Summoned to the Thirteenth Grave (Charley Davidson #13) by Darynda Jones

Charley Davidson has been freed from the dimension she was trapped in… but only to find the real world is under a new threat: a hell dimension is spreading over the city… perhaps the world

A Hell dimension unleashed by Charley and Reyes… and only answering the hidden question of what happened to Charley’s mother may help them save the world and their daughter..

This is the final chapter in the story of Charley Davidson…. Which means I always am going to be quite bleak about all this. I am never happy about a series ending, especially not a series I’ve come to love. I will always be grumpy about this.

And that means I need to do an obligatory bias check - it’s ending and I am unhappy and I hates it I hates it I hates it!

But I do have some issues beyond my utter unwillingness to say goodbye

As I’ve said with this series, the balance of zaniness is a little off kilter. I always liked Charley and her silly habit of naming things (like her breasts: Danger and Will Robinson, or her car, Misery) but then she took it too far and started naming all the things. We still had the humour but it started trying too hard to be silly. This book we pulled that back a lot and got a lot more serious… perhaps even too serious. But it was focused on the plot… but lost some fun along the way

That plot is something I’m torn over. Like previous books towards the latter half of this series there’s a weird split between EPIC WORLD DESTROYING MASSIVENESS with gods and angels and demons and Charley being this incredible epic thing beyond comprehension with massive stakes beyond knowing while also being super super fun…. And then there’s a fairly mundane crime drama. And it feels… odd? Especially because in this book it feels especially strong because while we’re talking about the whole world ending in the not very distant future, neither Charley nor Reyes seem to make this a priority? I think part of this is the way it pans out: this shadowy hell dimension is consuming the city and will expand to consume the world with a side order of dangerous violent possessions. But Charley gets a rather dubious cryptic advice that she basically has to find out something from her past to get the answer. There’s no obvious connection so while the world is ending it feels like Charley is involved in something completely unrelated. While we have a much more focused and excellent classic Charley Davidson storyline of finding some missing people and using magic and investigative shenanigans to great effect - with the added bonus of Charley’s development with her new thread of ruthlessness. It was a great storyline which totally eclipsed the world ending and the actual finale of the series.

Charmed, Season 1, Episode 6: Kappa Spirit

Moping time - and Mel hasn’t been out of bed since she magically removed Niko from her life. And I thought - and kind of hoped - that this episode would be all about either removing this terrible event or at least underscore how absolutely awful this event was and how much Nico and Nico and Mel’s relationship meant.

Except we’re going to talk about sororities

And before I even get into this recap I want to say how annoyed I am by this because this show - especially this show that was waving around its progressive credentials to the hilt - is perpetuating some awful tropes here. I mean well fecking done you didn’t kill your lesbian, have a cookie - the bitterest, most awful cookie in the world - because removing her from the plot while erasing their relationship from memory is just killing her without the damn blood

Having Mel’s sisters cluster round her bed to poke her, gods Mel, haven’t you mourned the love of your life long enough?! Any longer and we’ll have to spend some actual episode time on it! We have sororities to worry about!

Oh and Harry has got her a new job which is another layer of angst. Or rather the angst because we’re not going to make this relationship valuable

Yes. I am annoyed.

So after some brief researching over whatever demon was killing elders (lightning demon. Unfortunately there’s a lot of them it seems) they cover the real worry: Maggie is on the outs with Lucy and won’t be able to join Kappa

THE HORROR (bye Niko)

So it’s time to go out and have mojitos and talk about Mel’s lost love Kappa. Only the Kappa sisters are there and Lucy is still not a fan! So Maggie decides to go take a pitcher of Mojitos to Lucy to try and make nice… and it’s kind of… not good because it kind of feels like Maggie is pushing to get back into Kappa hear more than acknowledging Lucy is pissed for a reason. Lucy is hella pissed and tries to pour that drink over Maggie’s head which… I kind of understand? And, quite good, Maggie accepts she’s kinda got this coming but Macy and Mel with telekinesis and time freeze make sure their sister isn’t getting no diet cocktails poured on her hair.

So Lucy is still pissed. In fact even her sorority sisters are kind of out of line. So Lucy goes back to the sorority house to meditate to a haunted candle

Oops, haunted candle.

So when Maggie, unable to take the slightest hint, knocks on the Kappa house the next day she finds that Lucy is both a) still pissed and b) joined by a new Kappa in full 80s gear called Brenda who both hates Maggie and is encouraging Lucy to hate her even more.

Maggie is confused because she’s never met this woman before and part of Rushing for Kappa involves knowing who all the current members are. And no current members would be running around in 80s fashion. They do some research - Mel joining to avoid the job interview that Harry has set up for her. They realise Brenda is a ghost and there are 10,000 different kinds of ghost (honestly i kind of like the idea of 10,000 different kinds of ghost)

Midnight Texas, Season 2, Episode 3: To Witch Hell and Back

Midnight Texas, Season 2, Episode 1: Head Games

Supernatural, Season 14, Episode 4: Mint Condition

We open with an angry rage nerd being attacked by a possessed Panthero toy

Yes, it’s going to be one of THOSE Supernatural episodes where we focus far more on the weird and whacky than anything deep. And yes, I usually give these episodes a lot of eye rolls and snark -but honestly, they work. Supernatural can be so mopey at times, it helps to have something just a little fun and dramatic.

Also Dean laid on his bed watching horror movies is just adorable. Umf. Also he puts on glasses this episode. Double Ummmf.

So Dean is lurking in his bedroom watching endless horror film marathons and generally avoiding everyone. Sam tries to poke him to encourage him to leave (which comes with lots of brother snark because Dean will always taunt and poke at Sam because they’re fun like that) and seeing as Dean is completely unwilling to discuss his feelings, he dangles this case in front of him

A possessed Thundercat toy is Dean Winchester kryptonite. He’s up and away

They move in, posing as insurance investigators to learn about the violent toy which focuses on a comic shop with Stewart the nerd rage who is more than a little annoying. Samantha who runs the place and is more sensible and aligns closely with Sam and Dirk who is enthusiastic happy nerd. The three of them run the comic shop, the previous owner having left it to Sam and Dirk (not Stewart - he was fired for stealing and it’s apparent the former owner had a big big big thing about people stealing) who rehired Stewart despite his many many faults because he is their friend

The episode is very old school Supernatural - which, again, i like. I like to see the brothers dealing with evil spirits - these used to be the bread and butter of their work and it’s nice to come back to it, nice to see them handling this day to day evil rather than just dealing with the biggest, scariest world destroying monsters out there. These daily monsters still matter and it’s so much fun to go back to them,

So we follow the same paths, tracking down the recently dead, why he has a grudge, figuring out what cursed object the evil spirit has been attached to - and then burning it, saving the day and destroying the horror movie villain brought to life in the process - all alongside Dean’s issues with horror movies and Sam’s issues with hallowe’en.

Nightshift (Midnight Texas #3) by Charlaine Harris

People are committing suicide at the Midnight crossroads. Once is tragic, twice unlikely and three times definitely more than a coincidence

There’s a dark presence under the crossroads. It’s been there for centuries - but it’s waking up. The inhabitants only clue to what it is and what it wants is in a book that none of them can read. They’re running out of time and the dark voice Fiji hears is growing louder

Meanwhile Olivia’s family may have finally caught up with her - with lethal repercussions and increased suspicion about the true motives of her neighbours

I really do like the concept of Midnight - a small town in rural Texas where the supernatural gathers, where people with secrets gather to build their new life. Over the last few books this has developed further as the members of the community have grown closer together. And this is something Charlaine Harris has always been very very good at: building a community, building all those little social interactions, those visits and family histories and little gossips that gives a real sense of community

This does, in some cases, slow the pacing as various characters discuss their issues with each other, then discuss those issues with other characters and all pry into each other’s business - especially since we have a lot of characters all with their own back stories and issues (which I, again, really like). But it works here because the overall story of this small town is the community that has been built here. So I don’t mind that we spend what appears to be a truly unnecessary amount of time discussing Lemuel’s human life even though it adds absolutely nothing to the plot. Or that we have Manfred’s old cronies from Las Vegas living nearby. Or the time spent gossiping around tables discussing what Chuy and Joe are (which is not known for most of this book and these are somewhat peripheral characters - which is a little weird given what they’re facing). It works because that’s what these books are.

I do think Olivia’s story is a little…. Weirdly convoluted. But hey, it’s not completely out there so I can run with it.

At times it seems the characters are somewhat distracted from the main plot, largely waiting for Lemuel to translate a convenient book he’s found - convenient in that it has all the answers and plot convenient in that it’s written in a convoluted ancient language for no good reason (and, honestly it makes little sense and really is just a method of drawing out the main plot so they can focus on the smaller side plots and relations. But it works).

The plot itself does have those convenience issues and does sort of circle slowly towards the ending rather than run for it - and it has some weird road bumps with Olivia’s story kind of running mundanely across the main supernatural - there’s something dark and evil under the crossroads plot line.

The Frankenstein Chronicles: Season 2, Episode 6: Bride of Frankenstein

Marlott is captured and chained up and Esther is dead in the process of becoming not dead. Dippel is being super creepy with Esther. Harvey is being super creepy with Marlott. Everyone’s trying to out creepy everyone else and they’re all going for gold

Esther is resurrected - but that whole weird creepy beach vision which I thought was Marlott’s hallucination? Well it turns out like all the surreal moody visions, they’re actually real. This beach seems to represent… limbo? Maybe? ANyway this is why our not-entirely-dead people keep going there (because the land is life and the sea is death so the beach is sort of in between. Nice metaphor. Also points for moodiness. And making sure there are no seagulls. I feel seagulls would ruin this). And Esther, on her way back from death, is in the sea and drowning… until Marlott wades in and pulls her out

Which is nice but why does Esther need a helping hand back to the land of the living?

This also gives Marlot chance to tell Harvey what a terrible person he is killing his wife - he protests he didn’t but Marlot claims she set the fire that killed her because it was the only way to escape him. Because, yes, those creepy visions were real and were her ghost

While Dippel embraces Marlot as a sibling because they’re both not!dead people. He’s also passionate in his belief there is no god, this allows you to do anything but also is why he doesn’t want to die because it’s the end of everything. This from a man who literally sees a vision of life death and limbo AND sees ghosts. At least point being rather certain that there’s no afterlife seems… not the workings of a rational mind. “There is no afterlife now I’m going to lure this woman into following me into eternal life with the ghost of her son!”

I feel the writers may need a slap upside the head from an atheist

Harvey and Dippel are also working together - Harvey is really impressed with Dippel’s dad’s work - Dippel is really impressed that Harvey can replicate it but they both kind of need each other: Dippel is holding on to the formula for the catalyst while Dippel seems to be running out of the stuff and possibly unable to recreate it without Harvey’s genius.

But I’m getting ahead of myself - because while, as I said last episode, everyone on team bad guy knows each other and is working together, they’re all also all sharpening their knives for more quality back stabbing than a Tory Party conference.

The Dean is duly concerned that the current king is days away from dropping dead and Prince William the heir is Not a Fan and all those pesky murders. So when Renquist turns to him asking if the Dean will protect him the Dean happily says “god will protect you”. Which is religious talk for “you’re screwed”.

Renquist responds to this by going to Boz the journalist and exposing the Dean as the murderer trying to make lots of money out of Pyre Street. He also orders the Parish Watch to arrest Dippel for the murders just so he can have a scapegoat

Queenie, Dippel’s maid, does some of her own sleuthing in Dippel’s murder rooms and finds Nightingale’s keepsake. A token mothers left with their babies at the foundling home where she and Nightingale grew up so, if matters changed, the mother could prove which child was there’s by describing this unique token. She has proof Nightingale was there and takes it to the Inspector, threatening to take it to the Parish watch if he won’t act

Yes that’s the watch and the police after Dippel now.

Which is why, with Esther newly awakened and screaming, the police arrive. Dippel and Harvey promptly turn on each other, fighting over Dippel’s dad’s catalyst and the formula: Harvey breaks the bottle which leaves Dippel distraught and all but licking it from the floor. This is why I think Dippel is incapable of recreating it - which is why he needs Hervey, I guess.

I wonder if Esther and Marlott will need that catalyst as well?

The Frankenstein Chronicles: Season 2, Episode 5: The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

And lo we learn that not only is everyone really creepy and really evil but quite possibly all working together as well

Except Sir Robert Peel - but he’s desperate to get his admittedly very nice sounding reforms passed so is willing to work with just about anyone to make that happen despite the opposition of the evil dean of Westminster and his evil murdering coroner Renquist. We’ve already seen him willing to work with Dippel and now he introduces his new advisor who will hopefully convince Prince William (heir to the throne, brother to George IV, current king who seems to side with the the Dean but is also not in great health) to support him. Oh Sir Robert, such good intentions, such terrible bed fellows

His whole moment is somewhat disturbed by Nightingale's body washing up, minus heart

Seriously show, I’m not going to forgive Nightingale's wasted death.

We see Queenie, naturally, consumed by grief over this - revealing she loved him and also fears she may have been responsible for his death by telling him about the creepy things in creepy Dipple’s creepy home. She is convinced to go to the police with this but the Inspector isn’t exactly thrilled with the idea that a ranting Nightingale may have gone after one of the richest men in London because he thought a hanged man had committed a murder. He dismisses her

But when Sir Peel comes to him to point out they’re now competing with evil church people so there better be some leed, the Inspector seizes on it as better than nothing

Marlot has gone full angst mode because Sean Bean, that’s why. He’s driving poor Esther off, convinced that everyone around him dies because Nightingale’s death is good for some Manpain. He does ramble about being haunted by the ghosts of murdered people he can’t help. Which sounds bad but it’s not like any of these ghosts even invest in chains or anything. It’s pretty low key haunting

He does get a lead on Lord Hervey though, from Boz, who is more than a little miffed that the church Coroner Renquist feeding him lies has made him look like a fool. Boz recruits Marlot and tells him LORD HERVEY LIVES and is working for the Home Secretary.

This leads to Marlot intimidating Renquist just because he can for some reason but not learning much beyond how evil traders in body parts have lots of ice - so he’s now off to harass Dipple. While Renquist goes to Lord Hervey because it turns out he is Lord Hervey’s protege and has a kind of creepy devotion which may or may not be gay subtext but if it is I’m going to break things because this is nooooot a good look. Lord Hervey reveals his plan to basically throw Dipple to the wolves (because, yes, Hervey knows Dipple. Seriously all the bad guys are working together here) if the king dies and they don’t have a powerful patron. Renquist is smart enough to realise Hervey may do the same to him but too devoted to actually follow through with that

The Frankenstein Chronicles: Season 2, Episode 4: Little Boy Lost

Spence has previously warned us that going against the Dean of Westminster will get you murdered. But when he sends out a directive to have his reverends spouting that the plague is the fault of the naughty naughty sinners his temper snaps since he knows the well is being deliberately poisoned. He speaks up, ranting in church

And the Dean catches up with him, wielding a knife to stab him into silence - while also making an evil evil speech about how he likes to listen to the noises people make as he murdered them. Just in case we were under any real illusion about how evil this man is. He just needs an evil moustache to twirl.

This doesn’t make Merlot’s life any easier because he discovers Spence’s body and is duly horrified and grief stricken and, well, Sean Bean. Honestly when this man smiles the world will end.

He’s also discovered near the body and chased by the police who naturally suspect he is the murderer. He’s even seen by Nightingale leaving the scene which leaves Nightingale convinced he’s the murderer

Of course telling the Inspector that a dead man is behind the murders reassures no-one: and his Inspector suspends him on account of the fact he’s accusing dead men of murder and that’s not a good look in a policeman.

Merlot does follow Billy Oate’s lead on the dead man in the well and finds that a ship was quarantined due to plague. Following that they find the rest of the crew - where they’ve been put in an abandoned room basically to die. Merlot walks through the gauntlet of ghosts they’ve left behind - this time not reacting. It looks like he’s finally accepted what they are.

Meanwhile at the House of Dipple-this-man-is-definitely-a-serial-killer Queenie the maid continues to be freaked out by the creepy serial killer house she’s living in. She tries to tell Nightingale (who may live there? They’re both foundlings from the same orphanage which is their link) but she’s distracted comforting him about seeing dead people and his unresolved issues over Flora.

Dipple is holding a party to show off his murder doll and he invites Esther - who in turn invites Merlot to be her plus one because she needs another poor person to be super awkward and out of place in the rich guy’s home.

There the doll is every bit as creepy as you can imagine and Dipple focuses on emitting the most intense serial killer vibes ever. Even though the doll is a woman in make up it still manages uncanny valley. For some reason rather than watch the marionette in case it launches itself at the crowd and starts killing people, Merlot decides to go wandering through the house instead. As one does. Seriously I can see no reason why Merlot decides it’s appropriate to do that. He finds Dipple’s secret spooky door but Queenie the maid shows up to shoo him off for appalling house guest manners.

The Haunted Heist (Southern Ghost Hunter Mysteries #3) by Angie Fox

Verity's life hasn't been the same since she accidentally trapped her gangster ghost buddy Frankie by dumping his ashes in her rose garden.  Verity seems to keep falling into trouble even though she's working really hard to get her personal business up and running and to figure out her relationship with Ellis.  Verity may love Sugarland, but Sugarland isn't exactly in love with her any longer thanks to the mother of her would be boyfriend Ellis.  Things look like they may finally be taking a turn for the better when Verity is invited to the bank to interview for a job. Unfortunately for Verity, the interview ends when the bank manger is found dead in the vault.  Verity was only trying to get a new client and instead she's now tasked with figuring out who murdered the bank manager with the help of Ellis and of course her faithful ghost friend Frankie. 

As you can tell form the cover, The Haunted Heist is paranormal chick lit. I''m a big believer in light fluffy reading during the summer.  It's the perfect book to take along on a picnic or to relax with at the beach. It is essential that you go into this book and this series with the understanding that it's simply meant to be a bit of entertainment to pass away a lazy afternoon.  

I couldn't help to giggle every time Frankie sought to get Verity to turn to a life of crime to end her money troubles. Even driving with Verity is enough for Frankie to suggest that she change her occupation to get away driver.  Their exchanges are the best in the book, even if at times Frankie becomes irritating when he interrupts Ellis and Verity when they are canoodling. Verity, Frankie and Ellis get into a lot of trouble together and it's hilarious. I particularly loved them entering a ghostly speakeasy and the night ending with a ghostly bar fight with ghostly bullets whizzing through the air. 

Despite the fact that The Haunted Heist is the literary equivalent of cotton candy, the one thing Angie Fox does really well is her interrogation of class. Verity has eighty dollars in her bank account and no job to speak of, so cash is constantly a problem for her.  Fox doesn't shy away from how difficult this makes life for her.  Fox goes into detail about how because of her poverty, Verity has an extremely limited wardrobe and must borrow clothing from her sister.  Even meals don't come easily and Verity's diet consists of cheap things like bananas and protein bars.  To hide her poverty, Verity even goes without a jacket because the only one she could afford in her size at the second hand shop is hideous.  Verity's life isn't about what she likes but what she can scrape together.  I will however say that I love the idea of Verity driving around Sugarland in 1978 avocado green Cadillac. 

The Black Tide (Outcast #3) by Keri Arthur

Tiger has finally taken the first steps against the sinister forces experimenting on children for their own dark aims. But more children are missing - and those experiments are gaining ground: the some vampires are walking in sunlight

To finally stop this she needs to bring down Ciara the sinister architect behind this. But Ciara can change her shape to look like anyone and apparently has influence at the very top of government.

This book is action packed - we open with Tiger charging into battle against these sinister facilities and it doesn’t let up from there

And it’s really satisfying to follow with this book of concrete action and results after the sometimes confusion of the previous books. We had a lot of random events before and a whole lot of confusion from the large scale, highly convoluted and multiple levels of conspiracy that was exposed but still pretty hard to follow in the last two books

Now we have answers. Now Tiger knows what she is up against and what needs to be done. And this born weapon is going to charge into battle and kill everyone she needs to do to bring this world ending conspiracy to an end. She knows who is responsible, she knows their sinister plans - now the investigation has finished and it’s time to blow it all up.

And can I say now that I was pretty wary of Tiger for a while - the fact that she was designed to be a seductive assassin made me think of a lot of terrible tropes: but we dodge that. She is a lethal trained commando and warrior: we have no lethal seduction, but a lot of guns and explosions.

This does come with some interesting moral quandaries: especially in relation to the experiments here. I.e. the people these illicit labs have created, the babies, what they are, whether they can be saved, whether they should be saved, whether they’re acceptable collateral damage. All of this is extra poignant to Tiger, an artificially created being herself who saw so many of her people, especially the children whose ghosts she still treasures, were destroyed as being unfit to live.

Supernatural, Season 13, Episode 16: Scoobynatural

Scoobynatural? Really? I thought the cartoon episode was desperate (if fun). Is that the sound of barrel scraping I hear? Are they really this out of ideas?

Though I do think this is proof that the actors for Supernatural cannot sing a note - because there’s no way you get this desperate without doing at least one musical episode.

And before going into this I’m going to give everyone a heads up. I hate Scooby Doo. I’ve always hated Scooby Doo. Even as a child I loathed Scooby Doo. From the fake laughter to the superfluous characters who just hung around doing nothing to the catch phrases to the same ending every time. I hated this show soooooooo much. Honestly, it was almost pathological

So I’m not approaching this in a good place

And I forgot how much Scooby’s voice annoyed me

So the lead in is that the Winchester brothers are fighting a giant plushie dinosaur, which leads to a store owner rewarding them and Sam being all gracious and self-effacing while Dean takes the large screen television. Because he’s Dean

He merrily sets up his mancave while dismissing Sam’s ongoing research into angry plushie dinosaurs. And I think at some point we need to poke the fact that Sam and Dean haven’t really grown up as this show has progressed and what was cute with two guys in their early twenties is a bit more dubious for men pushing 40.

When showing off the television they’re dragged into a show - and find themselves all cartoony (with the car as well because of course the car comes). And go driving looking for answers - and find a malt shop

Whatever one of those is.

Inside they find the Scooby gang and Dean is super thrilled and geeky. He’s always been a fan of Scooby Doo - for a rather poignant reason. While he grew up on the road, all he had as a constant was television. And Scooby Doo was always on (another reason why I dislike the show). It was a constant from his childhood. And he sees parallels with them solving mysteries and such. With Castiel as their talking dog.

And he has a crush on Daphne, while very much not liking Fred. Sam has no time for any of this nonsense.

So, by convoluted reasons (involving a newspaper with no writing because it’s a cartoon), the Scooby gang are going to a haunted mansion, of course, and Dean insists they tag along for fanpoodle reasons but also working on the theory that if they go along with the episode they will eventually return to where they should be.

Superstition, Season 1, Episode 9: Uncle Bubba

This week we have Uncle Bubba interrupting Bea and Isaac’s alone time… and Bubba?

Hmmm

He’s amusing but he’s such a bumbling buffoon that he kind of makes me cringe for every second he’s on screen

He’s interrupting Bea and Isaac’s alone time because he thinks he’s being haunted by an evil clock. He warns Garvey and Russ not to touch it because bad things will happen

Russ, who isn’t in on the big secret, of course touches the clock. He and Garvey are sucked into demon clock world. No-one is amused by Bubba over this. Bubba explains who may have a grudge against him (he owes someone money and slept with their wife) and Isaac and Bea have absolutely no time at all for him referring to women as “bitches”. Because this show is twice as aware on gender and race issues than pretty much anything else out there

Continued argument leads to Bubba and Isaac also being sucked into clock world

Clock world is spooky black and white with occasional clockwork people because they know all about the spooky. Russ wants to touch things and leap in while Garvey shows her far greater experience of random woo-woo - and of course Russ hears all about the family history so he won’t do silly things like not listen to Garvey

They grab the man who hated Bubba to fill them in about the clock. He’s not co-operative and Bea absolutely refuses to allow Calvin use violence to coerce him because that is not who they are. However she does use her cat to threaten him. What her cat does we don’t know but it seems to involve turning into a much bigger, scarier cat

Now more reluctantly co-operative the man explains that he trapped a poltergeist called Agnes in the clock and then fed her 80 odd souls to make her super powered. Agnes now thinks she’s god of her realm but still serves him

He’s right about all but the last part, as he too is sucked into the clock.

Superstition, Season 8, Episode 8: You're Not my Momma

The gang’s all together celebrating Thanksgiving with everyone being all positive and friendly and nice (ish, anyway). But we have some ominous whispers coming from Calvin’s ring and a big scary storm coming in

And some omens of a death

The death isn’t that surprising giving that they run a funeral home. Eric wants to bury his deceased wife - and he wants her buried with the world’s creepiest possible doll.

Because this guy is just TRYING to create an evil demonically possessed doll.

The doll was important to his dead wife because she couldn’t have a child. Bea is definitely moved by the story and rightously slaps Calvin down for being even slightly disrespectful of the evil demon doll. While Tilly is well and truly freaked out since she has a perfectly sensible rational irrational fear of dolls.

It should surprise absolutely nobody that demon doll kills Eric’s dead wife’s best friend Brenda - and then rips out her eyes and puts them on a teddy bear and stuffs her body with cotton wadding.

Nope nope nope nope nope

So they call Eric the husband and say “oh hey, demon doll is evil and killing people” and it turns out he was totally having an affair with the dead woman and adds that they weren’t infertile, he and his wife had a child but the child was stillborn which sent his wife into a huge depression. So he got her the creepy demon doll for comfort -he mentions a Thai tradition of Luk Thep but I honestly think this tradition wants nothing to do with evil demon dolls.

He also advises they just throw the doll away

Which is stupid when you clearly should be KILLING IT WITH FIRE.