The Doll Who Ate His Mother by Ramsey Campbell

Book title : The Doll Who Ate his Mother
Author : Ramsey Campbell
Publisher : Headline Book Publishingb PLC
Date published : 1993      Number of pages: 290
Genre : Horror      Book code         : CAM/PBI/NV/0879

The stand out characters of the novel are Clare Frayn, a school teacher whose life takes a turn for the worst when her brother is killed in a car crash whilst she is at the wheel. Edmund Hall, a real asshole of a crime writer, who thinks the man seen running from her accident was Christopher Kelly, with whom he'd gone to boys' school. Then, Chris Barrow, a young actor as the terrifying pieces of the puzzle interlocks.
The story I like most from this novel is when they attempted to hunt for Christopher Kelly. Before anyone can find Kelly though, they need to find his grandmother, because she is the only person who might know where he is. When they eventually do find Mrs Kelly, however, she has a very strange tale to tell about her grandson's parentage and his connection to an evil man, who practiced black magic and used dolls to control people. This part is really interesting because it was the part when the horror begins.
The part that is confusing me is how come Kelly became an actor, while he was the real suspect of all the horror. He was the one who was said as a monster in this story but why suddenly he emerged as an actor who claimed that he believes the person Edmund is looking for killed and snacked on his cat. I don’t understand this part.
I dislike the part is the end of the story when finally they knew that Chris Barrow was Kelly. They tried to catch him but he fallen into the mud, until finally he died. What I know it was a horror story, but why the ending must be finished by something that seems just an accident. I think the ending doesn’t quite live up to its promise.
In Indonesia, such a kind of witch practice is still believed by its people. It is best-known as “santet” which the witch uses a doll to take over his victims. It was also what the witch-doctor, an English man, used to have control over his victims.
If I were the author I would change the part when Edmund show his ambition to write about Kelly’s story. This part shows that Edmund Hall is not a nice man. He is a manipulator and is willing to use anyone to what he wants. I would make Edmund become protagonist character. All he does is because he just wants to help the victims and end all these horror events. I think it will make his role in this novel much more well thought of by the readers.
The largest issue of this novel is about the black magic. It raises the story about a mother who promised her child to the devil before it was even born. It was because he believes to the witch-doctor who had a power over his victims using the doll.
The lesson I got from this story is never try to believe in such a kind of black magic. Because once you try to believe, you will have to take risk of something bad. It was what caused the sufferings in this story. Kelly’s mother turned to the witch-man to solve her problem, but, in return, it only made her more suffered.