The Family Dolls

Novelist Reed (A Still Small Voice) and artist Choi (American Widow) toy with historical horror by turning the Manson Family into paper dolls. Because “everyone in Charlie’s group liked to dress up and play make believe,” readers are encouraged to cut out, color, and pretend. Outfits and accessories include the dress Squeaky Fromme wore to shoot Gerald Ford, Manson’s “ceremonial vest” made of beads and human hair, and the sword cultist Bobby Beausoleil used to kill a man. Reed fills the spaces between Choi’s illustrations with a free-form history of the Family, up to the Tate-LaBianca murders, interspersed with synchronous events in news, politics, and counterculture. The cumulative effect is of cultural chaos in a divisive and disillusioned America, an environment in which the group mutated from commune to cult. The art becomes progressively more chaotic as well, offering disconnected body parts and absurdist period items like LSD blotter paper printed with the face of Henry Kissinger. The project sometimes tries too hard to tease significance from senseless violence: “The dolls can reflect themselves or each other—or they can reflect you,” Reed glibly explains alongside drawings of mirrors. But at its best, the offbeat format allows readers to consider the famous true crime story from new perspectives. [em](July) [/em]