Lisa Doucet Reviews Decoding Dot Grey by Nicola Davison
Decoding Dot Grey
Nicola Davison
Nimbus Publishing
Ages 15+
Living in a dingy basement apartment with a menagerie of animal friends (including gerbils, a gecko, a rat and an injured crow), Dot Grey spends most of her time at the animal shelter where she works, a job that she dearly loves and a place where she feels at home. There she can avoid her father’s ongoing efforts to get her to visit her mother in the hospital, her poor mum who is now but a shell of the woman she once was before the accident. Dot can’t bear to see her now, can’t bear to see her father around her.
She quietly avoids the things that hurt her and immerses herself in her work. Then Joe starts volunteering at the shelter and, despite her best efforts, Dot’s colleagues seem determined to befriend her. Ultimately even the important work of the shelter can’t shield her from the painful realities of her life: those she has been hiding from all along as well as those she only now discovers.
With precise, deliberate prose and deft characterizations, Davison’s first young adult novel is a masterful exploration of grief and resilience and finding one’s way. It is quietly powerful, and the relationships are understated but intricate and true to life in their imperfection.
The gritty depiction of the animal shelter and grim situations is offset by the fierce love and commitment of the motley crew of people who work there, their genuine care for animals and the bonds they form with one another. Dot’s story is one of heartache and loss, as well as of love and friendship and forgiveness.
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