Reading as much as I did in my youth, I was bound to have favorites whose titles I would eventually forget. One such book told the story of a girl who looked into a gazing ball and became evil. I thought she had an evil doll named Dido. When the internet finally came along I searched with the keywords “book, doll, dido, gazing ball, evil” but could never find the book I was looking for until one day I found a book called Jane-Emily in which a gazing ball was featured and bought it. It definitely was the book I was looking for, except Dido was not in the book. I searched again, this time just for “book, dido, evil, doll” and found A Candle in Her Room and bought it. Yes, Dido was there and the book, this time, scared the crap out of me. Jane-Emily was not scary at all in comparison.
I bought a gazing ball for my garden around the time I was searching for this book/these books but not a doll named Dido (although the searching introduced me to Dido’s music).
Ooooh, I must add A Candle in Her Room to my “to read before I die” list.
Isn’t it weird how our memories convince us of something, only to find out later we were wrong? I’m glad you found both these books. I’ve never really been into horror as a genre, so I doubt I will read the books.
I do find those mixed-up memories fascinating…
Both of those look creepy as hell!
Ah, the Yearling books!