Are You Awake? by Sarah Crossan - Review

I realised there was a Sarah Crossan book that I hadn't read so I requested it at the library. It's six weeks since I read it now so I'm struggling to remember the names of the people in the book. Let me go google... 

Ah, yes. This book is for adults, definitely, so be careful if your children know Sarah Crossan from her YA books and want to pick this up. I've read another of Sarah's adult books and think I've read everything she's written actually! The other adult book was told in verse like her YA books are. This one is told in sort of vignettes, so it's not a full novel but the way of writing worked really well for the subject matter. It gives a really compelling look into the mind of Dolores, the main character.

She is a secondary school teacher and she's married to David. He's some kind of corporate something, I don't remember. One morning Dolores discovers a sex doll hidden in a bag in the garage. She's a lifelike full size doll called Zoey. In fact, the book was previously published under the name Hey Zoey, because that's what Dolores keeps saying to activate her. Finding her throws up a lot in Dolores' and David's marriage. She asks him to leave but then she unpacks Zoey herself and ends up opening up to the doll in ways she's never been able to with David.

The two of them met at university and I feel like Dolores engineered a lot of their relationship to ensure that they ended up together. Like David just isn't that forthcoming as a person. Dolores is traumatised and seems numb throughout the book, which I liked. She had a difficult relationship with her mother and protected her little sister from a lot of things. When she was young, her mum moved in her partner and his son. The son was just a bit older than Dolores and eventually sexually abused her. It isn't told in explicity terms but it is definitely there, and Dolores struggles with it. 

I didn't feel like we got to know David at all, which I found strange, but honestly I have very little criticism of the book. I'm giving it four out of five.