Baby Doll

By: Hollie Overton

Narrated by: Laurence Bouvard

She kept moving forward. She didn't stop. She didn't look back.

Lily was abducted from outside her high school gates. For eight long years, she's been locked away from the outside world. During that time she's changed from a girl into a woman. She's had a baby. And now she has seized her chance and escaped.

Running for her life, with her daughter in her arms, she returns to her family and the life she used to know - to her much-loved twin sister, Abby; her mum; her high school boyfriend - and her freedom. But is it possible to go back?

Lily's perfect life as a teenager doesn't exist anymore. Since she's been gone, her family's lives have changed, too, in ways she never could have imagined. Her return, and the revelation of who took her, will send shock waves through the whole community.

Impossible not to listen to in one sitting, Baby Doll is a taut psychological thriller that focuses on family entanglements and the evil that can hide behind a benign facade.

©2016 Hollie Overton (P)2016 Audible, Ltd

GREAT BOOK

Would you listen to Baby Doll again? Why?

I LOVE THIS BOOK. I WOULD NOT LISTEN TO IT AGAIN JUST BECAUSE I DON'T LIKE LISTENING TO ANY BOOK MORE THAN ONCE.

Which scene was your favorite?

I LOVE WHEN ABBY AND LILY WERE TOGETHER AS SISTERS

Any additional comments?

HIGHLY RECOMMEND

Riveting and thrilling

When you think is gonna be the end, it has plot twist and liked that is wasn’t such a Disney happy ending, we all make mistakes and are human beings, families get hurt and just like how these wonderful women familia get over it together mom and two daughters

Dumb people. Story drug out.

Depressing. Not just the story, but the characters. Only one, Wes, is someone you'd like to know -- and maybe Skye, the 4yo daughter of the main character. Story has no depth and has the vocabulary of a 6th grader, but profanity of a gang-banger.
Reader was good but for one thing. Southern accent of teacher was way overdone -- especially since the text had said she only had a trace of an accent. She sounded like Dukes of Hazzard or Ellie May from Beverly Hillbillies. All characters had distinctive and consistent voices.

Awful narrator

Cartoon like voices, high pitch and unable to listen over a few minutes. There is another version available with a different narrator.

CLAPTRAP DAY-AFTER FOR A FAMILIAR PLOT DEVICE

What would have made Baby Doll better?

Some editor should've pointed out to Ms. Overton her frequent errors in both procedure and psychology. Impossible not to lose patience with cardboard characters and unbelievable behavior.

What do you think your next listen will be?

Any thriller that doesn't boast a threadbare plot of a missing protagonist returning home after long absence/captivity, etc. (Readers aching for a first-rate treatment of this subject should take a look at Josephine Tey's mastertul BRAT FERRAR, also on Audible.)

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Laurence Bouvard?

A performer who could manage believable characterizations for different sexes, ages, etc.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Baby Doll?

The confrontation/arrest of the kidnapper is so completely unbelievable, this entire sequence needed to be severely rethought and rewritten.

Any additional comments?

Ms. Overton has heart, ability, and will undoubtedly gain skills as her career progresses that will enable her to sidestep some of the problems on display here. With fresher ideas and more thorough research, another novel by her could easily be a pleasure.