Secrets from My Shelves: The Doll Who Ate His Mother

(Has anyone ever gone over to your bookshelf, picked up a book, and said, “What is this doing here?” This series of blog posts explains some of the more curious findings on one Booklister’s home shelves.)

First off, what a title, right? I think I read about this lesser-known Ramsey Campbell shocker in Stephen King’s Danse Macabre, and after an entire young adulthood of being tortured by the ickiness of the title, finally bit the bullet and hopped on Amazon six or seven years ago and bought the cheapest used copy I could — probably for one cent. I read the thing and it’s pretty twisted. (That means I thoroughly enjoyed it.) I think it was after I finished it that I gave the title page a closer look.

Isn’t it always a thrill when you obtain an autographed book by accident? Campbell’s rather a legend in horror now, so it’s fun to imagine him signing this thing at some sparsely attended book event in the 1970s. Anyway, it’s mine now, and it’s a nice follow-up surprise to show people after they finish sputtering over the bizarro title.

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About the Author:

Dan Kraus is Booklist's Editor of Books for Youth. He is also the producer and director of numerous feature films, most notably the documentary Work Series, and the author of several YA novels, including Rotters and Scowler, both of which won the Odyssey Award. Follow him on Twitter at @DanielDKraus.

1 Comment on "Secrets from My Shelves: The Doll Who Ate His Mother"

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  1. bill ott says:

    I’ve never discovered an authographed copy on my shelves, but I did once come across a document dated 1966 in which two of my college friends testified to betting $50 on who would die first. Not sure how they expected to pay off, which is not an idle question since, sadly, one of them is now dead.

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