Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an advanced audiobook copy of Olive by Emma Gannon, narrated by Sian Clifford. I don't think I would have enjoyed this as much if I hadn't gotten the audiobook version. Sian was absolutely wonderful and I could listen to her reading even a user manual.

If I had to review this book only by the story, I would probably give this 3.5 ✨instead. This was again the situation where I loved the premise, but wasn't too fond of the execution. The story felt a bit overdramatic at points and taking things a bit too seriously.

I found the subject of the novel (being child-free vs childless) super important and not something we encounter as often in our literature. I appreciated how the novel examined the stigma surrounding child-free and childless women, as well as, the hardships of realizing how this topic can be a breaking point for some relationships.

However, I often felt like the story never fully unfolded as the author was so focused in only describing this concept and surrounding everything else with it. It often felt apologetic on Olive's views and not as empowering as I thought it'd be. This book portrayed so many different type of women and their views towards motherhood that I believe a narrative that wasn't first person or from multiple perspectives would have been more fitting.

It doesnt support or open after I download the pdf version of it. It's also not showing in my shelf in netgalley and I cant open it to read Please look into the issue and if you can send me the pdf in my mail ID- taniagungunsarkar@gmail.com I cant read the book from here. Please look into the issue

I found this audiobook very interesting. It is the first time I have read about someone who really didn't want to have children and why they didn't want to have children. I liked the main character Olive and her friends and I enjoyed finding out about their lives and how their friendship changed over the years. The story opened my eyes and mind to a new way of thinking that I had never explored before.

The narrator of the audiobook was very good and I enjoyed her telling of the story. The netgalley app also worked well for me.

Many thanks to the author, publisher and Net Galley for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

I couldn’t wait to listen to this book. I can’t remember another book that tackles the subject of women who choose to remain childless. Olive watches as her life doesn’t track that of her 3 friends, one of whom has 3 kids, one is pregnant and one is trying IVF to become pregnant.
Gannon tackles the subject compassionately. Olive has her reasons for not wanting children, some of which struck me as somewhat frivolous. But the primary one is that she just doesn’t have that maternal instinct. And not all of us do. As someone who also chose to remain childless, a lot of this hit home. It’s hard being told that I somehow had something wrong with me, that I would change my mind, that I’d feel differently if the child was mne..
Olive has just ended a ten year relationship with Jacob because he wants kids and she doesn’t. She has to be the adult because he thinks there could be a compromise.
It’s a very realistic story. Everyone has problems, each choice brings its own set of issues. No one is always likeable.
I did get a kick that the ending (as far as Olive’s love life goes) worked out just as mine did.
This was a debut novel but it didn’t read like a debut. Gannon is a broadcaster and Webbie nominated podcaster and has written a business book. And it’s probably this self confidence that comes through in her novel.
Sian Clifford narrates and was perfect for the role.
My thanks to netgalley and Andrews McMeel Audio for an advance copy of this audiobook.

Olive
by Emma Gannon

Olive is at that place in life where decisions are made, remade and made again. She’s perched on an uncomfortable pinnacle of do-I?-or-don’t-I? Is her ultimate purpose to have a child? What if that is not at all what she wants?

She’s surrounded by friends, a camp of both types – the doers and those who don’t. Family weighs in with their inevitable opinions. Everyone, even strangers have an opinion. Olive just tries her best to stay truth to her own thinking, her own choices. She can be prickly, bitchy and just plain cranky. Like all of us from time to time.

There was more acid in this storyline than I am comfortable with, and I didn't connect well with Olive. Still, I appreciated the message that Olive brings, and the question she asks is important and is ultimately faced by all women. Where they land in the answering of it truly does shape their social outlook from that day forward. Beyond that, whether or not a woman chooses to have a child of her own does not get her out of the question of whether or not she can mother or nuture other humans. Many of the greatest women I have known have raised up children birthed from other loins, have counted it as some of their best work; and the receiving child, grateful.

A Sincere Thanks to Ariel S. Winter, Atria/Emily Bestler Books and NetGalley for an ARC to read and review.

The premise of this debut novel is amazing. Emma Gannon covers everything you could want from a women’s fiction novel - love, friendship, career and ambition, and motherhood. Olive is making some big life-changing decisions, like deciding not to have children. Set alongside - and sometimes against - her three lifelong best friends, Olive must decide for herself what her future will be.
I’m so glad that Gannon has released a book that represents the different types of motherhood. Why is it so rare to find in fiction? Independent, outspoken, loyal and career-driven - so many readers will find themselves in Olive’s character. I enjoyed the contemporary plot line, based in busy London, and the incorporation of the modern struggles of communicating through WhatsApp.
One shortfall of the novel, for me, was the shift in the friendship, Pitched as a lifelong friendship, with snippets of younger memories, the interactions and reactions of the characters didn’t always align with that idea. I was also left wanting more depth from the other characters and their feelings.
Overall, a great novel about life choices, adulthood and motherhood.
I would recommend this book to any lover of Sophie Kinsella or Jojo Moyes.

Childless by choice, thought provoking novel about life, love, friendships, and coming to a crossroads in life. Beautifully narrated, the story had even pacing and held my attention. A relevant read in contemporary times

Such a beautiful, sweet novel that I highly recommend! It has great characters, a moving story, and overall is a great read

This is an important book that explores what it is to not want a child in a world that expects women to all become mothers at some point in their lives. The author presents us with multiple different perspectives on women and motherhood while never being judgemental. I believe this book could start very important conversations that need to be had in society about free choice and the pressure that women feel to become mothers. Women are allowed to make their own choices in life without feeling like they will be criticized. A really great, poignant fiction book by Emma Gannon.

So many emotions about this book. I laughed with Ol, I cried too. My heart sunk when her friendships were in a tough spot. At first, I deeply wanted her to be with J again but that feeling went away quickly! ughed with Ol, I cried with her. My heart sunk when her friendships were in a tough spot. At first, I deeply wanted her to go back with J, but that went away quite quickly...! I cursed out loud, I high-fived Ol in my head. I am part of the women who want children and would be absolutely destroyed if it turns out I can’t. But the way Emma ‘painted’ the whole issue made me take a step back, and remember all the good and bad things about it. But what really really touched me was the friendships. I am getting at a point where friendships can be altered because of relationships, jobs, countries, new lives, not baby yet but that will soon happen. And that was a sad yet truthful reminder that a lot of people go through the same thing. So thank you Emma as this has become for sure a book I will refer to or go back to for these many reasons.

I bumped this read up to a 5-stars because I thought Emma Gannon did a great job at making this relatable and stayed on topic! That may seem like an obvious type of requirement in a story, but many novels, I find, give too much detail or throw in unnecessary scenes all in the name of character/plot development. I thought the personal growth of Olive and her girlfriends from young girls to adult women while using motherhood as the focal point was great. This was not a typical type of chicklit/rom-com but instead a true story about friendship. I also enjoyed that we see Olive struggle with her choice as it does not seem like one of popular opinion, and stick to what she believes in. Maybe because I am around that age and have felt/been through what Olive and her friends experienced, I was able to really immerse myself in their story. Great read!

I both listened to and read advanced copies of Olive, by Emma Gannon, so this review has also been posted on the page for the print edition:

Olive is in her early 30s, living in London, and doing well in her career as an editor at .dot magazine. Olive is still close with Cecily, Bea, and Isla, her friends since school, and is finding that their paths are diverging more as they get older. As Olive begins to realize and come to terms with the fact that she wants to live her life child-free, it begins to create conflict in her existing relationships.

I’ve very infrequently come across books featuring a child-free protagonist, or a protagonist who has made any kind of intentional choice not to have children. This seems like it fills a gap in the narrative related to that experience. Similarly, Olive explores enduring and lasting relationships in a group of four best friends. These kinds of adult friendships are sorely lacking in women’s fiction.

Overall, though I’m a woman in my 30s without children, this book wasn’t for me. I want to claim my biases here: I don’t personally identify with the child-free movement, have never felt particularly pressured to make a decision about parenting, and know that the perspectives I encounter in the US are different to those my friends in the UK encounter.

Olive read as a kind of coming-of-age novel, and I think that the novel ran into snags that any novel on this topic would. Though we saw Olive grow and change in ways, it’s so hard to frame a coming-of- age narrative around a choice that is essentially inaction.

For me, the situations the characters experienced felt contrived and a little too convenient, and it often made it feel as though Olive was written with a list of pros related to making the choice to be child-free, and cons related to parenting to tick off throughout the narrative. If I had a moment where I asked “what about this perspective?” it was often covered in the next few pages. This made it a lot harder to see Olive, or those around her, as fully dimensional characters, rather than as rhetorical devices to explore an issue/perspective. As a result, the novel felt defensive rather than exploratory at times. I wish we had seen fewer perspectives, and been able to experience Olive’s relationships with those she cares about in more depth.

I think this book will most appeal to women who identify or are exploring their choice to be child-free, especially those faced with external pressure to parent.

I both read and listened to the audiobook of Olive. In the audiobook version, Sian Clifford was a phenomenal narrator and really brought the story to life. This book does have a non-linear narrative structure that was at times harder to follow in the audiobook.

Thanks to NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for an advance copy of this book and audiobook for review.

Olive by Emma Gannon is about Olive a 32 yo magazine editor who is strong and independent, and who doesn't want to have children, Olive's relationship of 9 year has just ended over it. Olive has no maternal urges. She doesn't, in her own words, feel any fertility flutters. She is so sick of people telling her she would change her mind. She is sick of being seen as selfish by outside world for not committing to motherhood. The recent issue of her magazine is dedicated to exploring what it means to be child free by choice. She reads forums and talks to people from the "Child Free by Choice" community. She basically seeks assurance that more woman feel like her and that she is not being over dramatic and that she has a right to explore her fears and uncertainties that her decisions might haunt her later in life.

Even though Olive has never wanted to have children she suddenly feels consumed by the decision of not having them. She thinks this may be due to the fact that her best friends are such different places in their lives. Bea has three kids and such a natural at parenting, Cecily has just had a baby and Isla is trying to have one herself. While Olive doesn't want to burden her friends with her recent break up drama, she expects more support from her friends.

I find this book very unique and quite insightful. Even though I am a mom who struggled with infertility in the past I understand where Olive was coming from. There were many points made in the book that I wholeheartedly agreed. Like becoming a mother doesn't have to be a milestone for every woman and having children doesn't guarantee unconditional love or someone to care for you as you get older. The conversations between Olive and Bea, Jacob, Isla and Dorothy were all so honest, and moving and at times heartbreaking. She broke up with Jacob, though she still loved him so deeply, because she didn't want to take something so huge from him. Instead of walking on eggshells around Isla who is struggling with infertility and Olive was able to speak her mind and expressed her true feelings. I loved that Olive stayed true to herself.

“OLIVE is many things, and it’s ok that she’s still figuring it all out, navigating her world without a compass. But life comes with expectations, there are choices to be made, boxes to tick, and – sometimes – stereotypes to fulfill. And when her best friends’ lives start to branch away towards marriage and motherhood, leaving the path they’ve always followed together, Olive starts to question her choices – because life according to Olive looks a little bit different.”

This was a quick read for me. And although I did not particularly like Olive as a character (I found her to be self-centered and childish), I do feel that many women will be able to relate to her when it comes to the everyday pressures women face surrounding motherhood. To note, I felt that common misconceptions surrounding women who choose to not have children are also further emphasized through Olive’s character which did bother me.

Olive chooses to not have children and it seems that everyone has opinions and comments on that. Really plays on the feeling of being the “odd” one out which I think many women will be able to empathize with.

“Olive” explores friendships as they stand the test of time, adulthood, motherhood, and change.

*Thank you NetGalley for my free ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*

Olive (Olivia but no one calls her that except for her mother), is an editor at Dot Magazine, is recently single and does not want to have kids. However, it seems her friends from her youth cannot understand her as they are all having or trying to have children themselves and Olive feels like the odd woman out. To make things worse, her relationship has recently come undone, and she cannot even find proper timing to tell her friends that this has happened, and perhaps find some support as a result. Her Editor-in-Chief has given her an assignment to write about the phenomenon of Millennial choosing to have pets over children, which begins to open Olive's eyes to the fact that she is not alone. We follow Olive on her journey from misery towards happiness as she explores this article, meets new people and becomes more comfortable with the choices she makes.

Olive is a wonderful listen. The story is likable, as are the characters and the reader gets a bird eye view on a topic we do not get much exposure to in novels. Watching the choices the characters make in love, career, friendship, etc. makes for an extremely interesting and engrossing story. The author writes in such an honest, life giving voice, that you feel like you know these woman by the time you are done. The narrator has a wonderful voice, making it an overall excellent experience to listen.

Thank you to Netgalley and Andrews McMeel Audio for the opportunity to listen to this book in exchange for my honest review.

I really think it's a great topic, it's more common today than in the 90s for a woman to decide not to have children, but I didn't feel like Olive's reasons were entirely convincing, just because she wanted to have her friends whenever she wants... without thinking about their lives or their responsibilities,I think it is somewhat selfish, Olive was not my favorite character, she was definitely not interesting enough to be convincing, I felt that the writing style was a bit poor and too casual for this type of subject.

Olive - Emma Gannon

I have read so many mixed reviews on this book, but was very keen to read it myself and I'm so glad I did! I personally found it very relatable and heartwarming as it's a topic that is very close to my heart and you don't read about very often (or even hear it being discussed to be honest) and I think this is why the reviews are so mixed. The subject topic is such an individual choice that I think everyone would have their own views and opinions on it (none which are either right or wrong). I really enjoyed listening to the book in audiobook format and now need a physical copy for the bookcase. Many thanks to NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Audio for allowing me the chance to read and review this book

Right, I struggled with this book a little bit at the start. The topic is a bit heavy and therefore at times I had issues listening to the book.
The topic of whether or not one wants children is a big topic and something I feel like people always judge others by. I couldn’t really empathize with Olive about her not wanting children since I’ve always wanted them but the book still the book intrigued me. The other topics in the book like friendships and how we as human change over the years. I also feel like this book fits fully into today’s society as women are fighting harder than ever to have control over their own bodies without judgement.
I had a hard time liking Olive at first. I didn’t much like any of her friends either. I feel like they all only thought about themselves and how they are feeling. But I guess that is the point of it. For Olive to fully embrace her wants and feelings without having to thing about how other people see her and also for her friends to come to terms with their own problems and then support their friends in their lives no matter their choices.
The audiobook was pleasant to listen to. I feel like the narrator fully embraces Olive’s persona and brings her to life. I also think that I would have probably DNF this book had I not been listening to it

Olive was light and pleasant to listen to. It was not a book that will stay with me for any amount of time. It was filled with a little too many cliches for em, especially around women and babies. It was fine to listen to while on a treadmill but I don't think I'd want to curl up with it on a couch and get lost. The narrator did the characters justice and made the listening more entertaining for me.

This is an interesting book, touching several important subjects such as women's fertility, marriages, relationships, careers, and friendships.
It's the story of olive, a 33 years old woman who has decided to be child-free, although her decision affects her relationship with Jacob.
After losing her boyfriend, olive starts to realize that her relationship with her friends, Bea, Isla, and Cecily, has changed. With her friends having children of their own and focused on their own lives, olive feels alone with no one to talk to. She doesn't realize that they have problems of their own, so she starts acting differently around them.
I was not a huge fan of the main character (olive). In my opinion, she was too self-centered, acting as a teenager and not realizing that with more responsibilities and important things to do her friends can't act the same way they used to when they were in school.
What I like the most was the fact that the author discussed an important issue. Talking about the pressure society have on women, expecting them to reproduce when they have the freedom to decide whether or not they want children.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of olive in exchange for an honest review.