Freya the Deer

by Meg Richman

Raised by absent-minded professors in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Freya is a young neurodivergent woman occupied since childhood by a series of obsessions.

She is artistic, vegan, unsocial, and utterly honest. She attends college in the Pacific Northwest, planning to create her own major so she can explore exactly what the soul is. There she falls in love with handsome Caleb, who becomes her new obsession. When Caleb becomes increasingly radicalized after the hideous murder of George Floyd, she must choose between her intense loyalty to him and her moral doubts about violent protest.

From screenwriter Meg Richman comes a quirky, lyrical debut coming-of-age tale about a complex character curious about the numinous yet tied to a physical world that’s steeped in political upheaval.

Genres: Fiction, Coming Of Age

206 pages, Paperback

Published March 3, 2026

About the author

Meg Richman, a native of Seattle, worked as a screenwriter in Hollywood for 15 years. She wrote the original treatment for Tim Burton’s The Corpse Bride, a draft of Up at the Villa for Sydney Pollack’s company and the pilot for Aaron Spelling’s series Malibu Shores. (This last one is an object lesson in just how far Hollywood can transform a script from its original intent and vibe!) The film she wrote and directed, Under Heaven, was a jury selection at the Sundance Film Festival and a nominee for an Independent Spirit Award for Joely Richardson’s performance.

Motherhood brought her home to the Pacific Northwest where she became a teacher for thirteen years, first at an alternative high school for kids who had fallen through the cracks at a regular comprehensive program, and then at a high school serving a mostly immigrant and BIPOC population. She currently writes fiction and has stories published in Louisiana Literature, Isele Magazine, and Judith Magazine. Freya the Deer is her debut novel. Her next one, in the works, is called School for the Insane. It weaves between two story lines a hundred years apart located near the same haunted site. She lives with her son Jesse and oversized dog Gidon in a diverse Seattle neighborhood.

Reviews

[Kresha Warnock · Rating 5 out of 5]

Freya is a heroine you will never forget. the book is beautiful, dealing with current social issues in Richman's lyrical voice. she's also a good story teller@

[Reader]

Young, innocent, neurodivergent girl entering adulthood confronts a beautiful but difficult world where she's forced to make a hard life altering decision. Beautifully written with wit and obvious empathy for the human experience. A real page turner that gives you plenty to think about after you close the book.

[Jackie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Freya is a young neurodivergent woman starting college far from home. She meets Caleb an outgoing, attractive young man. The two quickly become smitten with each other as Caleb is intrigued and charmed by her brutal honesty and her literal take on life. Covid-19 is throwing the country into a frenzied existence which impacts life. They decide to marry in Las Vegas and have enough time to get back to Washington before classes the next day.

Of course, both sets of parents are shocked and wary.

Then, the murder of George Floyd occurs in Minnesota.

Caleb starts taking on a militant view with friend Trey and they plot a nefarious plan to 'right' some wrongs. At first, Freya goes along with it, but as their plot becomes more and more dangerous, she steps back and goes with her conscience. Which means a vast distancing from Caleb.

The story becomes sad were once it was filled with joy. Freya the Deer captures the voice of Freya beautifully...yet the darker the story turns, the more it becomes unlikeable.

Thank you to LibraryThing Early Reviewers, Rootstock Publishing, and Meg Richman for this ARC.

3 1/2 stars.

[Thora Wolf · Rating 5 out of 5]

Freya is both a character and a symbolic figure in this larger-than-life tale about the recent past. She moves through the world with purity and moral clarity. The question is, can someone who sees through any and all nonsense live in these times? And if so, how? Relatable to any neurodivergent person, or anyone who wonders how to square fantasy and reality, or even how to tell the difference in our modern age, Freya is a lovely, fragile heroine who might just be too good for this world. I was riveted by this read. I will be thinking about the images and relationships for a long time.

[Suzanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Captivating Read

This lovely book was of the fascinating and engaging story of Freya, a young woman and her journey through a powerful part of our recent history and the unique and interesting perspective and thoughts she had through it. It is filled with the drama and heartbreak of her experience and her quest for meaning and clarity in a seemingly meaningless world. I only was disappointed in the end but it was worth the read.

[Jessica Jennings · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a rich experience of unique characters that stay with you. It’s beautifully written- lyrical without being heavy or self-conscious- and I was pulled in from the beginning. The characters really stayed with me, especially Freya. There’s something about the way the story unfolds that makes it hard to put down, and it lingered with me long after I turned the last page.

[Book Reviewer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Freya the Deer is a literary coming-of-age novel with the strange shimmer of a fairy tale. It follows Freya Rubenstein, a young woman with autism who moves from Cambridge to a small college in the woods of Washington, carrying with her an intense love of animals, a restless curiosity about the soul, and a way of moving through the world that other people constantly misread. What unfolds is part campus novel, part moral reckoning, part dark fable: Freya falls into love, politics, and danger while trying to hold onto her own fierce sense of truth.

Author Meg Richman writes Freya with real conviction, and that matters because this book could have so easily turned her into a symbol, a lesson, or a bundle of quirks. Instead, she feels singular. Odd, funny, tender, literal, and sometimes almost severe in the way she sees things. I loved how the novel lets the world arrive through Freya’s mind rather than forcing her to translate herself into something more familiar for everyone else. The prose can be lush, but it is not showing off for the sake of it. It feels attached to the character. At its best, the book has that rare quality where the imagery actually deepens the person on the page instead of decorating her. The fairy-tale texture really worked for me. The woods, the red cloak, the animal imagery, the sense that menace and wonder are always standing close together. It gives the novel a charged atmosphere without floating away from real harm.

It was interesting, and at times unsettling, how the book handles morality. Freya is not written as innocent in a simple or sentimental way. She is perceptive, but her perceptions do not always line up with the social scripts everyone else is following, and that makes the novel ask harder questions than I expected. About consent. About ideology. About cruelty dressed up as righteousness. About whether love and truth can survive each other. The campus politics and arguments about justice, Israel, capitalism, race, and activism could have felt schematic, but Richman keeps dragging them back into lived experience, where ideas stop being neat. Some choices are messy on purpose. Some conversations feel jagged. I admired that, even when I was wincing. The book trusts the reader to sit in ambiguity, which I respect. It also made me think about how often people mistake clarity for coldness, especially in someone like Freya, when in fact her honesty may be the most morally serious thing in the room.

I’d recommend Freya the Deer most to readers who like literary fiction that takes risks, especially if they’re drawn to coming-of-age stories with a darker edge, socially engaged novels, or modern fairy tales that are more thorny than cozy. This is not a breezy read, but it is a memorable one. I think it will land best with readers who are willing to follow an unusual protagonist without needing her to become easier or more legible by the end. For me, that was the point. The book asks for patience, openness, and a little courage. I think the right reader will be grateful for all three.

[Erin Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a strange one for me but still very intriguing, interesting and well written. Freya is autistic, VERY autistic and barely able to function through life with her lack of interpersonal skills despite her high intelligence. However she manages to get through school and go on to college with high hopes from her distracted professorial parents. Here she meets Caleb who she becomes absolutely obsessed with, falls in love with, marries and follows down the wormhole of radicalism during the George Floyd protests. When Caleb becomes more obsessed with a mutual friend Trey and his bomb making than he has been with her Freya feels betrayed. She and Caleb are not of one soul anymore and it crushes her. Despite her lack of involvement and hands off attitude in life Freya knows in her heart that what Caleb is doing is wrong and decides to do something about it. The pureness of Freya's thought process is convoluted to say the least but she is adamant that what is right is right and what is wrong is wrong. Freya's decision rocks her world and after making her choice must live with it. I really did like this book, it was so different and so open and the writing was beautiful, full of understanding and forgiveness. Recommended for something a little different. 4 stars.
Many thanks to LibraryThing and the publisher for a chance to read and ARC version of this book.

[Kerry Pickens · Rating 4 out of 5]

Freya the Deer is an interesting book, and really more of a Young Adult “John Green-ish” type book. Freya the main character is on the autistic spectrum and she leaves home to go a small liberal arts college. She makes friends with Mei, a socially awkward Asian girl and then dumps Mei when she meets the handsome Caleb. Freya believes everyone resembles an animal so she is a deer and Caleb is a Dog Boy. Caleb and Freya elope to Las Vegas to get married their freshman year which doesn’t sit well with their parents. The story starts to fall apart there. My main issues with the story are 1) I am not really interested in graphic sexual descriptions and 2) the author has been a screenwriter so the book reads like a screenplay. I feel like the author wrote for the story for the actress Aimee Lee Wood to play the lead. Other than that it has beautiful cover and it’s a solid work for debut novel.

[Briann Shear · Rating 5 out of 5]

Freya the Deer by Meg Richman is a very special book centered on a very special character whose neurodivergent being makes her truly unique. She is odd, but endearingly so: quirky and different, but such a special soul; retreating and shy, yet honest and open. I was so drawn to her and her journey. And the author draws her and the constellation of characters that touch her life beautifully.
There is a really depth to story telling, a kind of complex fairy tale beautiful and heartbreaking. It got me thinking about many things—what is God; what is a soul; What makes us human; do we go on after death; what makes the meaning in our lives? Lot of questions to ponder. It's a really good story, but one that can propel deeper thoughts and conversations with yourself and others.

[Laura Gibbons · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was immediately drawn into Freya’s life. The setting was so richly described and the narrative so gripping that I found myself savoring a few chapters at a time and then digesting for a day or two. The descriptions of the Pacific Northwest and the George Floyd protests resonated with my experience here. The presentation of Freya’s neurodivergent thought processes and her relationship with animals was fascinating. As the novel progressed, it became more and more about questions of spirituality and the soul. I was thrown off by the ending, but it makes sense in this context. I look forward to future work by this author.

[Lya Badgley · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Freya the Deer is a luminous and unforgettable debut—a tender, fierce coming-of-age novel that guides readers deep into the inner life of a singular, neurodivergent heroine. Meg Richman’s prose is at once lyrical and incisive, weaving intellectual curiosity, moral complexity, and aching emotional depth into a story that feels both timeless and urgently of the moment. Freya’s journey of love, loyalty, and conscience is as captivating as it is profound—a book that stays with you long after the final page.”

[Janet Wallace · Rating 5 out of 5]

Freya the Deer is one of those books I could crawl inside.
Richman allows the reader to experience the story from inside Freya’s mind. Intense—surprisingly so, fiercely honest, a young woman who meets life head on, this character wooed me into experiencing the tumult of political radicalization and first love right along with her. Lush, evocative descriptions of the natural and everyday world allowed me easy entry into the world Freya’s world. The book’s fairytale frame allows it to expand, gives it both greater gravitas and makes it softer. I was in reader’s heaven.

[Blair Glaser · Rating 5 out of 5]

Freya the Deer takes readers deep into the psyche and life of a young, neurologically divergent woman — through high school and, more specifically, through college during COVID-19 and the George Floyd reckoning. Richman, via musical prose that can pack a punch, deftly walks us through the title character’s unique perspective, mannerisms, and choices, inviting us to contemplate our own differences; the innocence of young love; yearning, and spiritual curiosity. A terrific and elegant read.

[David Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved Freeda The Deer; It's brilliantly written. I was hooked from the intriguing preface. The characters, two young people at Evergreen College in Oregon, are true and compelling. The story is a smart, page-turner.

The book captures Seattle in the summer of 2020, with Covid raging and everyone mourning and furious about the murder of George Floyd.

This is a great book. I highly recommend reading it.

[Robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. Couldn't wait to read it after work. It is incredible story telling about a young woman named Freya who is neurodivergent and has her own unique way of navigating the world. The book takes place during the covid and BLM eras and these events hugely impact on Freya's world, her relationships, and her thoughts about morality, God, and the soul. I was surprised by the ending and sad the book was finished. This is a must read. And the cover is simply beautiful.

[Marcia Weaver · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Mediums near me.”

On a quest that spans the internet to ancient texts and extrasensory perception, Freya seeks to understand the strong emotions of adult life. Freya is a sweet protagonist, and her captivating story kept me turning pages long after midnight. Fresh, propulsive, and highly recommended.

[Annette Quayle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Meg Richman has crafted a compelling novel that is beautifully written about unique characters grappling with life-altering events. It asks interesting questions with no easy answers. I found myself thinking a great deal about it after I finished. I highly recommend this book.

[Elise Richman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is as poetic as it is philosophical. Its vivid language conveys the poignant coming of age story of a creative, astute neurodivergent young woman, Freya. Freya confronts moral quandaries with the unblinking clarity of a saint. Beautiful and compelling!

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book does what I always want books to do... it serves as a lens through which we can gain deeper understanding of our own ethical choices. The story is both compelling and deeply thought. I will no doubt reread it over the years.

[Debby Author · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this story so hard! The protagonist was so relatable for me in a myriad of ways. I appreciated the beautiful prose throughout. It’s a bit spicy in parts, but all to serve the narrative. A quirky coming of age story for modern times. Highly recommend!

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written book that I couldn’t put down. Been a while since I have been so captivated by a book.

[Fran Means · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a poignant story! Worth a one sitting read through if you can manage.

[Meg Richman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ok, I wrote this book, so I'm not objective.
But what I want you to get from it is a sense that our world is not merely material (though the material can certainly be amazing!) We are surrounded by love, all of us, even in pain, even in loss. And we have moral knowledge at our core, if we will listen and make the hard choices required.