A Council of Dolls

Content Warning: This section of the guide contains discussion of death, graphic violence, child death, pregnancy loss, child abuse, racism, physical abuse, and emotional abuse.

Sissy chose the name “Jesse” for herself when she was 14. Sharing the name Lillian with her mother, who was always the dominant force in the house, made her feel like a shadow, so in high school, she opted to change her name to Jesse Holy Thunder. She liked that the name could belong to a woman or man, as she thought it would help ensure she’d be taken seriously as a writer in the future. 

Now in her fifties, Jesse is a fiction author living in St. Paul, Minnesota. She’s searching for a rare novel on eBay when she sees a book about dolls. The cover photo of a Tiny Thumbelina doll, mass-produced in the 1960s, reminds her of Ethel, her own Tiny Thumbelina doll. When she first left Chicago to attend Harvard, she packed Ethel in a trunk that she hasn’t reopened until now. The inside of the trunk smells inexplicably of Chanel No. 5, her mother’s signature scent. Jesse remembers Ethel used to talk to her when she was a child but went quiet when she was about 11 and earned a scholarship to a private school.