Laura Lane McNealCritiques

This was such a chill and comforting book. I enjoyed reading about the characters day to day lives. It was heartwarming and humorous, while also not shrinking away from the gritty reality of being black in the South during the 1960s.

If you'd like to be planted in New Orleans (a place I need to visit!) and experience the sights, scents, feel of the 1960's-early 70's, this is the book to read! I loved the ties between the owner of the home, Fannie, her granddaughter, Ibby, and the "help" - Queenie and Dollbaby, who were really brought to life in these pages. Loved their sense of humor, their heart, and the care they had for everyone.

The only thing I didn't like was my initial idea that Frannie was "old" in the first pages, and then to realize she was younger than me! ;) Okay, I'm over that I guess!

Not what I expected, it was much, much better.
You aren’t preached to and forced to learn a lesson, you get a small taste of what life was like in New Orleans in the 60’s, but that isn’t the main point of the story.
This is a funny, tender story about a 12 year old girl dumped at her very eccentric grandmother’s house and what her life was like being raised by said grandmother and her black help.
There are even a few surprises in the book.

I liked this story. I give it 3.5 stars.½

It is 1964 in New Orleans, Ibby Bell's dad has died after a fall. Her mother brings her to her grandmother's, Fannie's, house to live, along with his ashes in an urn. This starts Ibby and Frannie's life together. Queenie, the maid, along with her daughter, Dollbaby take Ibby under their wing. The civil rights act gets signed by LBJ and there is some racial tension in the community, which is portrayed in the novel.
Frannie has seen a lot of tragedy in her life, and her story is told to Ibby by Queenie and Dollbaby. As her story is revealed over the years, Ibby understands Frannie's connection to Queenie, Dollbaby, and well as to others in the town. Ibby learns so much about her grandmother's past and how she touched so many.
A beautifully told story of a tumultuous time in our history.

12-year-old Liberty Bell or Ibby as everyone calls her is send after her father’s death to live with her grandmother Fannie in New Orleans. That Ibby had a grandmother was quite a shock to her because it has always been her and her parents. Her grandmother Fannie lives in an old house with black servants Queenie, Dollbaby, and Crow. This is the 1960’s so segregation is still a part of the everyday lives. Ibby soon realizes that the town treats the blacks way different than the whites. She also get’s to know her grandmother Fannie better. And the years go by and Ibby grows up in the house with Fannie.

As we follow Ibby from 12 till 20 years old we also follow the world around her and all the people in her lives. She grows up in a world of changes, for instance; President Johnson declares The Civil Rights Act. She also gets to know her grandmother Fannie better.

I was a bit confused until the end why the book was called Dollbaby because I thought the book was more about Ibby than Dollbaby. But in the end, everything was explained.

I love to read and watch movies about the 60’s, so much happened during the decade and this book was not an exception. It’s a coming of age story, but it’s also a story about Fannie that we through the book get to know better. And what a woman what a life, she is a real eccentric.

I want to thank the publisher for providing me with a free copy through NetGalley for an honest review!

I don't give many 5 stars out so you know this was special to me.

A great coming of age Southern book set in New Orleans.

I wanted to move in with Ibby (Liberty Bell) who was 12 years old. When she was little she couldn't pronounce her name and she pronounced it IBBY and it stuck. Her mama Vidrine dropped her off to live with her grandmother (paternal) Fannie in 1964 when she decided that she wanted her own life after her husband passed.

Queenie and Doll were Fannie's maids and they were so wonderful to Fannie and Ibby throughout the years. By the time the book was over Ibby was 20 and in college. The friendships she made with Queenie and Doll and Birdelia (Doll's daughter) were so wonderful I wanted to be their friends too.

reviewed from galley (thanks to penguin debut authors club)

It's hard to read a book set in the 1960s South without comparing to The Help, but if I try to be objective I'd say that "gentle" is pretty accurate. I enjoyed it but would not call it a standout.

One of the best books I've read this year. I loved the strong characters and their interactions with each other. It wasn't until the very end of the book that I realized why the book was titled such. I really loved this story.

It's a very rare occurrence that I give a book a five-star rating. But when you close the cover for the last time, feeling as though you are saying goodbye to a friend, you know the book you've just read is a true gem. I know these characters will stay with me for a long while and there are lessons to be learned from the indomitable Miss Fannie and her faithful tribe of amazing women. I would recommend this book to anyone and thought more than once that I truly hope it's optioned for a movie, as McNeal's writing made it so incredibly easy to picture it in my imagination as I read each page. This book deserves to be loved by many.

Cute and enjoyable... This was a cute and pleasurable novel. I knocked off a star because at times it just seemed a little too far fetched for me. It was a pleasurable and interesting read. There were several laugh out loud moments and some touching moments. Fannie was an interesting character and there was a bit of a twist at the end that I was not expecting. However, the ending had me like "Is that it?", which is why I knocked off another half star. Maybe I need to reread the ending.

After her father’s death, Liberty “Ibby” Bell’s mother deposits her on the doorstep of her grandmother, the occasionally crazy Miss Fannie. Dollbaby by Laura Lane McNeal is a story of a few quirky characters living in Civil Rights-era New Orleans. McNeal’s story is filled with eccentric characters, southern charm, and the battle to de-segregate, but it seems like she’s trying to do too much. Too many characters have too many secrets. Too many coincidental tragedies drive the plot until it all starts to collapse under its own weight. A lot of people liked this one a lot, but it wasn’t a big hit for me.½

This engrossing debut novel pulls us into the eccentricities and secrecies of the Bell family living in New Orleans. When Liberty Bell's father is lost to a tragic accident, her mother deposits her on the doorstep of a grandmother she's never met. Ibby's (Liberty's) mother has filled her head with terrible stories about Fannie Bell and life in the south. What she discovers is not the monster that her mother told her about, but an eccentric and deeply emotional woman with a tragic history and demons of her own. As it becomes clear that Ibby's stay is going to be for much longer than a few days, she begins to embrace this strange new world and the characters that inhabit it. Will Ibby finally find a home and a family among her odd, and often absent grandmother, her black cook Queenie, and Queenie's daughter Dollbaby? What secrets will she uncover and will she ever understand this strange family? This novel will sweep you up into a tumultuous and life changing decade as Ibby transforms from an abandoned little girl to a young woman with dreams and plans of her own.

Bettina P. / Marathon County Public Library
Find this book in our library catalog.

not a bad read but I wanted more character development. as central as Frannie was to the story, I never felt like I got to know her well enough. or birdellia or t bone or, really, any of them. what I saw of them though, I liked.

After Ibby's father dies, her mom unceremoniously leaves her with her paternal grandmother, Fanny, in her large New Orleans home. Fanny is attended by African-American maids Queenie and her daughter Dollbaby. This wonderful cast of characters comes together around Fanny, who is emotionally fragile. It takes the book to find out why, and it's a wonderful story. The 1960s in New Orleans is a time of difficult change, as the Civil Rights Act is implemented and people see the possibilities of their lives differently.

I loved the characters, and the uniqueness of each of their voices. The novel was paced a bit slow in places, but for the most part the story kept me interested and kept moving. Not everything seemed realistic to me, but that didn't really impact my enjoyment. (Although why do people in novels seem to always have piles of money?) Good read, enjoyable and detailed -- love the depiction of the details of 1960s New Orleans life.

An rich and atmospheric tale of a young girl left to live with her grandmother in 1960s New Orleans. Ibby struggles to understand the strictly stratified world she has entered, in which black and white people are kept separate, but the black servants in her grandmother's house also behave as much like family as servants. I really enjoyed this book and appreciated how well it invoked the atmosphere and culture of New Orleans, but also how it portrayed both black and white characters with a range of personalities and motivations.

I enjoyed the story and atmosphere immensely. I love stories that take place in big, old houses with lots of mysteries and family secrets. I would have given it five stars, except for some odd uses of language and ideas that did not ring true to the time period and pulled me out of the story. For example, two boys playing in the 1940s called each other "retards," which I have never heard used as a derogatory term until the last ten years or so.

Dollbaby by Laura Lane McNeal is a recommended family saga - maybe highly recommended, at least what I read, but more on that later.

Liberty Bell, known as Ibby, was unceremoniously dropped off at her grandmother Fannie's house in New Orleans, along with the urn containing her father's ashes, by her mother just a couple weeks after her father died. Having grown up in Olympia, Washington, Ibby is new to the ways of the South. Fannies cook, Queenie, her daughter, Babydoll, are there to help Ibby negotiate her way with her grandmother, who just wants to be called Fannie, as well as Southern society during some years when big transitions are happening.

The novel opens in 1964 and then proceeds to the 70's. Obviously these were turbulent times in the country, but especially the South. Fannie has secrets she is hiding too about which Ibby hears hints and insinuations.

From what I read this is a well written novel that does an excellent job establishing character development and the setting. I was enjoying it immensely when my advanced digital reading copy, provided courtesy of the Penguin First to Read Program, expired today, July 3. I was planning to finish the book and post the review today. I understand that Penguin wanted reviews done in a timely manner, but this "by July third" apparently meant before July third because that was when your digital copy would no longer be available. It's difficult to give an accurate rating on a book that I haven't read the ending of due to the publisher's ill-conceived rule.

Just days after her father's unexpected death, Ibby Bell is dropped off on her estranged grandmother's doorstep with nothing but the urn that holds her father's ashes. Nobody knows when, or if, her mother will return. At Fannie's house, Ibby is thrust into an entirely new world. Until then, she'd grown up in Olympia, Washington. Now she lives in New Orleans. She'd never lived anywhere with a maid, or a cook, or anything, but Fannie has several people who help her out. As Ibby adjusts to her new life, she also finds out that her family has kept many secrets hidden throughout the years.

I really enjoyed Dollbaby, and it's hard to pinpoint why I didn't want to give it a higher rating. The characters are well-developed, and all of them have distinct voices. Queenie and Dollbaby are clearly the backbone of Fannie's household, and I enjoyed their backstories and side plots. There were a few twists throughout, and I did see all of them coming, but that didn't ruin it at all for me. I enjoyed learning the details along with Ibby.

The thing that I probably disliked the most is that the book felt almost like a movie script. I felt like there were some awkward transitions that would have done well with a "fade to black" kind of movie transition. At times, especially when Doll and Queenie were telling Ibby about her grandmother's past, it felt like the stories should be in that kind of fuzzy, weirdly lit effect that movies so often do. It would have helped to better differentiate, because the story jumps at random from a present day conversation to a story, several pages long, about something that happened twenty or forty years ago. It's not necessarily bad, and of course in the final version may be differentiated a little better, but it took some getting used to. (I also have to admit that I wondered how Doll and Queenie knew so many details about how Fannie was feeling and what she was thinking when she made certain choices. Maybe I wasn't supposed to feel like they were telling the story. Maybe it was just supposed to be a flashback.)

In the end, I can safely give Dollbaby 3.5/5 stars. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the free copy.

Dollbaby by Laura Lane McNeal starts with the amazing journey through the life of Ibby who moves in with her grandmother after the death of her father and being abandoned by her mother. More importantly, Dollbaby is the story of the women who touch Izzy’s life and their own personal journeys.

The character development was remarkable and I came to love these women, Ibby; her grandmother Fannie; and Fannie’s two maids, Queenie and Dollbaby. These women could not be any different than they are, yet, they love one another in a profound way.

Fannie suffers from moments of dark depression, and it is the cause of that depression that slowly unfolds. While secrets are uncovered, we see how each woman has played different, but equally important roles in harboring the truth. I love how their individual stories are so intermingled with one another.

The entire story takes place in civil rights era, New Orleans, adding real life drama to the story and with the woman spanning three generations, we get genuine insight to how the movement effected everyone so very differently.

It was the ending…that final secret uncovered, that really made this beautiful story worth reading. I was shocked at the ending, full of emotion and so glad that I was fortunate enough to have read Dollbaby. This is the rare book that I would wholeheartedly consider reading again.

I liked this book a lot. It was set in New Orleans (which was beautifully described) from 1964-1972. I'd read comparisons to The Help and although Dollbaby and Queenie were maids there was little else to compare. I'm torn between feeling like the civil rights movement didn't touch the characters enough to being thankful that it didn't have a Forrest Gump/The Butler quality of putting someone in every historic event!

An interesting look at what family means in the midst of the civil rights movement in New Orleans.

The 1960's, New Orleans, a matriarch, a girl without a daddy, housekeepers, families, and secrets.

Ibby was moved to her grandmother's home after her father passed away so her mother could have some time to herself. Ibby had never seen her grandmother before nor had she known about her until a week before this move. Ibby was frightened especially since she heard stories about her strict grandmother from her mother.

Ibby met Queenie and Doll before meeting her grandmother. Queenie and Doll are the staff in Grandmother Fannie's house. They are very loving and caring and huddle around Ibby and take good care of her when Fannie can’t.

The characters in DOLLBABY were ones I fell in love with along with Ibby, whose real name was Liberty Bell. Ibby was an understandably sad young lady for a twelve-year old with a heartbreaking story.

Queenie and Doll were warmhearted, Fannie was rough on the outside but loving on the inside with a past that was kept secret as well as a few other secrets that made the ending superb. Birdelia was sweet even though she was kept out of sight most of the time and had a story of her own. Well…just about every character had a story that was kept under wraps.

If you love Southern fiction with a Gone-With-The-Wind feeling, you will love DOLLBABY. We the reader follow Fannie, Ibby, Queenie, Doll, and Birdelia in their day-to-day activities during the time of The Civil Rights Movement.

DOLLBABY is an engaging, beautiful debut novel with amazing description, terrific, authentic characters, and a true-to-life storyline. The cover itself will pull you in and will keep you reading.

Historical fiction fans and fans of family sagas will not want to put DOLLBABY down and will miss the characters when the book ends. The ending was filled with revelations and proves family is everything even though they might have secrets.

Add DOLLBABY to your reading list this summer. I know you will love it too. It is going to be a favorite read for this year. The characters are what made DOLLBABY special.

I truly enjoyed this book. I hope you can read it too. 5/5

This book was given to me free of charge and without compensation by the publisher in return for an honest review.

great story!

Dollbaby by Laura Lane McNeil is a 2014 Viking Adult publication.

This highly praised novel has oft been compared to “The Help”, and to a lesser extent “The Secret Life of Bees”. However, I would advise you to avoid going into this book with that type of preconceived notion. This book is nothing at all like “The Help” with the exception of it being set in the south in the 1960's, and featuring strong black women, but the similarity ends there.

When Liberty's ( Ibby) father dies suddenly, her mother abruptly drops her off at her paternal grandmothers' home without Ibby ever having met the woman, and with no indication when her mother might return for her.

Fannie is nothing like Ibby thought she would be, and with Queenie and Dollbaby on hand, Ibby settles into a new life in New Orleans with these three special women who raise her into adulthood, while Ibby slowly unlocks the dark family secrets Fannie has hidden in the old house for all these years.

The hot, humid backdrop of New Orleans in the sixties where race tensions were high provided a
uneasy backdrop to this engrossing coming of age story. Queenie and Dollbaby are the real caretakers of Ibby, although Fannie makes most of the big decisions about her granddaughter's future, such as attending a prestigious Catholic school, despite the fact they weren't Catholic, as an example.

Queenie and Dollbaby know most of Fannie's secrets and moods, and slowly reveal them to Ibby until she finally has clearer picture of who Fannie is and what is at the root of her instability. You will most likely begin to piece together the truth about Ibby's family as time passes on, but ultimately this is a story of friendship, love, and family.

The writing could have been a lot more cohesive and the outline needed some work. However, at the core, the story is solid, it just lacks a smoothness to it, and could use a little more shine and polish. However, the story itself overrode any writing issues. I had some mixed emotions about some parts of the story, but the south had it's own way of handling things back in the day and Fannie and Queenie, especially Queenie, took an unorthodox approach in what was most certainly a no win situation. I still wondered at some of the ramifications of Fannie's story, but can't really dissect it in this review without giving too much away.

I think the story is though provoking, atmospheric, sad, yet ultimately the truth, as harsh as may have been, really showed that love transcends all manner of obstacles, especially with family. Forgiveness, acceptance, and peace often comes at a high price and all the women in the story made sacrifices in order to do what they felt was right or for the best. We may not agree with all their choices, but I did find them to be strong and inspirational, in the face of much tragedy and difficult times.

Overall, I still feel somewhat conflicted by this book, but any story that keeps me thinking about it long after I have turned the last page, means it left an impression. I have struggled with how I wanted to rate the book, especially with some of the writing issues I mentioned, but I think the story is about average- so this one gets 4 stars.