Bad Dolls

Harrison’s (Cackle) latest is a collection that demonstrates her myriad talents as a fiction writer. This collection consists of four stories: a magic 8-ball helps a woman make all her life decisions; a bachelorette party gets out of hand when a sacrifice proves too much; a woman uses a dieting app that helps its users lose weight by any means necessary; and a woman who loses her sister finds a doll that could carry a message from the other side. These stories all hearken back to speculative stories where reality clashes with the supernatural. They are unsettling, but the smatterings of magical realism—cursed items and brushes with the fourth dimension—rarely chill the blood. Rather, these stories demonstrate that Harrison understands the short story form, regardless of genre. Add in the vocal talents of Helen Laser, Suehyla El-Attar Young, Frankie Corzo, and Phoebe Strole, who offer distinct voices for each female protagonist, and the result is an exploration of universal issues affecting women, like frayed relationships, faded friendships, and working through grief.