Title: The Dummy
Author: Jonny Ward
Release date: February 1st, 2026
*Thanks to Jonny for a digital ARC of this one!*
Recently, I received a DM on IG from Jonny, asking about the potential of me reviewing his upcoming, debut novella. As scheduling would have it, he messaged at a perfect time where I’d managed to whittle away at a few pending books for review and figured I could easily slot this one in throughout January and have it done prior to release date. But after DNFing a novel, I jumped into this one and ripped through it.
Based on the cover alone, I was expecting a fairly straight-forward story about a man finding a ventriloquist dummy and from there odd things happen and its possessed etc. etc. You know, Night of the Living Dummy, but more extreme, less kid friendly. I wasn’t expecting Ward to start off in that vein, but to quickly ramp things up sideways and bring in elements of psychological turmoil and cosmic horror.
What I liked: We’re introduced right off the bat to our main character, Walter. He works hard, enjoys his down time and is head over heels in love with his girlfriend, Lauren. He lives in a modest apartment and the two of them enjoy watching movies and doing dirty deeds to each other when she’s in town, as she travels extensively for her work.
On this particular day, Walter finds a discarded ventriloquist dummy on his way home and decides to bring it with him, having always wanted one. From there, Ward weaves a tale of discomfort and extremities. Walter finds himself entranced with the dummy, even as Lauren hates it and tells him to get rid of it. After a few odd sleep walking moments, Walter finds himself missing time and is unsure about what’s happening during those blackout spells. On top of that, he falls and hits his head right before Lauren heads out of town again.
It’s this moment where things really go off the rails. The dummy’s trance on Walter explodes and Ward gleefully exploits Walter’s psychological breakdown for the readers benefit. Walter becomes manic and essentially insane, seeing what this cosmic entity wants him to see for its own benefit while using Walter as its own ventriloquist doll.
The ending arrives with a buckets-of-blood finale, Ward deftly bringing the story to an end while leaving the door open for further exploration of things.
What I didn’t like: Really, the only thing that didn’t fully work for me was a character popping up throughout – mysteriously – who gets a reveal at the end, though casual readers won’t recognize the name nor will it be a huge revelation. We don’t find out who that character is until the afterword, where we find out it’s actually a character from another author, and they appear in that author’s series of books. I have the first three books of that series, but haven’t managed to read any of them yet, so it’s both an odd choice to hinge this revelation on a character from somebody else, but also just an odd thing to include a character from somebody else. Though it’s a nice reflection of respect and Jonny shares how that author inspired them, it didn’t add to the ‘Tah-dah!’ moment at the end that I think was supposed to be there.
Why you should buy this: This was a very solid, engaging debut novella that took a familiar trope and turned it on its head. Whether the ‘haunted dummy’ idea works for you or not, it won’t matter here, as Ward twists it and runs off into the tentacled/cosmic horror realm really nicely and does so with a huge smile on his face.
This was a lot of fun and definitely makes me eager to see what Ward does next.
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