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catsy2022's review
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Rating: B
Olive is a contemporary fiction about the expectation of motherhood on women as they get older. Olivia (Olive) is friends with three other women, Cecily, Bee and Isla, each through different stages of their lives ending when they're 33ish. Cecily is a new mother at 28, Bee has three kids and Isla is trying for a child with her husband, Mike, via IVF. Outlier Olive doesn't want children and feels isolated from her friends as they reach different milestones.
This book was pretty light in plot given the circumstances. It's more of a slice of life, the characters each go through fights and trials as they try to understand each other. It was a nice read but didn't show me any other perspectives I didn't already have. The background breakup of Jacob and Olive was used to contrast how busy people get and how self-focused we all get as we get older, in that months have passed before anyone has any capacity to ask Olive about her life.
Kind of relatable and a little sad.
Worth a read if you're in this genre focus but nothing groundbreaking. I also found the characters real and enjoyable but like all contemporary fiction now you notice they all have high paying highly flexible jobs that allow them to achieve all their goals. Real people aren't all like that.
Olive is a contemporary fiction about the expectation of motherhood on women as they get older. Olivia (Olive) is friends with three other women, Cecily, Bee and Isla, each through different stages of their lives ending when they're 33ish. Cecily is a new mother at 28, Bee has three kids and Isla is trying for a child with her husband, Mike, via IVF. Outlier Olive doesn't want children and feels isolated from her friends as they reach different milestones.
This book was pretty light in plot given the circumstances. It's more of a slice of life, the characters each go through fights and trials as they try to understand each other. It was a nice read but didn't show me any other perspectives I didn't already have. The background breakup of Jacob and Olive was used to contrast how busy people get and how self-focused we all get as we get older, in that months have passed before anyone has any capacity to ask Olive about her life.
Kind of relatable and a little sad.
Worth a read if you're in this genre focus but nothing groundbreaking. I also found the characters real and enjoyable but like all contemporary fiction now you notice they all have high paying highly flexible jobs that allow them to achieve all their goals. Real people aren't all like that.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infertility and Pregnancy
Moderate: Infidelity
Minor: Death and Eating disorder
amyvl93's review against another edition
funny
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I was really excited to read Olive as novels about women who choose to be childfree still feel few and far between, and I was interested to read something that grapples with this. However for me this novel missed the mark, largely because our protagonist was The Worst.
Olive Stone (yes really) has recently broken up with her long-term boyfriend because he is ready for children and she doesn't think she wants them. Meanwhile, her best friends from secondary school have all followed this path; her friend Bea became a Mum early and how has three children, Cecily is ready to pop with her first baby and Isla is struggling to conceive and going through IVF. In her role working as an senior member of the team at an online feminism website, Olive begins to explore what it means to be childfree. We also get flashback scenes to Olive and her friends from university through their twenties as their lives change.
I found most of the characters fairly unbearable, and from the start the lack of communication between this group of apparent deep best friends just struck me as unbelievable; Olive as a protagonist is deeply judgemental of almost everyone she interacts with (and covers this up by just saying she's a journalist constantly) which makes it somewhat unsurprising that she apparently has no other friends than three people she's known since she was a child. What could have been an interesting exploration of important topics mostly had me hoping that I don't turn out like Olive; whilst her friends were all managing to live family lives in London and the South East which are entirely out of reach for most other people.
There were definitely moments in Olive that rang true - Isla's deeply complicated feelings about fertility, a nightmare baby shower, Olive's first attendance at a childfree session and her early interactions with a new love interest.
However, it felt like there were too many plotlines that were introduced (Olive's heavy drinking, some terrible partners, literally any of her writing) and go no where - it's almost hinted that Olive's reliance on alcohol is 'cured' by the arrival of a new relationship. There are important topics within the pages of Olive, which will hopefully be picked up in more successful novels.
Olive Stone (yes really) has recently broken up with her long-term boyfriend because he is ready for children and she doesn't think she wants them. Meanwhile, her best friends from secondary school have all followed this path; her friend Bea became a Mum early and how has three children, Cecily is ready to pop with her first baby and Isla is struggling to conceive and going through IVF. In her role working as an senior member of the team at an online feminism website, Olive begins to explore what it means to be childfree. We also get flashback scenes to Olive and her friends from university through their twenties as their lives change.
I found most of the characters fairly unbearable, and from the start the lack of communication between this group of apparent deep best friends just struck me as unbelievable; Olive as a protagonist is deeply judgemental of almost everyone she interacts with (and covers this up by just saying she's a journalist constantly) which makes it somewhat unsurprising that she apparently has no other friends than three people she's known since she was a child. What could have been an interesting exploration of important topics mostly had me hoping that I don't turn out like Olive; whilst her friends were all managing to live family lives in London and the South East which are entirely out of reach for most other people.
There were definitely moments in Olive that rang true - Isla's deeply complicated feelings about fertility, a nightmare baby shower, Olive's first attendance at a childfree session and her early interactions with a new love interest.
However, it felt like there were too many plotlines that were introduced (Olive's heavy drinking, some terrible partners, literally any of her writing) and go no where - it's almost hinted that Olive's reliance on alcohol is 'cured' by the arrival of a new relationship. There are important topics within the pages of Olive, which will hopefully be picked up in more successful novels.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Infertility
Minor: Alcoholism and Death
franzi_'s review
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Infertility, Pregnancy, and Alcohol
Minor: Eating disorder, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Vomit, and Injury/Injury detail
katharina_s's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infertility, Sexism, Pregnancy, and Alcohol
Moderate: Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Transphobia, Medical content, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Eating disorder and Blood
laurataylor's review against another edition
emotional
informative
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Eating disorder, Infertility, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Alcohol
jazzy_t's review against another edition
emotional
funny
lighthearted
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.5
Read this in a week, so think that says it all! Was a great read, was very interesting to read and you really start to love the characters. Only issue was now and then you feel angry at the choices the characters make but that's part of the story.
Amazing book, would definitely recommend!
Amazing book, would definitely recommend!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Eating disorder, Infertility, and Pregnancy
Moderate: Death
abbiemreads's review
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Olive was a book unlike anything I’ve read before. It covered the conversation of motherhood and expectations so thoroughly and filled me with uncountable emotions that snuck up on me out of no where as I read further and further.
This book was leant to me by my 30 year old, and recent mother of a 2 year old, sister and I can’t help but think she must have been at the perfect cross roads in her life to read this. Despite the constant pregnancy announcements and the feeling of everyone I have ever been close to moving on with their lives, on crazy journeys and becoming more adult than I’ve ever felt, I think this book was a year or two early for me.
That doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it, or that I couldn’t relate to the characters. If anything I found it resonated quite well, it was just asking questions and showing view points I imagine would hit harder in a few years time. (I did have a good sob at the first scene though - thanks to my sister not telling me it was friends leaving their uni house when I started reading this 2 days after I left mine)
But I know it’s one that I’ll be thinking about for a while, and definitely a book I’ll be looking to reread when I reach those milestones.
Olive, Bea, Cec, Isla and their friendship makes me so happy. Seeing genuine female friendships, with each character developed fully, warms my heart and seems to be everything I’ve been searching for in those 20-to-30-something novels about growing up.
Even if some parts seemed cheesy or predictable it’s given me incredible food for thought, starting a discussion in my own mind that I’m sure I’ll extend to my friends soon. Olive is a talking point and something completely unique to my usual reads, which makes me glad to have stepped out of my comfort zone.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Infertility and Pregnancy
Minor: Death, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, and Death of parent
kb_sherman's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Infertility and Pregnancy
Minor: Cursing, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, and Death of parent
allandanybooks's review
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
The story is heavy with an important topic. The characters all have flaws and I feel like that’s one of the points of the book. Of them learning to adapt and accept that they are different and that is okay,
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infertility
Moderate: Mental illness
Minor: Death
overbookedmama's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Alcoholism, Death, Eating disorder, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Grief, and Abortion