Hey Zoey was a bit of a slow burn for me. At first I felt disconnected from Dolores, and unmoved by the story. But then, when her husband David asks her 'what makes you who you are?' the story took a different direction and it all made sense.

It made sense why finding Zoey, an AI companion doll, would have such an impact on Dolores. Learning about her past, watching her present unravel and letting her demons out into the open, gave this dark and heavy story a sense of resolution and hope.

A quick but intense read.

This book was nothing like I've read before. It was so unsettling, uncomfortable and raw. I like the main concept as due to times we're in it seems to be not so distant future.

I really enjoyed this adult fiction from Sarah Crossan. Having read a number of her YA fiction, Hey Zoey did not disappoint. A deep, dark look at human connection. I’m looking forward to reading more of Crossan’s work.

This book is one I think of as a ‘quiet book’. There are no explosions (either emotional or physical), no hugely shocking jolt, no ‘big bad’. Instead the writing is quiet, introspective, we as the reader are already sort of aware of the emotional revelations before they arrive. That makes this book strangely addictive to read, it immerses you in Dolores life as you go on her journey of realisations together.

Dolores was an interesting character, she felt very real, nothing about her story felt like it couldn’t be the life of someone you pass on the street. She struggled to emotionally connect with – well everything – herself, her husband, people she worked with, the person she perhaps seemed closet to were her sister and her step-brother – but even with them her overwhelming desire seemed to be to be left alone, to make herself as small as possible whilst still hoping for a connection with someone. Her real point of connection was when she started talking to Zoey – Zoey allowed Dolores to be herself without worry of being judged.

As the book unfolds we get snapshot back into Dolores childhood alongside her current timeline which start to build a picture for the reader of why Dolores is who she is but are also reflective of the parts of herself that Dolores brings into view as she is forced to – for the first time – work out what she wants for herself.

This book kept me gripped and I really felt for Dolores, she made me feel sad but I’m very glad I spent time in her company.

Hey Zoey is a love triangle on its most basic level, but with a twist: the other woman is an AI-enabled doll, fully customisable, right down to every aspect of her personality.

Our main character, teacher Dolores, finds her in the garage, tucked into a bag. After much deliberation, she confronts David, her anaesthetist husband, who simply says, “Her name is Zoey.” and moves out.

At first, reasonably so, Dolores is raging - why has her husband resorted to using, for want of better words, an animatronic sex doll?

But as time goes by, Dolores begins to slot Zoey into various roles, filling some of the gaps in her life: companion, confidante, punch bag. Zoey is a telltale mirror for Dolores: both wife and doll share a quality of passivity, tolerance, and silence to the point of emotional numbness.

Why is Dolores like this? Well, she is a woman with trauma who barely acknowledges that trauma, even to herself and, as a result, is utterly miserable. Even her first-person narration is written in flat, affectless prose, with short sentences that give little away. Dolores is deep in a depressive fugue.

Hey Zoey is written in a ‘jigsaw’ style that takes a bit of getting used to. We get snippets of Dolores's life but with no linearity - we simply gather clues as she takes us along with her everyday life and back into her memories to help form a picture of this damaged woman.

Crossan’s writing is funny, poignant, and thought-provoking, but as much as I loved the concept, it felt overly heavy-handed and drawn out overall. 3.5⭐️

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read Hey Zoe in return for an honest review.

I thought I was going to really enjoy this, having loved Sarah's other books (two of which made my cry) but sadly 'Hey, Zoey' fell a bit flat and didn't reallly captivate me unfortunately. The writing style was a bit weird and I found myself bored and forcing myself to finish reading. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of the book.

I couldn't read this as an ebook for some reason so will get it when it comes out! Sorry! (Leaving a 4 star review to be fair.)

An interesting concept although this was less about A.I than I thought it would be and was more about Delores and her trauma and how the discovery of a sex doll brought this all up.

It was quite an emotional and sad story and I would recommend checking trigger warnings.

It's well written, kept me intrigued but wasn't quite what I thought it would be about.

Hey Zoey
Sara Crossan

I love Sara’s writing and was delighted to receive an arc of this from NetGalley. Sadly, whilst I did enjoy it , it wasn’t my favourite of hers.
I found some parts very moving and others very funny but ultimately it just wasn’t as good as I hoped. Maybe it was down to the subject matter., I don’t know, .it just didn’t work for me. However I hugely admire Sara’s. ambition and willing to go places others would’nt. Will definitely look out for that she does next.

Hey, Zoey by Sarah Crossan is an adult novel that was published earlier this year. Having read and enjoyed some of Sarah's YA books, I was really excited for this.

"We are replaceable. All of us. And not simply by other people. By things too, like alcohol and drugs and fibre optic broadband."

Dolores, 43, has been married to David for 15 years. In that time, they've gradually grown apart. Dolores focuses on her job and her family, and doesn't really concern herself with what David's up to - until she finds an incredibly advanced, expensive sex doll in the garage.

The blurb for this one on Netgalley said this: "But then Dolores and the doll, Zoey, start to talk. What surfaces runs deeper than Dolores could have ever expected, with consequences for all of the relationships in her life."

Unfortunately, I feel like this was really misleading. I expected something akin to a Black Mirror-style story, wherein the scorned wife and AI sex doll communicated to take a man down - and I'd read the hell out of that story - but that's not at all what this was. Zoey didn't provide any great revelation, and the bulk of the book was about Dolores' traumatic childhood and unhappy marriage.

The writing style is very disjointed, which has worked well for some of this author's other books ("One", for example), but didn't quite fit this story for me.

I'm fully aware that I'm probably the problem here, I went in expecting something very specific and instead was greeted with a very sad, miserable tale of trauma and keeping secrets for horrible men.

There were tiny moments that gave me a glimpse of how great it could have been:

"She'd say, 'Oh yes, he's grand. But he's English', mouthing the word like it was the equivalent of calling him a c*nt".

Unfortunately, this just didn't work for me. I did request and receive it as a #gifted eARC via Netgalley, which I appreciate greatly, but I won't tag the publisher here.

If you like stories about stale marriages or difficult family dynamics, then you might enjoy this more than I did.

CW: Discussion of SA.

I read more than half of the book but unfortunately I couldn’t go any further. It was an interesting plot but not written in a way that grabbed my attention.

What a twisted and deliciously darn novel from Sarah Crossan.

Hey, Zoey is the story of how AI is impacting us all. In this novel Crossan portrays a marriage that falls apart when protagonist Delores finds out her husband is keeping an AI doll. Rather than deal with the obvious difficulties that this would cause in a marriage Delores becomes oddly bonded to the doll.

You would think that this would be dark and twisty enough but nope, this novel has many layers of weirdness. Now, any fans of Crossan knows that she doesn’t shy away from difficult subjects but Hey, Zoey does seem like a massive leap from her other work.

Overall, Hey, Zoey is an enjoyable read.

Hey, Zoey by Sarah Crossan is available now.

Thanks to Bloomsbury Publishing Plc for an ARC of this book.

Overall, I gave Hey, Zoey a 3 star rating. Although I enjoyed the book in parts, until about 60% through I really struggled with the structure of the story. I found it difficult to navigate from what perspective and timeframe different sections of the story were relating to until the book further developed.

I liked the idea behind the story, but thought more could have been done to develop the main characters and include the reasoning behind Zoey in there. It felt a little like Zoey was the reason for a lot happening, but she was under developed and included in the book throughout for not really much of a reason. I felt that a lot could have been done to strengthen her role in the book and to strengthen the story.

I enjoyed the book and would definitely read more by Sarah Crossan in the future but I wouldn't say I loved it enough to recommend.

Hey Zoey is a book that feels like it should be pretty relevant to current times, and the rise in sex/pleasure dolls becoming almost normalised (an aspect I looked into during my masters was the boom in men who own such dolls creating personas and social media profiles taking the dolls out and about). However, I'd say that really the book is not about sex dolls not truly...

The premise of the book is about the revelation Dolores has that the picture perfect marriage is not in fact so with the discovery of her husband David's secret, a doll called Zoey who has apparently been living secretly in her garage for quite some time. The book subsequently tackles why does Zoey exist, the subsequent impact on the relationship between Dolores/Zoey/David and a reflection on trauma faced. An interesting read in regards to the questions the topic itself brings up (sexual abuse).

Thank you Netgalley &Bloomsbury Publishing Plc for the ARC.

Dolly's discovery of her husband's AI sex doll, Zoey, sets off a series of unexpected events. As her husband moves out, Dolly decides to move Zoey into the house, leading to an intriguing bond between them. The narrative is a wild ride, with a writing style that captivated me throughout.

I read Crossan's previous adult title, and although I found the premise really interesting I was a little bored by the story. Not this time! Yes, the premise was intriguing but the story also kept me hooked. A great book club pick! Lots to discuss.

Thanks NetGalley and Bloomsbury publishing for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this one, it is a book about trauma, coping mechanisms and human relationships. It is almost like a stream of conscious and is very character focused rather than plot driven. It was thought provoking an very sad at times, I really felt for Dolores.

I do feel like the AI/technology element that I was expecting to developed was a little lacking, Zoey was more of a trigger for the break down of a relationship rather than the deep dive into the way we interact with AI that I had been anticipating.

This one also has a few triggers so please do check those out before you pick it up.

A very interesting concept executed well by the brilliant Sarah Crossan. However I struggled in some parts with pacing.

A very interesting premise, that I didn't feel was consistently executed well. The pacing felt a bit off for me at times, however the plot itself definitely had potential and was an entertaining read.

I really enjoyed this book, which is written in quite an unusual style in that there are often fragments of thoughts and memories scattered throughout a general narrative of a woman's life.

Dolores is a middle aged woman who discovers that her husband, David, has a sex doll hidden in their garage. When I first read the description of this book, it spoke about Dolores starting to talk to the doll, and I imagined that she would uncover lots of previously unknown detail about her husband's desires and maybe learn more about him. But in fact, what is revealed throughout the course of the book is more about Dolores and her childhood.

Dolores is a very relatable and quite likeable character I think, although from the start we kind of get the sense that she struggles with her sense of self. She seems someone who is maybe moving through life doing what she thinks she should be doing - getting a job and a husband - without any real understanding of what she wants to do with her life. Her relationship with David feels a little superficial and they have certainly drifted apart. But as the book continues, it seems there has been a problem in them connecting and communicating that has deeper roots.

I really enjoyed the 'working class' elements of this book. The descriptions of what life is like (or can be like) in a working class family - the TV on all the time for instance - hit home for me and felt very believable.

Ultimately this is a story of Dolores coming to terms with trauma from her past and developing as a person as a result of that. It's at times very poignant and heartbreaking, but manages to be so in quite an understated, matter-of-fact way. I would definitely recommend it - I read it very quickly as I became engrossed in Dolores' character and the gradual uncovering of her childhood. A really impressive book.