The questions of animacy and reality that hover over childhood are given new thrust in the absurdist writer Jesse Ball’s playdate horror, The History of the Dolls and What They Did. Set within a home nursery, Ball’s short story follows two young girls into a world of clipped agency and brute amusement that mimes the cruelties of our own. Accompanied by spare illustrations, The History of the Dolls is a breathtaking fable of chorality and control with many a perspectival shift. For fans of Suspiria and Shirley Jackson.