A review by fleeno
Hey, Zoey by Sarah Crossan

4.0

Dolores likes her marriage. It's quiet, orderly, and simple. Then one day she finds a robot sex doll (Zoey) in the garage which elicits a rare emotional response in Delores. When she confronts her husband David he responds by moving out. Outraged and confused, Dolores begins talking to Zoey to see what that attraction is. A blank slate, Zoey soon fits into various roles in Dolores life, friend, confidante, punching bag and finally a mirror, Dolores realising they share the same qualities of passivity, of tolerance, of silence. Through the banal conversations and silence we hear Dolores’s efforts to keep the secret she has so painfully repressed all these years. 

I thought this book may be a similar to Annie Bot (one of My favourite reads from last year), but as David continually says, this isn't about the doll. As Dolores reflects on her marriage and her mother's relationships, she is forced to confront her past and the faults her marriage she had ignored. I was expecting the story to revolve around Zoey and that she may hold answers, but she is a blank slate, an inanimate object. The story is far more introspective and deals with far more trauma than expected. The writing style has short, punchy sentences and paragraphs, making it a fast read. This is a novel that is reflective and shows, rather than tells a story, the space between the words and paragraphs reflective of the space and emptiness is Dolores and Davis relationship. I enjoyed this novel even though it was not quite what I expected.