S. F. Prescott

Filled with tension!

Penny Zang is from Maryland and graduated with an MFA in Fiction from West Virginia University. Her work has appeared in the Potomac Review, Louisville Review, and Superstition Review, among others. She is the 2024 Elizabeth Boatwright Coker fiction fellow via the South Carolina Academy of Authors. She lives in South Carolina with her family, where she teaches writing at a two-year college. Doll Parts is her debut novel.

Such an interesting debut! I always enjoy a dual timeline and POV, so when I read the premise of Doll Parts by Penny Zang I was intrigued. This method of storytelling also added more depth to the characters, although the pace is slower than I usually enjoy. The writing is atmospheric, especially in the past timeline, but I would have liked more scenes emphasizing how close Nikki and Sadie were instead of reading it through narration in the present timeline. I enjoyed the dark gothic vibes and loved how the author pulled me into certain scenes using creepy flashbacks. Like when Sadie saw the likeness of Nikki in Nikki’s daughter it was like seeing a ghost, amping up the tension. I would have liked more scenes between Sadie and her husband, exploring the dynamics in their relationship. This is definitely a book you need to pay close attention to, noting all the details so the twists make sense. Speaking of, I enjoyed the ending along with the unexpected twists. It was satisfying and I’m excited to read what Zang publishes next!

For readers who enjoy dual POV / timelines, complex female friendships, and dark academia vibes.

Synopsis:

For best friends Nikki and Sadie, college was supposed to be a fresh start, a way to blast Courtney Love from car speakers and leave their youth behind. But along with sadness-obsessed girls and intrusive professors, a dark story plagues their small all-women’s school: the Sylvia Club, a campus legend surrounding the deaths of multiple Sylvia Plath-adoring students, all written off as suicides. Aspiring writer Nikki finds herself drawn to the tragic tales, so much so that dead girls begin to haunt her dark imagination. As she digs deeper, Nikki soon suspects there’s much more to the story – a suspicion that will lead to a tragedy of its own, one that will tear her and Sadie apart.

It’s been nearly twenty years since Sadie last saw her estranged friend. Now, Nikki is dead, and when Sadie ends up pregnant by Nikki’s grieving husband not long after the funeral, she finds herself stepping into her ex-best friend’s seemingly perfect life. But the longer Sadie lives in Nikki’s eerily preserved home, the more she sees her appear and soon, she’s convinced that Nikki is sending her clues from beyond the grave. Because it seems Nikki never stopped looking for answers about what happened to the girls of the Sylvia Club, and she may have been its latest victim.