Dollface

In this run-of-the-mill slasher from Ryan (Bless Your Heart), horror writer Jill Marshall moves to a suburban neighborhood where a serial killer hunts the PTA. In leafy, well-to-do Brunswick, N.J., Jill stands out. She’s not perky like her neighbor Darla, cutting like local ringleader Maribel, or comfortable swanning around in athleisure like supermom Kellen. She joins the PTA anyway in hopes of fitting in while she procrastinates work on her latest book. Then a killer, disguised in a Barbie-like mask that resembles the face of the woman who previously owned Jill’s home, starts targeting citizens of Brunswick. Readers will have little trouble figuring out what’s going on, but Jill takes a bafflingly long time to ferret out the culprit. Ryan attempts to salvage her well-worn premise with a frenetic prose style (a character applying makeup “rubs oceans around each eye, her fingertips smudging bruisy blue on the stubby pink lipstick cylinder clenched in her fist”), but the effect is more overstimulating than invigorating. This misses the mark. (Feb.)