Maris Larsen is the captain of the West Eaton High cheer team. She's Coach's favorite and the team worships her. Being on the team makes her feel special-powerful. When she's leading the girls on the mat, Maris doesn't have to think about her dead-end life in a dead-end town. She can forget about her depressed mother and absent father and the fact that her girlfriend doesn't really love her. But when newcomer and Coach's new golden girl, Genevieve Ray, joins the team, the only thing going right in Maris's life is suddenly in jeopardy. A bitter rivalry develops between the two, but Maris is determined to take Genevieve down. The knife she needs to wield comes to Maris in her dreams.

While sleepwalking, Maris is visited by a monstrous, decaying beast in the shape of an enormous deer. Doe is an ancient, tired creature who has been wandering, trapped in her current form for decades. She cannot die, but she cannot go on living as she has. Only a girl related by blood to those who bound her in this form can free her, but those girls she loved died years ago-murdered in a fire.

But Maris is somehow linked to Doe's beloved girls-linked by blood-and so she has the power to free Doe, to unleash her immense power. In Maris's dreams, she and Doe form a bond, but Maris doesn't know the creature from her dreams is real. Maris doesn't understand the danger she's in. She only knows Doe has promised her a way to win her battle with Genevieve. But for Maris to win, someone has to die, and the only real winner in the end will be Doe.

Doe by Rebecca Barrow is dark and creepy, an intense story using different points of view to drive home the narrative and create a sense of how the cheer team functions within the novel. I love how the team point of view enhances the sense of rivalry between Maris and Genevieve, heightening the tension and pacing of the novel. The visceral feel of how the girls behave, the underlying motives make the entire novel simmer with tension and darkness.

The sense of the group losing oneself within the team is very brilliantly written. I also was fascinated by Maris and her not being able to believe in herself, not seeing the support that she has flowing around her. It's also easy to empathize even with Doe, as the creature shows how and why she came to be. You can see that she's dangerous but it's hard to see in the moment, just like it is for Maris.

The story is brilliant, dark and creepy, especially the team elements and the drive that Maris contains to escape her rival Genevieve, to find a way to get rid of her without considering a way forward toward peace. The most disturbing parts are the reality, the way the girls will do anything for their team, including hurting someone else who doesn't fit in their group. The ending is unescapably disturbing.

Rating: 5 out of 5 sleepwalks ~~ Andrea Rittschof