Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review! Here Lies Olive by Kate Anderson releases on October 24th, 2023.

Perfect Spooky Season Book. Great plot, and interesting characters with representation. Here Lies Olive was a fun, quick read. Just imagine curling up with your favorite pumpkin drink and a spooky blanket, that's what I did. It made the experience so much more fun and I didn't want to stop reading! Definitely plan to pick this book up on release day.

A big thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for providing this arc!

I really enjoyed the spooky atmosphere of this book and how the author managed to discuss such heavy themes of death and grief in a way that feels approachable.

I absolutely adore Olive and her POV and her relationship with the other characters. Something that really stood out to me is how she’s not grieving over someone’s death–but over her own brief passing and her life.

Overall, I had lots of fun with this book and I can’t wait to read more of the author in the future!

Here Lies Olive follows Olive Morana, a seventeen-year-old who's shut herself off from her friends after a she nearly died (permanently) 2 years earlier. After the loss of her friend, Olive summons a ghost to finally get some answers to where people go after they die. But as the ghost gets stronger and angrier, Olive and her friends have to figure out how to help him find peace before he turns into a shade--a malevolent spirit fixated on their death.
I loved this book! Super creepy, mysterious, and it had me wanting more! There are so many different ghost stories in the town, and a lot of historical information is peppered throughout. I found Olive to be sympathetic, but I did keep yelling "go to therapy" at her. She has a lot of emotional growth throughout the book regarding life, death, and what we do during our lives.
Her romance with Maren was fine, but it seemed to go 0-100 very very quickly. One moment they couldn't stand each other and the next Olive realizes she's been in love with her for 2 years. It was a bit of whiplash.
I wish we saw more of Davis, simply because we're told he matters to Olive, but we don't get to see much of their relationship build back up (or hints to how it was in the past). I appreciate that the author had a sensitivity reader since Davis is Navajo and there are some cultural mentions throughout the book.
Vanessa. Oh Vanessa. I have several frantic notes including "SEVERED HEAD RIBBON GIRL????" because that's where I thought her story was going (and that story fundamentally changed me as a child). I did call that she wasn't quite human, but the pieces were well placed and the mystery was done delightfully well.
Speaking of mysteries, the way this is a mystery within a mystery?? Chef's kiss. Beautiful.
Now for some less positive notes:
Olive definitely has some moments where she's a bit ageist, referring to a group of middle aged women as "bunch of understimulated suburban moms who get together to drink wine and try to convince themselves that their husbands’ night farts are really ghosts trying to communicate with them." can we not age shame women? It was just kind of icky.
Also, Olive addresses the reader a couple of times in the book (literally saying "you") and this is a major pet peeve. It takes me out of the story. I don't need to be spoken to by the narrator, especially when I'm already in their head.
Finally, some of the action scenes (specifically the one in the mausoleum) were a bit hard to follow, and despite rereading it multiple times I could not figure out what was going on.
I really, really liked this one, and think it's perfect for spooky season!

"Here Lies Olive" by Kate Anderson introduces us to sixteen-year-old Olive, navigating life. Despite her surroundings, Olive harbors a deep fear that there might be nothing after death, stemming from a near-death experience. This fear leads her to keep others at arm's length, fearing the inevitable sorrow of relationships and love.

When Olive summons the spirit of Jay, a hitchhiking ghost trapped in the woods, her quest for answers begins. She agrees to help Jay find his unmarked grave in exchange for insights into the afterlife.

Amidst this quest, a mysterious force starts targeting Olive's classmates. The longer Jay stays, the more dangerous the attacks become. Feeling responsible for Jay's return, Olive forms an unlikely team with maybe-nemesis Maren, maybe-crush Davis, and newcomer Vanessa to save Jay's spirit from turning malevolent and to stop the escalating danger.

In "Here Lies Olive," Olive confronts her fear of death and faces the prospect of losing another loved one to the unknown "Nothing." This gripping YA tale explores themes of mortality, love, and the supernatural, offering an engaging read for all ages.
Thank you to NetGalley and North Star Editions, Flux, for providing this ARC. Kate Anderson's debut delivers an intriguing blend of suspense and emotion that will leave readers pondering the mysteries of life and death.

Thank you, Net Galley and North Star Editions!
This book did a fantastic job combining some crucial horror elements for a young adult audience. With heavy themes of death, the book discusses some very grown-up topics in a way that does feel very approachable. It is still grim without being traumatic, which personally I think is exactly what you want for a YA horror.
Overall I really enjoyed getting to read the story as the town's perception of death and how that contrasts to Olivie's experiences and beliefs. I spoke also has some fantastic representations including queer and native characters.

Okay this book was so much fun to read! I wasn't expecting much at the start but it just got better and better. There are definitely creepy qualities and dark vibes, but also friendship and falling in love and dealing with life's questions. I loved this story and I hope Kate Anderson writes a lot more books with this vibe.

Well, that was a fun read.
A Debut YA novel by Kate Anderson. It fun coming of age book with horror elements.
Not gonna lie it was a bit difficult to get into it, it did picked up after Jay appeared. There some really interesting moments and some were dragging... Overall its a fun book for the appropriate audience. If my daughter spent the amount of time she play games and did some reading I bet she would enjoy it.

With no spoilers book about a teen girl, Olive who after near death experience (her heart stopped for 5 min) she is obsessed with death and wants to fins out what happens after we die? Is there only Nothing waiting for us or is there more? In spooky asylum she summons a ghost to get her answers. But was it a good idea? and can she send the ghost back? You juts have to read to find out.

Solid 4 Starts from me. Thank you NetGalley for allowing me read it I did enjoyed it.

This is a fun and very interesting, intriguing book that left me with some frustrations nevertheless.

We follow Olive, a teenager who almost died in an allergic incident and who lost a friend a while later, and these two death encounters leave her with a morbid obsession with what happens after we die, if all there is is endless Nothing or if there is an afterlife, a place where our loved ones await us, all that. Right away, the premise of a teen novel dealing with such a complex subject captivated me, because even now, in the age of dissecting and debating every aspect of human life down to a tee even if within the most abstract of terms, death is still taboo, death is still the thing that chokes us, traps us, freezes us. Collectively, we're still not quite there yet, not ready for the conversation. So it's refreshing to read a book that not only deals with these issues, but does so in the context of teenage years, which in my opinion at least are the years where you feel invincible and immortal by default.

I liked the characters, though they were all quite one-dimensional, especially Olive. She is very stereotypical, almost entirely predictable, including the things about her that I think are meant to be secrets unfolding as the story goes. But they did make for a good ensemble and I like stories that keep the cast tighter, so to speak, more focused on less people. The biggest issue I had, however, was that these characters contradicted themselves almost all the time when it came to how they related to the events of the book, which are grim and very "grown-up", very serious. The story felt cartoonish very often, very Scooby Doo-ish, switching between literal life-or-death situations and childish behaviour seasoned with comic authority: the characters scramble with everything that happens while still having sudden knowledge of everything, without making any type of Supernatural-style research of ancient tomes or like, a Wikipedia page. We're supposed to believe that just by living in a city that works like it's Halloween everyday these teenagers have advanced knowledge in specific mythology regarding ghosts and spirits that is constantly flirting with native-American mythology but never really goes all in on it.

The book does a decent job at exposing some aspects of colonization mixed with the not-so-long-ago history of how mental health facilities worked as a dumping place for the "inconvenients" of society, but it felt shallow exactly because everything felt picked very narrowly to fit the narrative. The book goes around in very repetitive motions around Olive's philosophical conclusions around death rather than progress slowly through it, and her character changes feel sudden, out of nowhere, poorly planned out. Plus, for the amount of authority and knowledge that Olive in particular always holds over the events happening around her, she takes an awful amount of time to fit the pieces together to come to the end of the story which was foreseeable since before the middleway point of the book. I don't know if the author meant for us to know from the start or if it was meant to be a legit plot twist, but if the latter is correct, then I think it was a big miss. None of the big revelations towards the end of the book felt remotely surprising, at least not to me; it felt more like FINALLY rather than a big omg.

Overall, though, I think it's a fun book to read, I think especially for younger people, though it brands itself as a YA novel. I think that if I had read this when I was in my teens or pre-teens, I would've gone fucking crazy over it. As an adult I feel like it's caught in the middle, trying to appeal to both audiences, dealing with unbelievably complex and severe subjects in a childish and simplistic way. It is however very fun and funny too, it made me actually laugh out loud on many moments, especially Olive talking about her Oreo dream, and it even if it doesn't deal with these subjects with the depth that I would perhaps have appreciated more, it does a fantastic job of introducing these subjects, opening them up in a tender way and inviting people to look at these taboos, which I think is a triumph in itself. This would be a great Halloween book club pick!

Huge thank you to Net Galley and the publishers for providing this arc!

To preface - I had a pretty grand ol’ time, despite the audience that this was aimed for. I am a known lover of horror and the spooky world, so this premise already earns a handful of points from me just based off of that fact alone. The characters, while cheesy, weren’t annoying to follow along with. I really enjoyed the themes in this, as well as the representation. I have been really loving the trend of introducing LGBTQ+ themes into YA literature, and this part was overall really well done! It was intentional with the mentions but not overwhelming blaring in the way that it was introduced.

As in every general YA book, this story certainly holds your hand through a lot of the book. I went into this book expecting this much. However, the *amount* of hand-holding that goes on in this book did make it feel as though it were more middle-grade than YA. If it weren’t for the gore and ghost summoning premise I probably would have assumed this was YA. Some of the slang and overall character dialogue also made this feel more middle grade than YA—but I also think that is also due to the fact that more recently, YA has been stretching further into the ‘adult’ category than to the younger crowd.
The characters, as previously mentioned, are fine—you can’t expect much from teenage characters. The world building, however, fell a little short for me? There were parts that the author introduced the town as an interesting setting, but the descriptions and development never seemed to completely fill me in on why it was an interesting place. Additionally, the supernatural elements had a tendency of coming out of nowhere—particularly when one of the main characters suddenly had a power?

Overall, this was a great debut. Aside from my difficulty with mentally accepting that this is a YA, I had a good time and look forward to reading more of the author’s work!

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I was stoked about this one--both because I know a kid named Olive and because I'm interested in the death positive movement and love spooky season. Unfortunately, it fell a bit short for me.

Olive's near-death experience is related over and over again; lots of thoughts and emotions feel repetitive throughout this novel. I wanted to shake her and yell "JUST TALK TO HIM" re her BFF Davis; I was so glad when they finally did open up to each other.

As a death positive girlie, I was a little confused by this whole town and everyone's views on death. It feels very superficial. Olive's parents should have been the perfect people to open up to about death-related fears (a mortuary cosmetologist and a monumental mason? come on!). I can totally see why she didn't because teenagers...but for two years?!

Also, there was some misinformation in here that really bothered me. For example, Olive references that people were so commonly buried alive, they'd be buried with bells, so you could ring the bell if you were trying to escape. It actually wasn't common at all for people to be buried alive, it was just a fear, and the bell thing developed because of fear. Sigh. Shout-out to the reference to open air funeral pyres, though! For anyone curious, the only one in the U.S. is located in Crestone, Colorado.

This book was slow moving for the first 50-60%. I thought things would pick up in the last section, but instead, I just got more and more frustrated. Jay's character is very underdeveloped, and Vanessa being the villain seemed sooooo obvious. I was extremely annoyed that though Vanessa wears a ribbon around her neck that she never removes, seemingly a clear allusion to the famous green ribbon story (when the girl takes off her ribbon, her head falls off), THAT NEVER HAPPENS HERE. I felt like this was too close to a famous spooky story to not actually be a reference to that story. When it turns out the ribbon is just binding others to her so she can control them, it made no sense to me. Her whole "empath" thing didn't make sense, really. I was irritated by all of it, and then we kind of gloss over the implications of everything and wrap the novel up with a school dance at the end. Lol, okay?

So that's a lot of complaining, but it's not to say don't read this book! The vibes of the town are great and I'm sure tons of people will love reading this during spooky season. Also, I loved the representation of Native folks and how Davis's dad's upbringing severed his connection to his Native roots, and how Davis was trying to get back in touch with those roots. And his mom's Native fusion cooking at the diner sounded incredible. The mental health connections with the asylum were interesting, though I feel they could've been explored more. It was extremely heavy handed how the author depicted the asylum as sooooooo evil and wrong and horrifying. It felt designed to terrify instead of make you think or feel something

Lastly, I appreciated the evolving romance between Olive and Maren, but it felt very abrupt to me and tonally off from the rest of the book. I think they make sense as a couple and it was sweet that Maren made Olive feel things again, but it just felt out of place with the ghosts/shades and BFF nearly dying.

I think this writer will only get better with future books, so I'll be curious to see what she comes up with next!

"Here Lies Olive" is a touching and beautifully written novel that explores themes of love, loss, and the enduring power of memories. Written by Kate Anderson, this book takes readers on an emotional journey through the life of its titular character, Olive, and the impact she had on those around her.

The narrative unfolds as a series of interconnected vignettes, each offering a glimpse into different moments in Olive's life. This structure allows readers to piece together the puzzle of her character gradually, and it works exceptionally well in creating a sense of intimacy with Olive and the other characters.

The prose in "Here Lies Olive" is both poetic and poignant, with Kate Anderson's demonstrating a talent for crafting evocative descriptions and heartfelt emotions. The writing style draws readers into the world of the story, making it easy to empathize with the joys and sorrows experienced by the characters.

The character development in this novel is a standout feature. Olive, in particular, is a fully realized character with depth and complexity. Her journey, from the innocence of youth to the wisdom of age, is both relatable and heartrending. The supporting characters are equally well-drawn, each contributing to the tapestry of Olive's life.

The exploration of memory and its impact on our lives is a central theme in "Here Lies Olive." The book delves into the idea that memories can shape our understanding of the world and the people we love. It prompts readers to reflect on the significance of the memories they hold dear and the legacies they leave behind.

One potential drawback is that the nonlinear structure of the narrative may require readers to pay close attention to the timeline of events. Some may find this approach a bit disorienting, but it ultimately adds depth to the storytelling.

In conclusion, "Here Lies Olive" is a moving and introspective novel that celebrates the beauty of ordinary lives and the profound impact one person can have on others. Kate Anderson has crafted a poignant exploration of memory, love, and the enduring legacy of the past. If you're looking for a heartfelt and thought-provoking read, this book is a worthy choice.

Have you ever wondered what happens after you pass to the next life? The age old question as both a child, adolescent, or adult.
Do you have a next journey or is it "Nothing"?
Olive a teen, has a close encounter with death after her heart stops for five minutes. She comes back ,but now needs to figure out what happens AFTER! Why didn't she see anyone or anything?
When her close friend dies she truly must learn the truth.
Olive will not quit!

It is an interesting, paranormal debut story that is considered a young adult book. As an adult, I to enjoyed it.
Thank you to @NetGalley and to @North Star Editions, Flux for this ARC and allowing me to read and provide my own review.
Well done!

First, Thank you NetGalley, Flux, and most importantly Kate Anderson for allowing me to read ‘Here Lies Olive’ and provide an honest review.

Here Lies Olive provides a refreshing take on death, the after life, and the paranormal from a modern teenagers perspective. We follow Olive a junior in high school who is finally coming back out of her shell after a near death experience and the loss of someone close to her. She is grappling with understanding the afterlife and what she refers to as the Nothing. While on her quest to understand death and the afterlife she summons a ghost and it unravels a 100 year old mystery of an Asylum and the family tied to it. All while doing this she manages to fall in love with the last living descendent of that family. Overall I really enjoyed this book and you can tell the author poured her heart into it.
My criticisms of the book are entirely based around the confusing start of the book and what felt like unnecessary additions of issues of social Justice. She managed to cover police brutality on people of color, the abuse and genocide of natives, “assault-rifle-wielding Second Amendment zealots”, school shootings, women’s rights, and red dye. It just felt like a lot of really heavy subjects in such a short book. I appreciate her bringing up these important subjects that need attention but it was just a lot. I wish there was more focus on Maren and Olives romance, it almost felt like a last minute addition to the already very busy storyline and I loved them and wish I saw more of the banter and flirting throughout.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for the Arc in exchange for a honest review.

Olive learned she had a shellfish allergy and escaped "the nothing," however this left her questioning what happens after death. After Mrs. H passes, leaving Olive feeling alone, she seeks to communicate with Ms. H after death to find the answer to her question: is there an afterlife? Instead of summoning her stand in grandma, she summons a spirit named Jay. This leads her to embark on a quest to get him to his gravesite and brings Olive back to old friendships and new.

Olive was an enjoyable 16-year old main character. Reading about her struggling with her trauma and the consequences of how she coped helped me really connect with her. I wish the emotional development with her feeling towards all the side characters was more pronounced though. I really loved the involvement of culture and the descriptions of generational trauma with the secondary character, Davis. Reading about his pull to his Navajo culture but struggling with his parents, who were apart of a cultural erasure program as children, was a breath of fresh air to read about. Too often I find books do not delve into culture or cultural issues, and this was done subtly and well. The incorporation of generational trauma with the secondary characters was done great and provided so much depth and character development.

All in all I give this a 3.5-4 star review. I would recommend this to friends as an easy pallet cleansing read if someone is seeking some spooky stories with a lot of depth.

3.5 ⭐ Here Lies Olive was a fun and heartfelt YA read. As someone who struggled for years to find language around grief, this novel would have helped me understand my own struggles with loss and uncertainty as a teenager and young adult. I loved the character building, the shameless spooky kitsch of their town and the characters exploring queer identity. The autumnal vibes were perfect and I’d wished I had waited another month to read it!


My main criticism is that the majority of the cultural references throughout the book felt as if they were targeted toward millennials. Weezer, Brand New, Dashboard Confessional, Gilmore Girls, Mean Girls– it felt like the characters were talking about my own high school experience rather than what teenagers are actually into in 2023. It took me out of the story and left me wondering who the audience for this novel really is.

I received an ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is my favorite book of the year. I do admit that I had to take a couple breathers at points because shit got heavy emotionally, but it is so so so good. I had a feeling where the ending was going but also overlooked some details so it was still a bit of a surprise. Also, some genuinely terrifying moments. I could not stop thinking about how great it would be for this to become a film. I’d be first in line at the theater.

I think we finally got a realistic depiction of the teenage hero. Olive and her friends, Davis, Vanessa, and Maren, encounter Jay, a spirit who can't pass on to the other side. For once, our teenage protagonists have no idea what they are doing. That doesn't mean they are fumbling around aimlessly, but that does mean that they make some very educated guesses and some very human mistakes.

This book has so many high points from the character development, world-building, plot, and overall writing style. It stands out from other books in this genre and is such a breath of fresh air! Of course, there are things I could nitpick over, but they are minor in terms of the overall plot. Here Lies Olive was such a great read and one that I would read again!

Here Lies Olive was a fun and spooky read that really got me in the mood for the Halloween season! That said, I had a hard time connecting with the characters, and the pacing of the story felt a bit off. I thought the way Anderson handled the corruption of ghosts and the reasons behind why the haunting was happening was really well-done and interesting though!

"Here Lies Olive" is a ya paranormal, with horror elements, written by Kate Anderson.

The story follows 16-year-old Olive, who grew up in the quaint town of White Haven, New Mexico, the dark tourism capital of the United States. Ever since an allergic reaction to shellfish threatened to kill her, Olive has been terrified of the possibility that there is no afterlife. For five whole minutes her heart stopped beating, five minutes in which she floated in darkness, with no light or sudden appearance, surrounded by Nothing. Following this event she began to keep everyone at a distance, sinking into a kind of apathy, convinced that if Nothing is all there is after death, then relationships can only end in sorrow. The death of her beloved surrogate grandmother, an elderly lady who was able to rouse her from her torpor, shakes her world even more. It is this tragic episode that prompts Olive to try to summon a spirit so she can ask it questions about death. The attempt is successful and Jay, a hitchhiker ghost stuck in the woods behind the poorhouse where he died, appears. Olive agrees to help Jay find his unmarked grave so he can be free, in exchange for answers about the other side and what will be there next. Meanwhile, someone, or something, begins targeting Olive's classmates, and the longer Jay lingers in the world of the living, the more serious the attacks become. Blaming herself for bringing Jay back, Olive teams up with maybe nemesis or maybe crush Maren, her ex-best friend Davis, and newcomer Vanessa to free Jay's spirit before he turns into a malevolent shadow and the attacks turn deadly. But in doing so, Olive will have to face her fear of death and the risk of losing another person she loves in the Nothing.

I loved this book so much! Funny, emotional and addictive, it made me laugh and move at the same time.

I was quite fascinated by the writing! I found it very evocative and atmospheric, able to fully render the small town atmosphere and spooky settings. The author, in my opinion, managed to create an excellent interweaving of witty, dark and melancholic tones. I loved a lot the mysterious and dark nuances of the tale, the subtle eeriness that oozes from the pages, in my opinion well constructed. The horror component, though soft, I thought was handled fantastically. I admit that I sensed a more desolate, more disconsolate vein in the background, which moved me greatly. The fast pace and short chapters make it an extremely smooth read.

The setting is another element that I loved! The story is set in the fictional town of White Haven, New Mexico, considered the dark tourism capital of the United States. Everything, or almost everything, in White Haven revolves around death or sinister events. The elementary school is housed in an old mortuary, many people work in the morgue or, more generally, in the death business, and an open-air funeral pyre, a Museum of the Macabre, and a Home for Wraith Foundlings and Spirit Children stand out among the various facilities. Festivals, events and themed tours abound, drawing curious visitors from all over. However, the places that most mark White Haven are two: the former renowned and luxurious sanatorium for tuberculosis patients and the now-closed poorhouse. It is the latter in particular that has a terrible reputation, with its infamous asylum past, known for cruel management and brutal treatments. Seriously, I loved it all! The town is so quaint, full of traditions and legends, secrets and mysteries, that I was completely captivated. The descriptions, which I thought were vivid and effective, allowed me to visualize the various places in my head.

The story proceeds smoothly, full of events and mysterious phenomena, without being rushed. In fact, the narration takes its time, analyzing the various developments, coming to a conclusion that satisfied me quite a bit. I enjoyed the lighter and funnier parts, but especially the more creepy ones. Between the bleak buildings, gloomy woods, unsettling sounds, terrifying visions, and ominous apparitions, I ended up in juices! The tale places importance on the theme of death, the afterlife, making numerous reflections. This topic, combined with the presence of ghosts and the former asylum, then becomes a way to talk about remorse, grief, misery, and mourning, as well as the difficult, not to say inhumane, conditions of a facility that was supposed to be in charge of protecting the most fragile. I don't know, I found it all so intense that on more than one occasion I shed a few tears. I confess that I solved the mystery early, but that did not affect my very high rating.

I absolutely loved Olive, protagonist and only pov in the first person! Olive is a 16-year-old girl who, due to an allergic reaction to shellfish, nearly died. Her heart stopped for five whole minutes before beating again, five whole minutes in which she remembers floating in absolute darkness, enveloped and devoured by Nothing. It was an experience that deeply unsettled her, prompting her to question the afterlife, to distance herself from friends and various relationships, and to plunge her into apathy. Olive is a very sarcastic, cynical and reclusive person who loves dark colors and dark looks. Introverted, antisocial, she detests crowded places, group activities and studying. What is the point of establishing relationships if all that awaits, after death, is Nothing? Outwardly determined and confident, under a mask of biting irony hides an extremely fragile and sensitive side. Olive is obsessed with death, with the need to know if there is an afterlife, terrified that the Nothing can take her. I found her to be a complex, intense character with excellent development. I grew fond of her, at certain moments I was moved and on more than one occasion I wanted to hug her.

The secondary characters convinced me! With one exception, I loved them too much! They seemed deep and layered to me, to the point that I became attached to most of them. I enjoyed the bonds that were made or recreated, and I admit to being moved by certain situations. There is a Sapphic romance component, never dominant over the plot but well interwoven with it, which I found really sweet and lovely.

All in all, I found it a wonderful spooky, fun, exciting, and intense read that I highly recommend!

Thank you to the Publisher and NetGalley for giving me an ARC of this book in exchange of an honest review.

Here Lies Olive follows in the footsteps of A Lesson in Vengeance and Plain Bad Herions of being a queer dark academic novel; however, this one missed the mark. This is not to say that its a lousy novel, but I struggle to get into the head of Olive and explore the world crafted by Kate Anderson; I hope to give this novel another chance after publication or in audio book form.