Frozen Charlotte by Alex Bell | Berg’s Book Club Guest

Book Title: Frozen Charlotte
Author: Alex Bell
Book Series: Red Eye 
Book No.: Book 1
Genre: Horror, Mystory, Ghost Story
Published: 2014
Star Rating: ★★★★★

Hey, LilyMay here. I’m a guest blogger on Shannon‘s site. This is my first ever post and hopefully they will be more.

For my first post, I have decided to review the book: Frozen Charlotte by Alex Bell. This is my first review… Sorry if it is terrible :). Like Shannon, I am also taking part in the 2018 Pop Sugar Challenge, and one of the prompts is:

A book that was being read by a stranger.

Synopsis of Frozen Charlotte

After a tragic event in her life, Sophie heads to her uncle’s home which was previously a school for young girls. While she is there, she tries to solve the mystery of the death of her cousin Rebecca… Yet Rebecca still lives in her room of antique dolls. Frozen Charlottes.

D-A-D-D-Y

S-A-Y-S

N-E-V-E-R

E-V-E-R

O-P-E-N

T-H-E

G-A-T-E…

– p. 6-7

Story and Narration

Frozen Charlotte is a book about a young girl named Sophie who has an unfortunate event which occurs in the first part of the story; the unexpected death of her friend.

It gets its name from China dolls known as Frozen Charlottes. So, it’s not a surprise these creepy dolls appear in the story. This book has everything you’d expect in a horror or paranormal story. Ouija boards, creepy dolls, ghosts, and an old house with a disturbing past.

During the book, Sophie discovers many unique things about the house that her uncle and cousins reside in – the longer she stays, the more she finds out. Their family had been hit by their own catastrophe a few years back when Rebecca was found frozen to death after it was said that she went out at night. The catastrophe has impacted each member of the family in a different way but mostly seems to have impacted the youngest child, Lilias.

Bell uses a lot of vivid imagery in the narrative that adds to the tension and suspense of the story, particularly in scenes which are high in conflict. This adds to the thrill and dreadful mood that is depicted throughout the book.

Favourite Frozen Charlotte scene

One of the most memorable scenes in Frozen Charlotte is when Rebecca finally shows Sophie the full series of events that lead to her death. I believe this is the scene that would stick in most people’s memory due to the huge plot twist that is shown during the scene. Piper was there with Rebecca when she died… In July.

…Rebecca’s lip split as blood poured into her mouth and smeared against her teeth. One of her fingernails ripped off as she lost her grip on the rock and fell back down the cliff face to the ledge below. She landed with a great thump that jarred every bone in her body…

p. 251.

Character development in Frozen Charlotte

Rebecca

Although the child is dead, my favourite character in this story is Rebecca due to the way her behaviour is portrayed. She is not the main character. However, the story is based around the strange events that ultimately lead to her death. Throughout the plot, Rebecca does not really develop as a character but she aides the development of Sophie and the plot. She does this by only giving away certain hints at specific points, as well as, only appearing at times that the plot needs developing.

Sophie

Sophie may be the main character in the book but she did not really appeal to me as a character; even though she was like me, blaming herself for things that were not her fault. At points, she did not really seem to be actively trying to figure out what had happened to Jay and Rebecca but was instead letting Rebecca show her things. Some people could say that she needed to be more active in her role of being detective to the death of her cousin but I believe that Bell decided to make her less independent and more reliant on Rebecca to make the story more thrilling. What is your opinion?

Other characters

There are some characters who are not the core of the plot but are pretty important anyway. Mostly, the Craig family: Cameron, Lilias and Piper Craig. There is also Jay, who doesn’t have a known surname in the story, and Sophie’s uncle, James.

Everyone in the Craig family has something about them. But while of the characters in the story were just as well written as Sophie and Rebecca but a few of them like Sophie’s supposedly best friend, Jay, was not given much time to develop. I would have liked him to have matured more.

Overall Thoughts

When I first read the blurb of this book, I had not expected the sheer extent of how horrific Rebecca’s death would have been. I thought that I would only be reading the first few pages of the book but I ended up staying up all night to finish the book, even though I had school the next day, due to how engaging the story is. After reading the book, I became weary of any china doll that I saw. You might be expecting me to say at least a few more bad points about this book but I honestly haven’t been able to find any.

End of Review

So this is the end of the review. What did you think of my first post? I would love to hear your thoughts. Comment below – don’t worry, the email is just to notify you of replies.

~LilyMay~

If you enjoyed my post, you might like some of Shannon’s posts that are in Berg’s Book Club:

• The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett
• Teeth by Chele Cooke
• Good Kings Bad Kings by Susan Nusbaum
• A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin.
• Plus many, many more

Hope to have another post soon, so see you next time! And please don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter