Doctor Who: Frida Kahlo and the Skull Children Book Review

Kicking off the new Icons range of Doctor Who books, Frida Kahlo and the Skull Children see the famous painter meeting the Thirteenth Doctor to stop a threat to the children of Kahlo’s home.

Author Sophie McKenzie wastes no time in getting right into the action and given the book’s short run time, this is probably for the best. But it does leave one with tonal whiplash as there is very little time for us to get to know Frida despite the fact she is eighteen years old and has just suffered an accident that would affect her through the rest of her life.

Aimed at younger readers, but again like Ruby Red, going back to the original outline of the show, to educate people on history, and indeed adults reading it, because I knew nothing about Frida Kahlo despite her name. So in that regard, this novel succeeds. McKenzie also has a good handle on Kahlo as a person and I brought up that she was a well-rounded character, unfortunately suffering from the pain she would be in for the rest of her life but not letting it stop her from doing the right thing.

The Thirteenth Doctor is underused in prose so The Skull Children makes good use of her, even if she spends most of the time in the TARDIS, so little has changed from the television series. But she does come across better than she did in a lot of her television episodes.

The main problem with this novel is the lack of threat. Coming in at 111 pages, it is the same page length as some of the original Target Novels but again, one has to wonder if there are heavier censors on books now, especially ones aimed at younger readers, despite those target novels being full of characters dying.

Doctor Who works better with higher threats and stakes this novel feels like it’s playing it safe and even the threat feels a little surreal as to bring down the danger.

However for fans of Doctor Who novels and history then Frida Kahlo and the Skull Children is a good little read, it’s not going to set the world on fire but it might just introduce you to someone you wouldn’t have been taught about school and in that regard, then it certainly sets out to achieve Doctor Who‘s original remit to educate.