Literary Devices in Doll Bones
Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Setting
Doll Bones begins in small town Pennsylvania where Zach, Alice, and Poppy live. Zach's dad refers to it as "West of Nowhere, Pennsylvania, claiming it bordered Better off Forgotten, West Virginia,...
Narrator Point of View
Doll Bones is a ghost story, so it's fitting that the narration is told from the ghostly remove of the third person. The narrator is invisible to readers—we never know who's talking—but from ea...
Genre
If you've hung out in the "Symbols" section at all, then you won't be surprised to see that Doll Bones is a coming-of-age story. After all, it's all about three kids struggling to let go of their c...
Tone
Doll Bones is about three kids who embark on a crazy adventure, but while it's exciting to read about, it's important to note that they're pretty ambivalent about their undertaking. There's no fals...
Writing Style
The crazy plot of Doll Bones, an incredible story about a haunted doll, is balanced by straightforward, unadorned writing. The words paint vivid pictures, but we never really stop to linger over th...
What's Up With the Title?
Dolls have all sorts of parts if you think about it—eyes, hands, feet, hair, clothes; we could go on. Typically, though, they don't have bones. So by calling the book Doll Bones, well, the title...
What's Up With the Ending?
In the last few pages of the book, the gang completes their quest by burying the Queen in her final resting place. A lot of questions are left hanging in the air, though. Was the Queen really posse...
Tough-o-Meter
Doll Bones is a quick read with a straightforward plot. The inner lives of the main characters aren't simple, exactly, but they're clearly presented, meaning there's not a lot of ambiguity or gray...
Plot Analysis
Parents Just Don't UnderstandZach, Alice, and Poppy get together to play almost every day after school—at least until Zach's dad throws away his toy figurines, which are central to their game. Ug...
Trivia
There really is a store called Pants Unlimited in East Liverpool, Ohio. The author saw it when she went to the town to do research for the book.(Source.)The Orchid Ware in the book is based on a re...
Steaminess Rating
Danielle Steel this is not; Doll Bones doesn't contain so much as a single kiss. Not yet teenagers, the main characters don't seem to have a strong awareness of themselves as sexual beings—there...
Allusions
C.S. Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia (1.56)Roald Dahl, James and the Giant Peach (8.13)Roald Dahl, The Witches (8.13)Roald Dahl, The Twits (8.13)J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings (first referen...