Doll Bones

In this final section, everything in the quest that could go wrong does. In adventure novels, this is a common motif; things are typically at their worst before finding resolution. Alice misses her bus home; Poppy reveals Alice’s secret to Zach; Alice retaliates by revealing Zach’s secret to Poppy, causing even more turmoil; and the friends get caught sneaking into the library. It seems as if the Queen’s threats are growing closer and closer as the friends approach failure. Poppy and the Queen mirror each other’s poses and behavior, as if Poppy is slowly becoming possessed.

Alice’s behavior during the quest is informed by fear of her grandmother. When the friends miss the bus, Alice has nothing left to lose. She is able to relax and play the game, taking on Lady Jaye’s persona to break into the library. Zach feels like “he [is] talking to Alice and the character she play[s] at the same time” (131). The quest has allowed Alice to become more like her character; she is uninhibited and no longer feels like she has to stick within her grandmother’s strict confines.

In the final chapters, Zach learns the truth about Eleanor. Lukas Kerchner, in making Eleanor into a china doll, has trapped and controlled her. Instead of being at rest, she is stuck in a liminal space, trapped in a doll for over a century. Lukas is like Zach’s father and Alice’s grandmother. All three believe they’re helping the children they have responsibility for, but they are really causing harm. Throughout the novel, Zach struggles with whether to submit to who his father wants him to be or to become who he wants.

Black creates a parallel between Zach and Eleanor through physical description. When Zach looks in the bathroom mirror, “instead of his regular skin, he [sees] a face made from cracked white china with black holes where the eyes should [be]. And when he open[s] his mouth to scream, his reflection stay[s] perfectly serene, lips motionless on what seem[s] almost like a mask” (158). Zach, like Eleanor, is trapped and unhappy. Black shows the consequences of living life on another’s terms. Zach avoids Eleanor’s fate when his father accepts him and genuinely apologizes for attempting to control his future. Zach no longer worries about the judgment of others when it comes to what makes him happy.

In this section, the novel’s conflicts are resolved. The friends get some weight off their shoulders when their secrets—Alice’s feelings for Zach, Poppy’s fear of abandonment, and Zach’s loss of action figures—are revealed. The characters grow through their emotional release and journey. When they return Eleanor to her grave, Zach’s words of goodbye “c[o]me easily, the way they did when he was playing, but he [feels] entirely like himself” (171).

The friends, though growing older, decide to keep telling stories. The quest “was a story that [they] lived,” and “maybe [they] can live other stories too” (172). This promises a new version of “play” that will transpire as the friends grow into adolescence and then adulthood.