Member Reviews
Wow, what a surprise! I decided to read (or, listen to) this after someone on Instagram absolutely raved about "Olive", even though I'm usually not reading about those topics. "Those topics" are e. g. being childless--or, as you learn during the novel--childFREE. Sounds a lot more liberating, right? It's not like something you had is being taken away from you, but you're maling the conscious choice not to conceive. Olive is childfree, as well, something that doesn't resonate well with her best friends, who have started getting pregnant and raising their kids a while ago. They muse Olive "just isn't ready" oder "just hasn't met the right person to create life with". Ultimately, this view leads to massive arguments and feelings hurt.
"Olive" is a realistic view on a woman trying to life in world full of happy families and child-bearing friends with nothing else to talk about but their kids and how happy they are with their life choices--and that everyone else needs to succumb to this ideas of happiness, as well. Olive is just getting along after a bad break-up (he wanted kids) and discovering how she's just as able and happy on her own. The ending was a bit disappointing though--it's against everything she was trying to accomplish during the book. So it's not a full five stars, but four--the ending really threw me off.
Fantastic story! I loved getting the perspective from a woman making the choice to go child-free through life. It’s rare to find this in books. SO many books revolve around motherhood. This book would appeal to a lot of women. Mothers, women wanting to be mothers, and women who choose not to have children. I loved the female friendship aspect of this novel too. Great, well-rounded story!
Olive is a quick easy listen about a group of friends in their thirties each going through their own issues. Divorce, a breakup, a new baby, infertility and the decision to not have children. The issues are starting to strain their carefree friendship. Olive (the narrator) thinks her issues are bigger than life and no one is listening to her. She’s quite dramatic in her approach causing many hurt feelings along the way. A story of diversity among friends and what’s most important in the end.
I'd like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for an audio copy of this book. In exchange, here is my honest review.
To begin, the audio version of this book was well narrated, and I enjoyed listening to it. That being said, for a fairly short audiobook, it felt incredibly long, and this is largely due to the dragging narrative. I feel like the topics being discussed in this book are important, and I am glad that this book exists for women who don't plan to have children. However, I feel like there was little else going on in the plot to make the book truly interesting. Olive's predicament is relatable to a point, but she herself presents as immature and self-centered. But really, so do the rest of her friends. So, I guess they all deserve each other in that respect.
Her friends were another problem I had with the book, because they were all so similar I couldn't tell them apart. Their only differences were the problems they had themselves. Personality-wise, they were three carbon copies of one another.
I was also a bit let down by the end of the book. Oliver spends a majority of the book trying to feel whole without the validation of a child or a relationship, and yet, in the end of the book, that seems to be exactly what she needs because she winds up with a man who already had children. She doesn't seem to feel comfortable in her own skin until she feels needed by them. Kind of takes the whole purpose of the story down a peg.
Thank you NetGalley, Emma Gannon, & Andrews McMeel Publishing for this ARC audiobook.
Olive was a difficult book for me. The writing is a bit juvenile and I felt bored while listening despite the narrator having a pleasant voice. The subject matter was also quite different from what I usually reach for, but the description caught my eye. Perspectives of different women on why they have or don't have kids: the "consequences" of having kids and how that changes your life.
Olive has just turned 30, and suddenly she has kids on the brain-- as does everyone else who asks her repeatedly of her plans. Olive isn't sure she even wants kids. The story follows several women as they achieve (or don't) milestones as they get older.
Because the writing felt juvenile and stiff, I really felt that it lacked depth and didn't reflect what actual women might think/feel. Perhaps my own life as a 30 year old woman with 3 children casts a different light on the story. Isn't that the point of reading, though? That we all come to different conclusions because our lives have been different? For me, this was a 2⭐ read (listen).
DNF @ 17%
I guess I couldn't relate but in reality I just couldn't connect with the characters whatsoever.
Olive by Emma Gannon is the story of the protagonist, Olive who finds herself feeling as though she can no longer relate to her best friends. All of her best friends either become pregnant or are trying to do so. Olive doesn't want kids and knows that she never will, so she finds herself questioning whether she is normal. Everyone she encounters doubts that she will never want kids and they believe it is just a phase that she is in. She and her best friends did everything together when they were in college and her friends seemed to think she would want kids and have them around the same time as they did. Olive finds herself feeling very alone since she has lost her perfect relationship with her longtime boyfriend because he wanted kids. This book tells Olive's story as she struggles to have other people accept her choice to not have kids.
I adored this book so much and I found Olive to be easily relatable. This story was so refreshing because rarely do we have a female protagonist in this situation who stays true to herself once she has decided that she doesn't want kids. I loved how the book addressed the struggles Olive has with getting other people to accept her decision. It hurt me to read her struggles but I felt like it was very realistic how people would respond to a woman who openly says she does not want kids. Overall, I feel like this book should be celebrated as a story about a woman's choice about her body and her life. I highly recommend this book and am giving it 5 stars!
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to listen to this audiobook in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are entirely my own and not affected by receiving this as an ARC.
I knew I was right in sticking it out until the end...overall, it was lovely but there were SO many times I wanted to give up because Olive was too annoying and self-absorbed too many times and for too long. A lot of bits felt a bit too cliché or radical but I wonder if maybe I've just been lucky to not have had to deal with judgement from people for being child-free.
I'm glad Olive's story took a bit of a turn to show she dislike kids, she just didn't want them for herself which I knew to be the truth but for a while she came across as someone who really didn't want them because she hated them. Her judgement of other people's kids and life with them were a tad too much at times.
I think everyone should do as they please whether they want kids or not - not everyone wants to procreate and not everyone should and I really sympathise with people who choose not to and are unfortunately judged by that decision but Olive went on about it way too long.
Although I didn't stop reading because I felt like the end would be worth it (and I'm not one to not finish a book), I have a feeling a lot of people might give up around the middle.
I loved the narration though!! Really fab, especially the different voices and accents!
Like Olive, I have been friends with the same 3 girls my whole life and am the only one child free by choice. Yes some reviews have called her selfish or her friends selfish and both are true but when you are friends for all your life it is a different level of friendship, so for me Olive's and her friends voices ring true.
I enjoyed the audiobook reading of this one and think that it enhanced the experience. Plus I am a fan of Emma Gannon's non-fiction works so perhaps I am a fan of her writing style.
I loved this audiobook and the narrator was very good. This is a story of women and friendship, choices and how they effect our and people who love us's lives. Olive tells us how the relationship with her friends from university has changed through years. They are married with kids (or trying to have kids) while she is recently singled because her long time boyfriends wants kids and she doesn't.
It is a multivoiced tale of how friendship evolves from young age into adulthood.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.
If you were a fan of HBO's Girls, then this is the book for you!
This book is exactly what I would imagine a revival season of Girls to be like, if it flashed forward to their early/mid thirties. Olive and her group of girlfriends are just as tight knit (and toxic) as Hannah, Marnie and the characters in Girls.
The story follows a group of college friends as they each go through different major life transitions - babies, new jobs, weddings, breakups, fertility struggles, career successes, struggling with a 9-5 etc. The author, Emma Gannon, does an excellent job putting the reader deep into Olive's mind, including sharing some of the less than kind thoughts we have but don't always admit. This made Olive both extremely unlikeable and relatable at the same time.
If you're a thirty-something whose friend group is going through different phases in life, then this is the book for you. And it was so refreshing to read a book with a childfree protagonist.
I will say, I wish we had a bit more time with Dorothy, she was my favorite side character and I wanted MORE!
3.5 Stars, but I rounded up to 4 because I liked the way it ended
What to say as a seventeen year old about a book grappling with themes of motherhood and pregnancy? Though I am years from even thinking about having children, I still found this to be an interesting read and I overall enjoyed the way it presented these topics. It wasn't the perfect book by any means. I did have a hard time with the fact that there was no real depth to Olive's character except for the fact that she doesn't want to be a mother. This seemed to be her only personality trait and all she thought about. I feel like the author could have elaborated more on other aspects of this character such as her heartbreak, her past with her absent father or her relationships (especially Dorothy). And at times I found myself annoyed with Olive and the fact that motherhood was ALL she thought about. But overall I think this was a strong debut. The writing wasn't anything spectacular, but it did it's job in communicating the story well. The book did what it came to do, and I especially liked the way it wrapped up at the end. For these reasons, I give the book a 3/5
This is a story of women and friendship. Olive is looking at her life through the lens of her friends' lives and how their relationships have changed since they shared a house during their university years. All of her friends are married while she is in the midst of a major breakup. Olive has to find her own path to happiness while trying to maintain her friendship with her three best friends. Each of the women in this friend group are incredibly selfish and self-centered. This is the driving force for the plot and leads to an interesting conclusion.
I appreciate Harper Collins giving me an opportunity to read Olive by Emma Gannon for my honest review. I was immediately interested in the synopsis of this book.
"Independent.
Adrift.
Anxious.
Loyal.
Kind.
Knows her own mind.
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 fulfil. 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.
Moving, memorable and a mirror for every woman at a crossroads, OLIVE has a little bit of all of us. Told with great warmth and nostalgia, this is a modern tale about the obstacle course of adulthood, milestone decisions and the ‘taboo’ about choosing not to have children."
There wasn't much that I personally could relate to Olive about. We are roughly the same age but while she chose to not have children, I did chose to have children. I do think society makes us think that as women our worth is in finding a husband and producing children. People want to know "why" you don't have kids by a certain age and it must be something medically wrong with you.
While I understand her views on that subject, I felt Olive to be a very selfish character. That would be ok if she learned something but by the end she was still the same. She lost friendships, lied, didn't care about much else than herself, and complained, A LOT.
With that also said, the author made some good points and had a good writing flow. Just because I didn't like this character does not mean I think this author did a bad job at all! I would read something else by her again and I feel like there will be many people who can relate to Olive more than I and will love it!
I loved this book so much olive is sweet Cinnamon roll Who should we protect all Cost This book made me Cry and laugh at the same time Emma cannon is my new Instant buy auther!
I love a well written book with women as the varied, complex people that we are. I am one of those women that chose to have children, as deliberate thought out choice that I went into slowly while resenting expectations that it must be choice, even though it was in fact my choice, I hated the imposition, the assumption that we must all want the same for our lives, or that our happiness is hinged on one common goal, purple or function in society. This book is about that choice and the women that know motherhood is not what they want or choose. For me, the fact that women can a should have this decision for themselves somehow makes my choice also more valid, rather than some default role that had to be fulfilled. Great concept.
The audiobook has a great narration and would be fantastic to listen to in the car.
On one hand this book is quite lighthearted and fun, on the other hand sad and one dimensional. Mostly focuses on the 'want kids/don't want kids' issue rather than anything else in their lives. If you want something serious about choices about having children read something else.
The girls go from loving friends, deeply caring for each other, to people at crossroads in their lives where their decisions seem to take over their whole lives to the point of selfishness. Bea and Cec talk non stop about their pregnancies without a thought for Olive, who doesn't want kids and Isla trying to with IVF. On the other hand, Olive expects them all to stay exactly the same (quite understandably taking the piss out of Cec for monogramming everything after the baby' OAP' and that she chose the name before she'd even conceived and spending £75 on his first muslin!) Olive struggles to get a word in edgeways with them about her break up with Jacob.
Poor Isla, poor Olive. Smug Bea and Cec. So much disappointment with friends as they grow older, growing apart but desperately trying to keep together.
I feel allegiance with people deciding not to have children and, even though I have, I can't stand this over obsession with having kids, pregnancies, massive expense on every possible baby purchase, pretentious and smug parents with perfect homes and kids.
I don't think Olive is selfish and do feel for her in a world where women are expected to have children, but just wish all these girls would stop obsessing about themselves, be more tolerant of each other and get on with other parts of their lives.
A fantastic refreshing heart-warming story!
The story centres Olive, an independent woman in her thirties who is still ‘figuring life out’. Like so many women, Olive feels pressured and judged by society when it comes to making important life choices. When her best friends enter marriage and motherhood, everything begins to change. Life often comes with expectations, and Olive questions her own choices as she walks a different path to others.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, it was modern and relatable, and I read it in a matter of days. The plot features Olive and her three best friends as they navigate through life, taking different paths and overcoming their own personal hurdles. I felt such a strong connection to them all and it broke my heart to read each of their own struggles and heartache.
Olive is such a heartfelt story about female friendship and how it changes with age and personal decisions. Adulthood is an obstacle, and this book addresses such a huge number of subjects including marriage, fertility, careers, societal pressures, and the ‘taboo’ of not having children. I admire how Gannon portrays the complexities and uncertainties of growing up so deeply.
I highly recommend this book! I would say that it is highly character driven story and if you prefer a conventional plot, this book will not be for you. I can’t wait to read more from this author.
Thank you to Netgalley for a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
This story follows the life of Olive Stone, a thirty something woman who has chosen not to have children. I loved the premise of this book as I thought it would be a really interesting topic that I hadn’t read before. I won’t say I disliked this book but I was definitely unwhelemed. I was glad I was listening to the audio version as I don’t know if I would have stuck it out if I was reading a physical copy. The last 3rd of the book I found to be rather repetitive and it seemed to drag on longer than it should have. The characters were all very stereotypical and rather annoying at points. I found many of the conversations between Olive and her friends to be rather unrealistic.
Overall a great idea but poorly executed. That said, I will pick up more books from this author in the future.
This is a book about an incredibly worthy topic from the most unlikable, childish, selfish narrator. Yes, there needs to be more of a discussion about women choosing to be child-free and the social pressures they face. But instead, this is a book about a whiny, self-centered woman who refuses to acknowledge that her friends are going through their own struggles while she wishes she was still a 20-something with no responsibilities. Even the conversations about being child-free are framed around how the main character (who annoyingly goes by "Ol") only reconsiders her stance against having children because her best friends seem happy with kids and her boyfriend broke up with her because of it. There's no reason these women continue to be friends other than their shared past and the "best friends" things they do. As ground women, the overreliance on "we've been friends forever, but have no communication skills" got old.
Add in the questionable ethics she displays in her career (both in terms of professionalism and in terms of using people's struggles to write her articles). It feels a lot like what a high schooler believes being an adult with an adult job would be like. I don't mind unreliable narrators or unlikable narrators, but this falls into the Sex and the City fallacy about what being a writer should be like.
The writing is fine, if not very whiny. And the pop culture references are excessive and somethings factually off. The story tries to hop from present to past, to near past, but the narrator sounds exactly the same and her friends are so indistinguishable that you really can't tell what and when anything is happening.
The long and the short of it is that more conversations should be had about women living their lives independent of the societal pressures of the biological clock of motherhood, but this just ain't the book for that topic of conversation.