Doe by Rebecca Barrow
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Doe is a YA Horror novel that weaves in elements of Fantasy and a touch of Magical Realism. The writing isn’t your typical, natural prose. It does read like a novel in verse, and that is one of the tags here on GR, but I’m not sure how accurate that is. I’m no expert on verse, or poetry.
I enjoyed listening to the audiobook though. It had a magical feel about it, with a darker subtext shadowing all the action. Well, that is until it came out of the shadows. In this way it reminded me a lot of Foul is Fair by Hannah Capin, which I loved when it released in 2020.
This novel follows a high school cheer squad. Mainly via Maris, the Captain of the squad. The girls are like a family, as it seems to be them against the world.
Though they don’t get a ton of respect from their fellow classmates, or really even their families, they love what they do and always stand by each other. They’ve worked hard for their places together, as a team.
When their Coach, who they practically worship brings in a new girl, Genevieve, an outsider, who Coach raves about, to join the squad, there’s an instant rivalry between Maris and the newcomer. Maris is not about to let some tumble queen newbie come in and steal everything she’s worked for.
Then there’s Doe, an ancient, decaying beast trapped in the form of a deer for decades. There’s a whole long history to Doe that I won’t get into here, just know she’s tied to the town and she’s on a bit of a mission.
Maris dreams of Doe, and they form a bond, but she doesn’t know that Doe actually exists. If called upon, if summoned, could Doe help her get rid of Genevieve?
You’ll have to read it to find out.
I liked this. It’s definitely different, and while I’m not sure I got everything out of it that the author wanted me to, I still enjoyed my time with it. It was refreshing to have a different style of narrative structure, and I loved the idea behind Doe.
I also was a high school cheerleader, though it sounds like our squad had quite a bit more success than this squad, I could definitely understand the friendships the girls had and their drive to show up for one another. The bonds of teammates run deep, as they should.
Overall, I’m happy with this one. I appreciate that Barrow took a risk with this, and wrote something a bit outside the box. I don’t think it will be for everyone, but for the Readers that enjoy the writing style, I think it could really hit.
Thank you to the publisher, Nancy Paulsen Books, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I’m looking forward to more from Rebecca Barrow.