WOW! If this isn't a book to brag about I don't know what is... I started it late last night. Never did I anticipate I would be closing the book at 1am left in complete shock... This book was insane! In a good way of course…..

𝐇𝐞𝐲, 𝐙𝐨𝐞𝐲 | 𝐒𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐡 𝐂𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐬𝐚𝐧
★★★.25

𝐒𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐬𝐲𝐧𝐨𝐩𝐬𝐢𝐬
Dolores and David’s marriage implodes when Dolores finds an AI sex doll in their garage. When Dolores moves ‘Zoey’ into the house, she begins to see a parallel between their two lives and ruminates on her childhood memories.

𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐟𝐚𝐧𝐬 𝐨𝐟
⟡ Literary contemporary fic
⟡ Interesting thematic explorations
⟡ Childhood trauma (in novels)

𝐋𝐢𝐤𝐞𝐝
I’ve seen a few reviews that say that Zoey should have been eliminated from the plot but I completely disagree! I liked the way the MC explored their artificial connection: the benefits, the disadvantages, the symbolic (and sexual) relationship artificial intelligence has with men, and the acknowledgement of parallels with Dolores’s life, particularly with her childhood as she suffers and does nothing to stop the suffering.

The premise grabbed my attention, but the thematic exploration remains the most interesting aspect of this novel as it explores: connection, social norms and what happens when you cannot meet them, feminism on a subtle scale, complex family dynamics and loneliness. Abuse does feature but it takes a more implied role rather than being explicitly described.

I also liked how this book was so bleak and yet so darkly humorous. There were a few moments when I laughed out loud. I sincerely enjoyed the writing style and think this is such an intelligent and searingly insightful book. This book will resonate well with those who keep calm and carry on, but only because they don’t know what else to do.

𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞𝐝
My consistent issue with literary fiction is that the character arcs are very rarely satisfying for me. I hate for an entire novel to build with such impact, using powerful messages and poignant awareness to lead to… nothing. It makes me feel so hollow. Even then, it’s very nuanced and subtle in its exploration, showing bite sized pieces that make the story seem fast but also more shallow than I’d have liked.

Also, some reviews said that Zoey could have been written out of the book and the story would have stayed the same. I argue that David could have been eliminated and this book would have stayed the same. For me, he added nothing of value as there was no connection there to begin with.

𝐅𝐚𝐯𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐪𝐮𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐬
“𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘢𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘮𝘴, 𝘩𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘥𝘪𝘧𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘵, 𝘥𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭.”

“𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘐 𝘸𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘥 𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘴𝘯’𝘵 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘨. 𝘉𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘳𝘦, 𝘯𝘰 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘺𝘰���.”

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

𝐒𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐚𝐫 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐬
Although thematically different, this reminds me of Sorrow and Bliss with its appraisal of the past, bleak tone, and dark humour.

In “Hey Zoe”, Sarah Crossan depicts one woman’s reaction to discovering her husband has a “companion doll” stashed in their garage. Zoe cost £8000, has orifices carefully designed not to tear, and uses AI technology to have conversations. She never says no to sex.

Using small pieces of flash fiction, Crossan moves around the timeline of Delore’s life, and leaves the reader to piece together why she reacts to Zoe the way she does. As is always the case with Crossan, the writing is pacy and carefully crafted and in a few words gets to the heart of the emotion. At times this isn’t an easy read, and there’s an edge of darkness in all of Delores interactions, but it is a brilliant novel for getting inside the head of someone else for a while

I wanted so much more from this book! I had seen everyone talking about it online and jumped at the chance to read it, but I was left disappointed. Zoey herself isn’t an important character at all, despite the premise. Dolores, the main character, is insufferable but not in an interesting or well written way. The other side characters are flat and the entire plot felt pointless. I was hoping for an interesting exploration between AI and humanity, but this barely scratched the surface.

A darkly humoured page turner. Dolores as a character was very fleshed out, excellent descriptions of being a child raised by Irish emigrants in Britain.

Dolores finds a doll hidden in the garage of the home she shares with her anesthesiologist husband David, and not just any doll, Zoey is an animatronic sex doll. Dolores is shocked at first then comes to feel a sort of connection with Zoey as her marriage falls apart.

A tender novel about human connection and the lack there of.

I am big fan of Sarah Crossan's YA novels, so I was very pleased to receive an ARC copy of 'Hey, Zooey'. On the surface, Dolores seems to have it all - she has a successful teaching career, she's married to David, and they have all the trappings of a middle-class life. But her job as a Head in a secondary school is taking its toll, and her relationship with David has become distant. One day, Dolores finds Zoey, an AI doll, in their garage. She assumes Zoey is the reason for the distance in their relationship as she confronts David with her discovery ... At times heartbreaking and funny at others, an interesting take on love and relationships in the 21st Century.

I found 'Hey, Zoey' to be an okay read. The plot description is not quite reflective of the actual plot, I found the real plot to be more believable and emotional than I thought it was going to be. As always with Crossan's books, I found this thought provoking, this centres around AI and there was a lot to get stuck into and think about. There are some disturbing scenes whilst reading this too so be prepared.
The characters are okay, I did not find them particularly likeable but there was something about them that kept my interest.
Everything about this was okay, I just did not find this to be an enthralling read.
Thank you to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for an advance copy.

I have loved Sarah Crossan's writing in the past, but unfortunately this one just wasn't for me. As always, the line level prose is absolutely beautiful, but something about the way the book is written felt like it was holding me at arms length - I could never quite connect with the characters, especially Dolores, and this made it quite hard to feel empathy for the decisions she makes. It also felt a little disjointed, like it was trying to be too many things at once. I'll definitely still read anything Sarah Crossan writes, but this particular book sadly didn't live up to my expectations.

Hey, Zoey by Sarah Crossan caught my eye for two reasons. The first is that I was totally bowled over by a previous book I read by Sarah Crossan, Here is the Beehive and the second is that the theme of Hey, Zoey is unlike anything I’ve read before. Dolores finds her world turned upside down when she discovers that her husband has secretly purchased an AI sex doll…

Yes, Zoey is the name of the sex doll and Dolores is the 43-year-old woman whose husband purchased her. When David moves out and leaves Zoey, Dolores finds herself forming an unlikely friendship with her. This is such an interesting story-angle. Aside from being built with ample breasts and, um, holes, Zoey’s AI brain answers questions, never argues and is a constant non-judgmental companion. You can see her appeal as a friend, right?

Dolores is such a well-drawn character that I just felt for from page one. Zoey has made her think about how she communicates and sparks conversations between herself and David that wouldn’t have otherwise happened.

She’s a school-teacher, so dealing with the pressures of that role, her mum’s dementia, her relationship with her sister Jacinta and secrets from the past that can’t stay buried anymore.

Beautifully written with poetic prose, intriguing structure, little asides and often causticly funny, I loved going on Dolores’ thought-process with her as she tries to understand what such a random act of betrayal means for her. Hey, Zoey is a truly unique read (and what a cover!) that really emotionally connected, loved it.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC. This has not influenced my review.

My summary of what happened in this book: Sarah Crossan reached inside of me with cold hands, gently jimmied my heart from it's rightful place, and before I really knew what was happening, threw it on the floor, stamped on it, then lovingly gave it back to me. In a good way, of course.

I found this book really compulsively unsettling from the start and did not know what to make of Dolores at all. I found her to be a very convincing and readable character. I found the author's take on the situations Dolores had been in to be breathtakingly nuanced.

Beautiful prose and a book that will stay with me.

I have a lot of mixed feelings about Hey, Zoe. On one side I thought this was a brilliant book in its own genre, but on the other it did not meet the expectations.

The premise of this book is that Dolores finds an animatronic sex doll hidden in the garage and her marriage eventually ends because of it. This is also in the Computer and Science category (even though it’s also in General Fiction (Adult) and Women's Fiction). So I was expecting said doll to have a lit bit more influence over the story and to go deeper into the themes. There were a couple of moments in the book, specially as the communication between Dolores and Zoe developed, that made me hope for the topic of AI and sex robot topics to be more developed, but it was never fully explored.

As it was, this was a very sad story of a marriage falling apart and a woman who comes to terms with her traumatic past, layer by layer. It’s a book about trauma, coping mechanisms and human relationships. Turns out, the sex doll was not the problem at all but a catalyst for everything that happened next.

This was a rollercoaster of emotions, a loaded story that tells so much between the lines, but I honestly think that it was advertised correctly and, because of that, it’s probably going to receive a bad rating.

Thank you so much to Bloomsbury Publishing and NetGallery for providing me this ARC.

Dolores works in a comprehensive and David is anaesthethist. They have a nice house and good friends. They’re also in a bit of rut. Said rut becomes a rift, when Dolores discovers her husband's animatronic sex doll Zoey bagged up in the garage.

It’s an ingenious idea and one that has massive potential. Sadly, it isn’t explored to the full extent of that. The discovery of Zoey leads Dolores to re-evaluate her relationship (conclusion: not that great in the first place), plus the other aspects of her life (a sister with a burgeoning career in the New York art scene/in a mental health crisis/ a mother with dementia). The creepiest parts of the book is where Zoey becomes a BFF. But again, the novel’s tone seems conversational, where it should be confrontational, seeming content to hint at things where it could and should have explored them further (IE Dolores considering taking her relationship with Zoey to a different level).

It’s a high concept novel, in a year full of them. Another fault is the novel seems glossy, yet unfinished. And at 163 pages, some may admire the gloss, but others may feel as if playtime has ended prematurely. It’s published by Bloomsbury on 23rd May and I thank them for a preview copy.

The blurb stood out to me and I instantly knew I wanted to read this. I thought it would be more AI based and we’d see more of Zoey, but that isn’t what the story was. I had to stop reading at 33% as this was not the story I thought I was going to read.

Dolores and David's marriage takes an unexpected turn when Dolores discovers her husband’s £10,000 animatronic sex doll in the garage - her name is Zoey.
David leaves the marital home and Dolores, initially shocked and embarrassed, becomes fascinated by and forms an unusual bond with Zoey.
Despite the title, the focus of the book is Dolores' life, her personal struggles, past traumas and her interactions with Zoey rather than Zoey as a persona.
Hey, Zoey is the first book that I have read by the author, and I found it to be an engaging and enjoyable read.

Dolores and David have been married for a while when she finds Zoey in the garage. Zoey is an animatronic sex doll and she puts more strain on a marriage that is already struggling. Dolores then forms an unusual bond with the doll. I loved the concept of this book but I just didn't enjoy it. It's a quick read but I couldn't get into it at all.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for providing me this eARC to review.

I’ve read Sarah Crossan’s work before, really enjoying it but this one just didn’t grip me as much as her previous work. I was excited about the premise of the book but even though the book was titled “hey, Zoey” Zoey was barely in it. I wish there was more of her and the interaction with AI. Instead we had a very sad story of a marriage falling apart and a traumatic past. The story itself wasn’t bad at all and I’m use to how Sarah writes so the jumping around in scenes and past/present didn’t phase me. I just feel like I was expecting more, which could just be my expectations of what the story was going to be wasn’t achieved. Overall, I wouldn’t read this one again but I will always recommend Sarah’s work.

"Hey, Zoey" by Sarah Crossan is like stumbling upon a hidden treasure chest of emotions. Picture this: Dolores finds an unexpected guest in her garage – an animatronic sex doll named Zoey. At first, Dolores shrugs it off, thinking it's her husband's secret. But then, conversations spark, revealing layers deeper than Dolores ever imagined. Crossan's novel isn't just provocative; it's a rollercoaster ride of emotions, exploring modern connections and the unexpected twists of love. With wit and tenderness, "Hey, Zoey" keeps you hooked till the very end, leaving you pondering the intricacies of human relationships long after you've turned the last page.

I read this in one sitting, it was really gripping, raw, page turner, good pace and good characterisation. It really focuses on Dolores past and present, which I didn’t enjoy as much as there was no clear separation between memory and present time, so often I felt confused. But I still enjoyed it Sarah’s first Adult novel and she certainly didn’t disappoint.

Going by the title, I was exoecting Zoey to be really on this book and in a different way than it actually. It really focuses on Dolores past and present than anything else and those time jumps drove me mad as there were no clear separation between one memory and curre t events. The concept of the story sounded different but I found it a bit weird and didn't really gel with me. It is ao different from previous books I read by Sarah.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC to review!

3 stars!!

Honestly, with house the premise is written and how this went from the start to midway I was going to give this a lower rating. I was expecting to see more of Dolores and Zoey interact. I was ready to see what things Zoey knew and how heir relationship would build or go from Dolores finding her. Zoey isn’t really in the book like I expected from the summary. It’s more of a look into Dolores‘ life both past and present. The time jumps can get confusing as there’s no indication with headings, chapters, etc to show where we are other than finding out as you read.

The more I read this, the more I started to like it despite the disappointment of my expectations. I liked Dolores as a character and seeing what she went through, and how she lives really did make me feel for her.

Quite surprised how much I did like this given how I felt during the start and middle.