DOLLFACE: A Novel

AN INSTANT USA TODAY BEstseller!


a variety, bloody disgusting, Shereads, macabre Daily, CRIMEREADS, Capes & Tights, and more Most Anticipated thriller for Spring 2026

A new york post page-turning thriller

winner of the 2026 inaugural astra book award

Barbie meets Scream with a nostalgic 90s twist in
​this horror romp.

Horror author Jill has just moved to suburban New Jersey, hoping to fit in with the new PTA moms and maybe not weird everyone out with her Final Girl coffee mug. You know. Make some real friends.

But then a plastic face-masked serial killer begins slashing their way through town, one overly made-up mom at a time. The police are incredulous. The moms are indignant. And Jill is slowly wrapped into a killer’s murderous spree, until she might just be the last woman standing.

A delightfully murderous novel that is equal parts scathing and salacious, Dollface will win you over with its gossip and gore, one body at a time.

praise for Dollface

"[A} playful horror thriller." –New York Post

"Ryan’s suburban slasher pits gossipy PTA moms against a slasher, making for a juicy, irreverent and bloody twist on the genre." –Variety

"Thank God for books like DOLLFACE and writers like Ryan...Yes, the characters are relatable, well-drawn, and interesting. Yes, this plot moves. Yes, Ryan kept me guessing til the end...Lindy Ryan hands women the horror fix they crave." –Cemetery Dance

"Lindy Ryan continues to build a reputation as one of the most unput-downable authors of the current horror generation, and readers who embrace DOLLFACE's overall tone will be reading this one late into the night." –Bloody Disgusting

"A modern, female-centered riff on the slasher tradition... DOLLFACE stands as a bright, blood-streaked love letter to slasher films filtered through the lens of suburban satire and feminine rage." –Horror DNA

"Come for the blood, but hang around for the twist as Ryan has more than one trick up her sleeve... Ryan manages to pull the rug from under the rug and, in doing so, creates one of the most surprising and fun endings to a horror novel in a while. Ryan shows her mastery of the genre." –Gruesome Magazine

"Bloody, fast-paced, unhinged, and darkly humorous, Lindy Ryan’s DOLLFACE takes on conformity, trauma, friendship, loneliness, and the masks we all wear in gruesome retro fashion right until the very last twist." –Riotus 

"DOLLFACE is riotous, ribald fun from beginning to end. A scathing satire that skewers suburban norms and mores where nobody notices the superficiality until it’s splattered with blood." –BookTrib

"In Ryan’s fabulous new slasher, the satire cuts sharper than the murder weapon." –CrimeReads

"Lindy Ryan’s novels are always a blast, and this one in particular feels like a treat." –Bloody Disgusting

“A whimsical, bloody, unsettling suburban slasher with an unexpected twist that will hit way too close to home for any mom who'd rather face a serial killer than a PTA meeting. I connected to the final girl on a molecular level!” –New York Times bestselling author, Delilah S. Dawson

"A twisty, gory homage to the slasher, with a horror writer heroine who's just a little too knowledgeable about genre tropes...Dollface is a whole lot of bloody fun." –Christina Henry, author of Alice and The Place Where They Buried Your Heart

"Dollface is Stepford meets Stephen King—sharp and sinister in all the best ways. A twisted joy for horror fans." –James "Murr" Murray and Daren Wearmouth, Bestselling Co-Authors of The Stowaway and You Better Watch Out

"Lindy Ryan's suburban giallo goes for the gullet, then slices right through. DOLLFACE stands proudly within the new slasher canon alongside the works of Stephen Graham Jones and Brian McAuley, finding fresh weapons to render the reader's imagination into the reddest of ribbons." –Clay McLeod Chapman, author of Wake Up and Open Your Eyes 

“Imagine Real Housewives: Friday the 13th edition, and you’ll have an idea of how much gory fun awaits you in DOLLFACE.  This twisty slasher novel screams Lindy Ryan’s mischievous and bloodthirsty talent!” —Christopher Golden, New York Times bestselling author of The Night Birds and Road of Bones

“Literary slashers are having a moment right now, but I’m hard pressed to think of one in any medium like Lindy Ryan’s DOLLFACE. Equal parts Stephen Graham Jones, Rachel Harrison, Ira Levin, and Sarah Langan, with a trenchant wit, rip-roaring pace, real anger, and one of the most unsettling opening chapters I’ve read in decades.” —Nat Cassidy, USA Today bestselling author of When the Wolf Comes Home and Mary 

© 2026. Lindy Ryan. All rights reserved.