Olive

It???s a good book. Great story, important topic.
BUT.
First part read like a justification essay as much as a story. Kind of weird.
The second part would have benefited greatly from further editing. There were so many niggles that got annoying really fast. Timing, for example, was majorly confusing and off at times. (Like looking for a note a person who died weeks ago sent her ???a few days ago???. Like, from the afterlife?) And then all the weird little inconsistencies and oversights. Like when the group sits in a restaurant and say ???no, we???re not ready to order our drinks yet??? and then three lines of dialogue later their food arrives. They hadn???t even ordered drinks yet! Where do these come from?
Oh, and then there???s the fact that the character who was supposed to be a therapist was the worst communicator of the bunch. Ok, maybe not as bad as the MC. The MC was terrible. And unbelievably narcissistic and self-centred. Everything was about her. ???Oh, my friend is struggling. Hmm, but what does she think about ME???? Seriously terrible.
But nothing in there another round of edits could not have fixed...

Great book. There's an interview with Emma Gannon about Olive on YouTube. Search for “Emma Gannon on Olive and motherhood in fiction”.

Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with this book for free in return to an honest review.


The book was..ok. I think it would have benefited from more editing, but the spirit of navel gazing/stream of consciousness was part of the charm...most of the time.

Some of the dialogues didn't read all that true to me, too.