After being kissed by hunky dreamboat Jonathon Taylor Anderson while waiting inline for the water fountain, Kite Morgan's stomach's so full of butterflies she's barely able to tell her bff Marcie once she makes it to class about what happened. Marcie doesn't share her excitement. "What about Carla?" she asks. Carla Bell and Jonathon were an item for as long as anyone could remember but, a month ago, they broke up, so Kite's not worried.
Turns out she should've been.
At lunch, Carla and her two cronies, Sophie and Kylie approach Kite and tell her, "You're so dead after school." It makes the rest of the day a struggle for Kite, who's never been in a fight.
The fight after school doesn't take long. Two punches, and Kite's down. She walks home, upset, angry, and hating the world. She decides the only way to work through this is to busy herself with something creative. So, taking the craft box from where it's remained untouched for years in her closet, Kite sits at her dining room table cutting out paper dolls of Carla and her two watchdogs.
When she's done, she borrows her little brother's Tonka truck and, in a fit of rage, runs over the Carla doll again, and again, and again. Now this is cathartic, she says to herself. When she's done, the doll is twisted, it's paper arms lay outstretched, and it's dead eyes stare vacantly at the ceiling.
Then, from outside, sirens wail as emergency vehicles race past Kite's house.
Following them, Kite finds the real Carla Bell a half mile up the road, lying beneath the wheels of a real truck that looks remarkably similar to her brother's Tonka. Beneath its wheels lies Carla Bell, looking nearly exactly the same as the doll still sitting on Kite's dining room table.
Comatose, Carla is taken to hospital.
Kite thinks it's more than a mere coincidence. Soon her theories are validated, launching her on an emotional rocket ship ride as she fully realizes the implications of possessing so much power and the responsibility that goes along with it.
At school, Kite's class is assigned Animal Farm by George Orwell and soon, Kite's descent into power corruption begins to match that of the pigs. She realizes, unless she can uncover the secret of her paper doll voodoo powers, she will soon be corrupted by the absolute power she wields with the dolls.
Dolls is a hilarious, yet sometimes scary reminder that with great power must come great responsibility.
Michael Hiebert is an award-winning author of novels and short stories. Publisher's Weekly gave his debut novel, "Dream with Little Angels" (Kensington, 2013) a starred review and said, "is receiving an abundance of critical acclaim: The New York Times Book Review says, "There's something mesmerizing about Hiebert's storytelling voice, low-pitched and lightly musical." It received a STARRED review on Publishers weekly who say it "manages to soar as a moving achievement. . . In Hiebert's sure hands, psychological insight and restrained lyricism combine to create a coming-of-age tale as devastating as it is indelible." He won the prestigious Surrey International Writer s Conference Storyteller s Award twice in a row. This award is sponsored each year by New York Times bestseller Diana Gabaldon and bestseller Jack Whyte. His website is at http: //www.michaelhiebert.com
