind.
Sophie arrives at the old schoolhouse to spend the summer with her cousins. Brooding Cameron with his scarred hand, strange Lillias with a fear of bones, and Piper, who seems just a bit too good to be true.
And then there’s her other cousin. The girl with a room full of antique dolls. The girl that shouldn’t be there. The girl that died.
Average Star Ratings out of 5
Average: 4.28 | Amazon: 4.70 | Goodreads: 4.22 | LibraryThing: 3.91
3. Deadlocked Dollhouse (2017)
By Mixi J Applebottom
“Four hundred houses. He loved the idea of stopping on an even number, and this was the four-hundredth house. He would be retiring in less than a week. This house should sell for eight-thousand dollars; that was the going rate. But he had every intention of keeping it. The final dollhouse.”
Deadlocked Dollhouse is a supernatural horror novel that features a cursed dollhouse.
A cursed dollhouse.
Seven stages until murder.
Mark’s always been insecure as a father. He’s terrified he’ll ruin his perfect daughters. So, he buys them presents and hopes he won’t screw them up.
They certainly won’t forget this dollhouse.
He doesn’t know how to stop it. All he wanted was to be a good father.
He was worried that they’d grow up to hate him, now he’s worried they won’t grow up at all.
Average Star Ratings out of 5
Average: 4.23 | Amazon: 4.10 | Goodreads: 3.84 | LibraryThing: 4.75
4. Mama (1983)
By Ruby Jean Jensen
“Trying again, the girl slowly straightened the doll’s twisted legs and arms, running her fingers over its limbs. Her hands began to tingle and grow warm with the doll, and – to her mild astonishment – one of its tiny legs moved.”
Mama is a supernatural horror novel that features a doll.
Once upon a time there lived a sweet little doll. Her porcelain like face was so smooth, just like a baby. Her mouth even had a tiny hole so she could eat and breathe. But her one beaded glass eye gleamed with mischief and evil. She had waited a long time in the attic for someone to set her free.
Once upon a time there lived a sweet little girl. The only place she was happy was in the attic with her doll. If she could have seen her little doll’s legs kick, she would have been frightened. If she could have felt her little doll’s arms squeeze, she would have been shocked. But if she could have read her little doll’s thoughts, she would have run from the attic forever.
Average Star Ratings out of 5
Average: 4.14 | Amazon: 4.60 | Goodreads: 3.95 | LibraryThing: 3.88
5. Rockinghorse (2016)
By William W. Johnstone
“Jesus, Tracy. The damndest thing. I never had anything like it happen to me. I saw … I saw, monsters and … my God! Unspeakable images of…hideous things.”
Rockinghorse is a supernatural horror novel that features a rocking horse.
It came in the dead of night – a rhythmic creaking sound that only the children could hear.
Jackie and Johnny tried not to listen. But it called to them, whispering of evil, luring them into the darkness of the attic.
With its brightly colored saddle and painted-on eyes, it was the most beautiful rocking horse Jackie and Johnny had ever seen. But as they took turns riding it, they didn’t see its tail twitch or its lips curve into a terrifying grin. They couldn’t hear the faint whicker that echoed among the shadows.
They couldn’t know that their own innocent eyes had taken on a strange new gleam.
Average Star Ratings out of 5
Average: 3.92 | Amazon: 4.40 | Goodreads: 3.79 | LibraryThing: 3.58
6. Toy Cemetery (1987)
By William W. Johnstone
“Daddy? That looked like a … a little tiny man running across the road.”
Toy Cemetery is a supernatural horror novel that features a variety of creepy toys.
There they were, just as he remembered. Rooms and rooms of them. Dolls. Toy soldiers. Clowns. When he was a kid, his Aunt Cary’s toy collection should have been a child’s paradise. But instead he had been terrified by their staring eyes.
Twenty years had passed since Jay Clute set foot in Victory, Missouri. Twenty years of trying to forget that hellish night of unimaginable horror. Now his Aunt Cary was dead, and it’s all been left to him: the house, the furniture, every last piece of her toy collection.
And nothing has changed. Not the painted-on dolly smiles or the garish clown colors – or the tiny hands dripping with bright red blood.
Average Star Ratings out of 5
Average: 3.92 | Amazon: 4.40 | Goodreads: 3.46 | LibraryThing: 3.89
7. The Twilight Realm (1985)
By Christopher Evans
“While they waited for Justin to arrive, the four chatted about their current adventure – a quest to recover the Wand of the Worldmage which had been stolen by a villainous hobgoblin. The game had been devised by Justin, and they called it Axes and Enchanters, reflecting the brutal and sorcerous dangers which they faced on their quest.”
The Twilight Realm is a fantasy horror novel that features a role-playing game.
Friday night is games night. But this Friday night, Paul and his four friends are transported into the heart of their own game, to the strange, bleak land of Xhandarre.
A place where hostile tree dwellers, predatory birds, and flesh-eating werewolves lash out from darkened shadows.
And where an evil sorcerer holds the key to freedom.
Reality vanishes and the five players assume new and exciting identities – with new and exciting powers.
Average Star Ratings out of 5
Average: 3.86 | Amazon: 5.00 | Goodreads: 3.32 | LibraryThing: 3.25
8. The Motion of Puppets (2017)
By Keith Donohue
“She fell in love with a puppet. Because he was beautiful, because he was rare, because he could not be hers.”
The Motion of Puppets is a supernatural horror novel that features puppets.
In the Old City of Québec, Kay Harper falls in love with a puppet in the window of the Quatre Mains, a toy shop that is never open. She is spending her summer working as an acrobat with the cirque while her husband, Theo, is translating a biography of the pioneering photographer Eadweard Muybridge. Late one night, Kay fears someone is following her home. Surprised to see that the lights of the toy shop are on and the door is open, she takes shelter inside.
The next morning Theo wakes up to discover his wife is missing. Under police suspicion and frantic at her disappearance, he obsessively searches the streets of the Old City. Meanwhile, Kay has been transformed into a puppet, and is now a prisoner, trapped with an odd assemblage of puppets from all over the world who can only come alive between the hours of midnight and dawn. The only way she can return to the human world is if Theo can find her and recognize her in her new form.
Average Star Ratings out of 5
Average: 3.72 | Amazon: 4.20 | Goodreads: 3.36 | LibraryThing: 3.60
9. It's All Fun and Games Until Somebody Dies (2021)
By D&T Publishing
“When Vanessa Black bared her teeth, Hailey knew she was done for. Despite this deep-down knowledge, Hailey said a silent prayer pumped her legs, and ran as fast as she could. Hoping either her speed or divine intercession would keep her safe.”
It’s All Fun and Games Until Somebody Dies is a horror anthology of sixteen stories featuring sinister games.
We all know the games.
The ones we played as kids.
The ones we all have fond memories of, crowded around a kitchen table with family, piled on the floor with friends around the TV, or standing in front of the flashing lights of an arcade game.
The games that, when we look back at our childhood, we have at least one memory of.
But what if, those games turned sinister? What if they’re real and out for revenge? In this story collection, the games are taking over and they’re out for blood.
Average Star Ratings out of 5
Average: 4.91 | Amazon: 5.00 | Goodreads: 4.82
10. ABC's of Terror, Volume 3 (2021)
By D&T Publishing
ABC’s of Terror, Volume 3 is a horror anthology that features twenty-six stories. The ones about toys include a doll, a rocking horse, a music box, and a jack-in-the-box.
A painting that watches you as you walk by. A doll that isn’t quite the way you left it. A music box that continues to play a haunting tune. Inside these pages are 26 stories, from A-Z, about the things that people left behind. Or maybe they left a little piece of themselves behind, as well.
Average Star Ratings out of 5
Average: 4.33 | Amazon: 4.40 | Goodreads: 4.25
11. The Doll Collection (2016)
Edited by Ellen Datlow
The Doll Collection is a horror anthology of seventeen stories that feature dolls.
Featuring everything from life-sized clockwork dolls to all-too-human Betsy Wetsy-type baby dolls, these stories play into the true creepiness of the doll trope, but avoid the clichés that often show up in stories of this type.
Average Star Ratings out of 5
Average: 3.77 | Amazon: 4.10 | Goodreads: 3.67 | LibraryThing: 3.53
Published: 11 December 2022
