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Olive
The debut novel from the Sunday Times bestselling author, Emma Gannon.
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.
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.
Audible Audio
First published June 25, 2020
666 people are currently reading
26117 people want to read
About the author
Emma Gannon
17 books672 followersEmma Gannon is the Sunday Times bestselling author of eight books, including ‘A Year of Nothing‘ and ‘Olive’, her debut novel, which was nominated for the Dublin Literary Award. Her second novel, ‘Table for One’, published in 2025 with HarperCollins. Emma also runs the popular Substack newsletter, ‘The Hyphen’, which has thousands of paid subscribers. She also hosts creativity retreats all over the world and was a judge for the 2025 Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 2,135 reviews
May 16, 2020
I'm probably too old to read Olive.
Perhaps a bit too cynical too.
I'm 'child-free by choice' (CFBC as the books terms it) and I've never found it to be the cause of any drama whatsoever.
I've always believed that women my age (55) are part of the first generation to have the choice to not have kids and not get battered by society for that choice. Two decades earlier, women would be repeatedly asked when they would have babies and if they didn't, what was wrong with them. I skipped all of that. I just wonder what's gone wrong with female choice and emancipation if 32-year-old Olive and her ilk are still having the arguments of my mother's generation. True, when your friends start having kids, they do become part of another planet of playdates and long dull discussions about breastfeeding, and they are much more likely to phone you 20 minutes after you were supposed to meet them to tell you that junior's got a temperature or a pea stuck up his nose and they won't be coming. But hang on a couple of decades and you'll get them back again.
I don't normally read 'chick lit' - I don't even have a Goodreads shelf for it. On the rare occasions that I dabble, they get shelved on 'domestic drama'. But I was willing to take a detour to that genre to see what Emma Gannon had to say about choosing to not have kids. I liked a lot of the directions she took - the CFBC group, the examination of some of the many and varied reasons people do make that choice - but I didn't really get a clear sense of why Olive was supposed to feel that way. That's fine with me. I can't really tell you why I didn't want them either.
Thankfully the book isn't just about not wanting kids. It's also about getting them and wondering why you did it; getting them and losing your husband in the process; getting them and realising that maybe your husband wasn't quite so committed, and failing to get them and getting absolutely obsessed about that absence in your life.
I'm pretty sure that there are a lot more novels about wanting and not being able to get kids than there are about not wanting them. Olive adds to the choices of what you can read on the topic. It's worthy of praise for discussing the topic.
I found the expression of the various friends' prejudices very interesting. The sub-fertile friend who thinks her suffering must be somehow more noble and worth talking about than her newly single friend's loneliness and sense of loss. The general ganging up of the mums against the non-mum, the sense that Olive's life was somehow less valid and interesting in their eyes, her inability to talk about her broken relationship because her friends were so self-interested. All good valid discussions.
Please don't hate me for a 3-star. That's easily the highest I've given something in this genre in a long time. Olive is worth a read and could be a good choice for a book club - just don't be surprised if the discussion comes to blows and you end up with prosecco all over the carpet.
I got a free ARC ebook from NetGalley in return for an honest review. Thank you.
Perhaps a bit too cynical too.
I'm 'child-free by choice' (CFBC as the books terms it) and I've never found it to be the cause of any drama whatsoever.
I've always believed that women my age (55) are part of the first generation to have the choice to not have kids and not get battered by society for that choice. Two decades earlier, women would be repeatedly asked when they would have babies and if they didn't, what was wrong with them. I skipped all of that. I just wonder what's gone wrong with female choice and emancipation if 32-year-old Olive and her ilk are still having the arguments of my mother's generation. True, when your friends start having kids, they do become part of another planet of playdates and long dull discussions about breastfeeding, and they are much more likely to phone you 20 minutes after you were supposed to meet them to tell you that junior's got a temperature or a pea stuck up his nose and they won't be coming. But hang on a couple of decades and you'll get them back again.
I don't normally read 'chick lit' - I don't even have a Goodreads shelf for it. On the rare occasions that I dabble, they get shelved on 'domestic drama'. But I was willing to take a detour to that genre to see what Emma Gannon had to say about choosing to not have kids. I liked a lot of the directions she took - the CFBC group, the examination of some of the many and varied reasons people do make that choice - but I didn't really get a clear sense of why Olive was supposed to feel that way. That's fine with me. I can't really tell you why I didn't want them either.
Thankfully the book isn't just about not wanting kids. It's also about getting them and wondering why you did it; getting them and losing your husband in the process; getting them and realising that maybe your husband wasn't quite so committed, and failing to get them and getting absolutely obsessed about that absence in your life.
I'm pretty sure that there are a lot more novels about wanting and not being able to get kids than there are about not wanting them. Olive adds to the choices of what you can read on the topic. It's worthy of praise for discussing the topic.
I found the expression of the various friends' prejudices very interesting. The sub-fertile friend who thinks her suffering must be somehow more noble and worth talking about than her newly single friend's loneliness and sense of loss. The general ganging up of the mums against the non-mum, the sense that Olive's life was somehow less valid and interesting in their eyes, her inability to talk about her broken relationship because her friends were so self-interested. All good valid discussions.
Please don't hate me for a 3-star. That's easily the highest I've given something in this genre in a long time. Olive is worth a read and could be a good choice for a book club - just don't be surprised if the discussion comes to blows and you end up with prosecco all over the carpet.
I got a free ARC ebook from NetGalley in return for an honest review. Thank you.
March 17, 2021
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.
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.
March 8, 2021
EXCERPT: When I was twelve in 1999, I remember being obsessed with snipping cut-outs from my Mum's old Argos catalogues and sticking them into the blank pages of my notepads. Notepads were the only present people bought me or put in my stocking, because I was always doodling as a tiny kid. I would have stacks of them: beaded ones, velvet ones, bright pink ones, furry ones, holographic ones and secret ones with a lock and key. But I had stopped writing and started making collages instead. I would neatly cut around pictures of products I found interesting from the flimsy thin pages of Argos and Pritt-stick them inside the blank pages. Navy blue patterned plates. A big wooden rolling pin. Hand painted tea cups. A garden slide. A stylish armchair. A woollen throw for a sofa. A picture frame designed for four landscape shaped photos. I would trim carefully around each one with big kitchen scissors, in circular motions, around the plates, bowls, crockery. I would stick them into the blank pages, designing my life in detail from an early age. I believed I would have these perfect things in my home when I was older. I would have a garden. I would live in a big house, bigger than my mum's. I would have a husband. I would have a baby too, probably. Or two. Or three! Because that's what you do. My friends would come round with their babies. They would all play together. We would go to the beach and tell them not to eat the sand, while we drank tea in flasks and reminisced about the good old days. That's what grown ups did. When I am an adult, I would think, everything will be good. I will finally be free. Adulthood = Freedom.
I painted a picture of my Big Bright Future through the lens of an old Argos catalogue, and today I am inside that distant future; in the painting, living and breathing it. But I don't have the hand painted tea cups, or the navy blue patterned plates. I don't have a garden slide. And I don't have the baby either.
ABOUT 'OLIVE': 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.
MY THOUGHTS: Oh where do I start? This is chic-lit, but not chic-lit. It is funny, and serious at the same time. Olive explores many things, but mainly the dilemma of the woman who chooses not to have a child. (No, I am not talking about abortion.) While Olive's friends are all madly nesting, and procreating, or trying to procreate through IVF, Olive makes the decision to remain 'child-free'.
Emma Gannon has written a humorous, searching, thoughtful and honest book about Olive's decision and how it impacts her life, her relationship, her friendships, particularly those with her three best friends: Bea, who has it all - the husband, the house, and 2.4 children (3 actually); Cec, who is pregnant with her first child; and Isla who is struggling with infertility and the impact it's having on her marriage.
Olive demonstrates how easily we can feel threatened by other people's life choices, how we become so defensive of our own, and how our life choices can affect our friendships.
I didn't always like Olive, or her friends, but sometimes I loved them, a reflection on how friendships wax and wane. All of these friends are, at various times, self-obsessed, dismissive, judgemental, supportive, and loyal. They were definitely fun.
Sian Clifford made an excellent narrator of the audiobook.
Olive is both entertaining and thought provoking, a lighthearted look at some serious subjects.
⭐⭐⭐.6
#Olive #NetGalley
T: @AndrewsMcMeel @emmagannon
I: @andrewsmcmeel @emmagannon
#audiobook #chic-lit #contemporaryfiction #sliceoflife
THE AUTHOR: Emma Gannon is a Sunday Times bestselling author, speaker, novelist and host of the no. 1 careers podcast in the UK, Ctrl Alt Delete.
Emma started her career in digital marketing at agencies and then at Condé Nast as social media editor. She has been a columnist for The Times, Telegraph and Courier magazine on the topics of business, creativity and the future of work.
DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Andrews McMeel Publishing via Netgalley for providing an audio ARC of Olive by Emma Gannon for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.
For an explanation of my rating system please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com
This review and others are also published on Twitter, Amazon, Instagram and my webpage https://sandysbookaday.wordpress.com/...
I painted a picture of my Big Bright Future through the lens of an old Argos catalogue, and today I am inside that distant future; in the painting, living and breathing it. But I don't have the hand painted tea cups, or the navy blue patterned plates. I don't have a garden slide. And I don't have the baby either.
ABOUT 'OLIVE': 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.
MY THOUGHTS: Oh where do I start? This is chic-lit, but not chic-lit. It is funny, and serious at the same time. Olive explores many things, but mainly the dilemma of the woman who chooses not to have a child. (No, I am not talking about abortion.) While Olive's friends are all madly nesting, and procreating, or trying to procreate through IVF, Olive makes the decision to remain 'child-free'.
Emma Gannon has written a humorous, searching, thoughtful and honest book about Olive's decision and how it impacts her life, her relationship, her friendships, particularly those with her three best friends: Bea, who has it all - the husband, the house, and 2.4 children (3 actually); Cec, who is pregnant with her first child; and Isla who is struggling with infertility and the impact it's having on her marriage.
Olive demonstrates how easily we can feel threatened by other people's life choices, how we become so defensive of our own, and how our life choices can affect our friendships.
I didn't always like Olive, or her friends, but sometimes I loved them, a reflection on how friendships wax and wane. All of these friends are, at various times, self-obsessed, dismissive, judgemental, supportive, and loyal. They were definitely fun.
Sian Clifford made an excellent narrator of the audiobook.
Olive is both entertaining and thought provoking, a lighthearted look at some serious subjects.
⭐⭐⭐.6
#Olive #NetGalley
T: @AndrewsMcMeel @emmagannon
I: @andrewsmcmeel @emmagannon
#audiobook #chic-lit #contemporaryfiction #sliceoflife
THE AUTHOR: Emma Gannon is a Sunday Times bestselling author, speaker, novelist and host of the no. 1 careers podcast in the UK, Ctrl Alt Delete.
Emma started her career in digital marketing at agencies and then at Condé Nast as social media editor. She has been a columnist for The Times, Telegraph and Courier magazine on the topics of business, creativity and the future of work.
DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Andrews McMeel Publishing via Netgalley for providing an audio ARC of Olive by Emma Gannon for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.
For an explanation of my rating system please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com
This review and others are also published on Twitter, Amazon, Instagram and my webpage https://sandysbookaday.wordpress.com/...
July 30, 2020
Olive – Emma Gannon
This is one of those books that kept popping up in my timeline – recommended by bloggers, instagrammers and tweeters I follow. I was interested in the blurb:
“OLIVE is many things.
Independent.
Adrift.
Anxious.
Loyal.
Kind.
Knows her own mind.
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.”
This sounds like just my thing, a voice for her generation and covering a topic which resonates with me – I’m 37 and don’t have children, although I am fortunate to have lots of nieces and nephews as well a surrogate nieces and nephews. I’m sorry to say, as I do appreciate how much blood, sweat and tears go into the publication of anything – I really disliked it. I hated Olive and her voice, she is breathtakingly selfish and self centred and then constantly wonders why her friends are not replying instantly to her WhatsApp messages. This review is going to contain spoilers, so I can talk a bit about specifics. Don’t read on if you do want to read this without knowing some of the details and plot points.
A problematic or unreliable narrator is nothing new, of course, and they can often make for interesting narratives – a redemptive character arc, the shape of someone based on the people around them, a bit of a detective story as you try to work out what’s really going on. “Gone Girl”, by Gillian Flynn, for example. The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger. Olive learns nothing new in the course of the 4oo pages. Literally nothing, and her bad behaviour is validated by her friends and family, even to the point where her new boyfriend applauds her independence to the point of selfishness.
Her inner monologue, as we never hear from anyone else, is of a pretty dreadful human being. She moans when her friends are late but continually mooches around and turns up 15 minutes late to all of her meetings – including boasting that she’s so good at her job and so senior that she can turn up when she wants and no-one will challenge her.
She lies, too, telling people she’s busy with work when she really wants to run a bath and relax. Nothing wrong at all with relaxing, and taking time for yourself – but I believe that you should be honest and tell your friends and boyfriends what you’re doing, or at least recognise that it’s a bit crap of you to lie outright.
She also pats herself on the back when she reaches out a tiny pinky finger to help her supposed best friends. One of them is going through post natal depression, one has three kids and a cheating husband and the other is just enduring her third round of IVF and is desperate for children. At one point, this friend has an argument with her partner and comes to stay with Olive. Olive promptly claims triumph for being a great friend, then leaves her to go to an improv class, followed by beers with the class. She then has a tantrum when her friend suggests they eat dinner together, telling her she needs to work and basically, that’s her too bad if she can’t handle that. At one point she wonders where her elderly next door neighbour is as her lights are off at night, very unusual for her. She shrugs, goes to bed and then when she wakes up in the morning she decides to go and knock on her door – but makes sure she washes her face and gets properly dressed first. Her neighbour turns out to be dead in the hallway, having been found by the postman that morning. Seriously.
It isn’t just Olive’s jaw dropping narcissism that made this unlikeable for me to read, but also the lack of any other characters’ perspectives. She is front and centre, and I think it would have been great to hear from other people in her life. What does her boyfriend of nine years really think about what happened – did they break up simply because he wanted kids and she didn’t? How about her sister, who dips in and out but doesn’t seem to hold any sort of view, really, apart from to tell Olive how she should work for charity because it’s so rewarding.
Additionally, there were some wince-inducing.. mistakes, I guess, which I would have thought would have been picked up by an editorial read. A couple of times she orders a ‘small beer’ in pubs. What’s a small beer? I have drunk beer in pubs for 20 years and have never ordered a small beer. If I had, I would have been laughed at by the person behind the bar. Some of the timelines were strange too – she has an appointment at 9am and then goes to get a gin immediately afterwards, encouraged by her gay BF from work. With the rest of the book, getting a gin on a work day and on what would have been about 11.30am at the latest, would have received some attention, but this passed without her comment. There’s another section where she talks about it being light and warm in the evenings because the clocks have just gone back, mid summer. Er. Clocks go back in October. Head scratching.
I know, none of this sounds particularly important or life changing, but for me they really bounced me out of the story.
Lastly, there were no distinct voices. I struggled to remember who was talking most of the time – Cec, Iz or Bea, as they are all so interchangeable. I also struggled with the timeline, partly as a result of the lack of unambiguous dialogue – it jumped about without seeming to really settle on what it was trying to say or highlight.
Phew. I did like some aspects - a couple of Instagram accounts I follow were referenced, like Accidentally Wes Anderson. I also liked the premise that there is room for women who choose to not have children – unfortunately in this instance, it comes across as the only space available and everyone else is wrong.
I do think it’s important to write honest reviews, and I hope that’s come through with this one. Thank you as always to Netgalley and HarperCollins for the digital ARC!
This is one of those books that kept popping up in my timeline – recommended by bloggers, instagrammers and tweeters I follow. I was interested in the blurb:
“OLIVE is many things.
Independent.
Adrift.
Anxious.
Loyal.
Kind.
Knows her own mind.
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.”
This sounds like just my thing, a voice for her generation and covering a topic which resonates with me – I’m 37 and don’t have children, although I am fortunate to have lots of nieces and nephews as well a surrogate nieces and nephews. I’m sorry to say, as I do appreciate how much blood, sweat and tears go into the publication of anything – I really disliked it. I hated Olive and her voice, she is breathtakingly selfish and self centred and then constantly wonders why her friends are not replying instantly to her WhatsApp messages. This review is going to contain spoilers, so I can talk a bit about specifics. Don’t read on if you do want to read this without knowing some of the details and plot points.
A problematic or unreliable narrator is nothing new, of course, and they can often make for interesting narratives – a redemptive character arc, the shape of someone based on the people around them, a bit of a detective story as you try to work out what’s really going on. “Gone Girl”, by Gillian Flynn, for example. The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger. Olive learns nothing new in the course of the 4oo pages. Literally nothing, and her bad behaviour is validated by her friends and family, even to the point where her new boyfriend applauds her independence to the point of selfishness.
Her inner monologue, as we never hear from anyone else, is of a pretty dreadful human being. She moans when her friends are late but continually mooches around and turns up 15 minutes late to all of her meetings – including boasting that she’s so good at her job and so senior that she can turn up when she wants and no-one will challenge her.
She lies, too, telling people she’s busy with work when she really wants to run a bath and relax. Nothing wrong at all with relaxing, and taking time for yourself – but I believe that you should be honest and tell your friends and boyfriends what you’re doing, or at least recognise that it’s a bit crap of you to lie outright.
She also pats herself on the back when she reaches out a tiny pinky finger to help her supposed best friends. One of them is going through post natal depression, one has three kids and a cheating husband and the other is just enduring her third round of IVF and is desperate for children. At one point, this friend has an argument with her partner and comes to stay with Olive. Olive promptly claims triumph for being a great friend, then leaves her to go to an improv class, followed by beers with the class. She then has a tantrum when her friend suggests they eat dinner together, telling her she needs to work and basically, that’s her too bad if she can’t handle that. At one point she wonders where her elderly next door neighbour is as her lights are off at night, very unusual for her. She shrugs, goes to bed and then when she wakes up in the morning she decides to go and knock on her door – but makes sure she washes her face and gets properly dressed first. Her neighbour turns out to be dead in the hallway, having been found by the postman that morning. Seriously.
It isn’t just Olive’s jaw dropping narcissism that made this unlikeable for me to read, but also the lack of any other characters’ perspectives. She is front and centre, and I think it would have been great to hear from other people in her life. What does her boyfriend of nine years really think about what happened – did they break up simply because he wanted kids and she didn’t? How about her sister, who dips in and out but doesn’t seem to hold any sort of view, really, apart from to tell Olive how she should work for charity because it’s so rewarding.
Additionally, there were some wince-inducing.. mistakes, I guess, which I would have thought would have been picked up by an editorial read. A couple of times she orders a ‘small beer’ in pubs. What’s a small beer? I have drunk beer in pubs for 20 years and have never ordered a small beer. If I had, I would have been laughed at by the person behind the bar. Some of the timelines were strange too – she has an appointment at 9am and then goes to get a gin immediately afterwards, encouraged by her gay BF from work. With the rest of the book, getting a gin on a work day and on what would have been about 11.30am at the latest, would have received some attention, but this passed without her comment. There’s another section where she talks about it being light and warm in the evenings because the clocks have just gone back, mid summer. Er. Clocks go back in October. Head scratching.
I know, none of this sounds particularly important or life changing, but for me they really bounced me out of the story.
Lastly, there were no distinct voices. I struggled to remember who was talking most of the time – Cec, Iz or Bea, as they are all so interchangeable. I also struggled with the timeline, partly as a result of the lack of unambiguous dialogue – it jumped about without seeming to really settle on what it was trying to say or highlight.
Phew. I did like some aspects - a couple of Instagram accounts I follow were referenced, like Accidentally Wes Anderson. I also liked the premise that there is room for women who choose to not have children – unfortunately in this instance, it comes across as the only space available and everyone else is wrong.
I do think it’s important to write honest reviews, and I hope that’s come through with this one. Thank you as always to Netgalley and HarperCollins for the digital ARC!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 16, 2023
I am almost 33 years old and I am child free by choice. thought I was going to really like this. but I didn't. at all. here are the notes I wrote in my phone as I read this book in one sitting.
why do all books written by posh white women mention dinner parties? why have I never come across anyone in my entire life who has been to one?
what's with the absolute OBSESSION of university friends and "student housing". sounds awful.
one of Olive's friends misses being sexually objectified by men whilst pregnant 😑
Isla's parents dying in a "freak" car crash. I'm sure it wasn't planned? (reeks of needing to get the word count up??!)
how is the website olive works for pronounced? ".dot"??? dot dot or just dot?
ALSO on page 25 we are told that dot dot magazine is an online magazine, created to fill the gap of declining print magazines. but by page 91 Olive is flicking through the pages of an old copy of dot dot magazine she found on her "very cluttered coffee table". then by page 131 we're back to Olive overseeing a cover of the first print version of dot dot. sooo... how were there old copies lying around?? make up your goddamn mind, Emma Gannon!
this book isn't only badly written, it's terribly edited. clearly a British book (two pages before this the NHS was mentioned; obviously set in London) but US/UK spellings are used interchangeably. "realize" should be "realise", duh.
Jacob's best mate starting a healthy delivery food business so Jacob got free membership.... sorry WHAT. was this just an excuse to prove how Jacob and Olive were able to affordably eat well? the privilege dripping off this book, oh my days. how is this relatable?
being half-arsed with cleaning by not cleaning crumbs from under the toaster is beyond ridiculous.
so much internalised mysogony! Jacob's eye wrinkles are so sexy but Olive's are disgusting and her time is running out 🙄
on page 113 there is a real twitter quote from a real life person, about not wanting children. which just reaffirms the vibe that this book should have been a non fiction "hot take" of the author's views on not having kids and 1000% not an attempt at fiction.
"it was widely known that Charlize's boyfriend, the father of the child, owned a chain of popular hotels in the area and was going to inherit the family business soon..." how can you own something you're going to inherit? it reads so badly and is incredibly distracting!
a positive thing! like the way Emma Gannon addresses the way society is against single people. really hit the nail on the head with that one. but does Olive really pay £1500 for a 2 bed flat in East London? back to being unbelievable.
I just vomited a little at how Olive calls Jacob "J."
"if anything, you're weird if you didn't have one these days" re: therapists. THE PRIVILEGE!!!!
page 122 - Julie is the fashion editor at dot dot and has a baby, comes back from maternity leave and is shunned by coworkers (at a feminist magazine?? ooookay ....) then by page 183 Julie is the head of design and is drinking and doing the samba with Colin in the dot dot offices before going out on a date?! who the fuck are you Julie, head of fashion or head of design. was "Julie" a placeholder name for 2 different characters that never got changed? smells like it. they read like two different people.
Olive's 8am appointment with Cyril and Cyril is already running late? in what world....??
why does Colin tell Olive to "go and have a nice G&T" after the meeting with Cyril, which was at 8am? I know we all have drinking problems in London but jeez.
so far not a single POC in this book. it's also really bothering me that all 4 of these women have big, successful jobs - editor of a (online? print? who knows!) magazine; a fancy schmancy lawyer who is also talented enough to be an interior designer; a gallery curator married to a famous director; a therapist who got some good media coverage and can now pick and choose her clients. why couldn't one of these women be a librarian or a barista or a swimming instructor?
right yes, the continuity issues in this book are so damn obvious. it's been mentioned that Olive may need to get a flatmate to help pay the rent. but when Isla comes to stay, she has to get out the sofa bed?
I just screamed out loud to my housemate "IS SHE REALLY GOING TO MEET SOMEONE AT A FUCKING IMPROV CLASS" ffs 🤦
why does Olive keep forgetting to wear deodorant? she's 33?
What are “small beers” at a pub and why doesn’t she just say half pint like a normal person.
ahhh the fact that everyone calls her "Ol" which just looks like "oi".
it's redeeming itself about 60 pages from the end... so far...
ugh OF COURSE she ends up with a man who already has kids???!!!!???!!!!
okay yes very sweet and lovely ending re: friendships but it can't make up for the rest of the trash I just read. gross. I just can't read books about privileged straight white posh women anymore. this isn't real life.
why do all books written by posh white women mention dinner parties? why have I never come across anyone in my entire life who has been to one?
what's with the absolute OBSESSION of university friends and "student housing". sounds awful.
one of Olive's friends misses being sexually objectified by men whilst pregnant 😑
Isla's parents dying in a "freak" car crash. I'm sure it wasn't planned? (reeks of needing to get the word count up??!)
how is the website olive works for pronounced? ".dot"??? dot dot or just dot?
ALSO on page 25 we are told that dot dot magazine is an online magazine, created to fill the gap of declining print magazines. but by page 91 Olive is flicking through the pages of an old copy of dot dot magazine she found on her "very cluttered coffee table". then by page 131 we're back to Olive overseeing a cover of the first print version of dot dot. sooo... how were there old copies lying around?? make up your goddamn mind, Emma Gannon!
this book isn't only badly written, it's terribly edited. clearly a British book (two pages before this the NHS was mentioned; obviously set in London) but US/UK spellings are used interchangeably. "realize" should be "realise", duh.
Jacob's best mate starting a healthy delivery food business so Jacob got free membership.... sorry WHAT. was this just an excuse to prove how Jacob and Olive were able to affordably eat well? the privilege dripping off this book, oh my days. how is this relatable?
being half-arsed with cleaning by not cleaning crumbs from under the toaster is beyond ridiculous.
so much internalised mysogony! Jacob's eye wrinkles are so sexy but Olive's are disgusting and her time is running out 🙄
on page 113 there is a real twitter quote from a real life person, about not wanting children. which just reaffirms the vibe that this book should have been a non fiction "hot take" of the author's views on not having kids and 1000% not an attempt at fiction.
"it was widely known that Charlize's boyfriend, the father of the child, owned a chain of popular hotels in the area and was going to inherit the family business soon..." how can you own something you're going to inherit? it reads so badly and is incredibly distracting!
a positive thing! like the way Emma Gannon addresses the way society is against single people. really hit the nail on the head with that one. but does Olive really pay £1500 for a 2 bed flat in East London? back to being unbelievable.
I just vomited a little at how Olive calls Jacob "J."
"if anything, you're weird if you didn't have one these days" re: therapists. THE PRIVILEGE!!!!
page 122 - Julie is the fashion editor at dot dot and has a baby, comes back from maternity leave and is shunned by coworkers (at a feminist magazine?? ooookay ....) then by page 183 Julie is the head of design and is drinking and doing the samba with Colin in the dot dot offices before going out on a date?! who the fuck are you Julie, head of fashion or head of design. was "Julie" a placeholder name for 2 different characters that never got changed? smells like it. they read like two different people.
Olive's 8am appointment with Cyril and Cyril is already running late? in what world....??
why does Colin tell Olive to "go and have a nice G&T" after the meeting with Cyril, which was at 8am? I know we all have drinking problems in London but jeez.
so far not a single POC in this book. it's also really bothering me that all 4 of these women have big, successful jobs - editor of a (online? print? who knows!) magazine; a fancy schmancy lawyer who is also talented enough to be an interior designer; a gallery curator married to a famous director; a therapist who got some good media coverage and can now pick and choose her clients. why couldn't one of these women be a librarian or a barista or a swimming instructor?
right yes, the continuity issues in this book are so damn obvious. it's been mentioned that Olive may need to get a flatmate to help pay the rent. but when Isla comes to stay, she has to get out the sofa bed?
I just screamed out loud to my housemate "IS SHE REALLY GOING TO MEET SOMEONE AT A FUCKING IMPROV CLASS" ffs 🤦
why does Olive keep forgetting to wear deodorant? she's 33?
What are “small beers” at a pub and why doesn’t she just say half pint like a normal person.
ahhh the fact that everyone calls her "Ol" which just looks like "oi".
it's redeeming itself about 60 pages from the end... so far...
ugh OF COURSE she ends up with a man who already has kids???!!!!???!!!!
okay yes very sweet and lovely ending re: friendships but it can't make up for the rest of the trash I just read. gross. I just can't read books about privileged straight white posh women anymore. this isn't real life.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 19, 2021
I feel the need to preface this review with the caveat that my low star rating is not because of the subject matter covered by the novel, but because of the novel's execution. In fact, the concept of a story about a woman contemplating a child-free existence was what drew me to the novel, despite my concerns about Gannon residing in a circle that includes Dolly Alderton, Pandora Sykes, and Daisy Buchanan (all good podcasters and terrible novelists), as well as Marian Keyes and Louise O’Neill (great writers with abysmal reading tastes)*.
*This is going by their consistency in reviewing mediocre-to-astonishingly-bad books with universally positive – indeed glowing – epithets. Now, there’s a whole other essay to be written on how your outlook changes – at least in public – when you become a writer with writer friends. Certainly, if Emma Gannon was my friend, the strongest move I would make against her work is to damn it with faint praise. However, Gannon is not my friend, she is not a good writer, and this is not a good book.
There is literally no part of the craft needed to create a novel on show here. The structure is flimsy. The plot is a series of events happening with no cohesion or unity. Each character is the same character, split into several bodies, all with interchangeable personalities and dialogue. On a sentence level, the writing is shockingly poor, to the point where I questioned Gannon’s ability to cut it as a journalist, never mind a novelist.
“Yeah okay.”
“You do look a bit tired my love.”
There are so many examples of missing commas, which, if you have any sensitivity to how a sentence flows, is incredibly jarring. And it makes the writing read like a high schooler’s first fiction essay.
“ ‘That must have been scary?’ I ask, chomping on another biscuit.”
Someone must have sent a chain email to all these ‘TELL NEVER SHOW’ women’s fiction writers about the use of small actions to break up your dialogue beats. Here is how NOT to do that. You could not possibly sound invested in the scary thing you’re being told while ‘chomping’ on a biscuit. In fact, you’d only use that verb, and this action beat, if you wanted to convey a distinct lack of interest on the part of the speaking character. However, this is Olive supposedly at her most alert and supportive. This is what I mean by ‘shockingly poor’: Gannon just doesn’t know what words do.
In terms of characters, there’s Olive, who’s a dick, and her friends, who are slightly different and blander flavours of dick. There’s some antagonists, like Cyril, who arrive on the scene just to be taken down by Olive in a dick move that’s framed as an Empowering Feminist Moment. Mostly, people just exist in this book to teach you a lesson about something Gannon Googled five minutes ago.
“I’m slightly blindsided. […] I’d somehow put Dorothy into a small box of tradition and convention. It’s just what I’d associate with her generation. […] But I suppose it goes to show, people can surprise you all the time. There doesn’t have to be one given path for everyone.”
Wow, thanks for hammering home that moral. Would you like to borrow Mjölnir* and beat it into my head some more, just in case I missed your Big Point?
*Joke. As if Gannon would be able to lift Mjölnir.
Oh, and there’s also several episodes of her repeating a really noticeable word like ‘annoyingly’ or ‘gently’ twice in the space of a page. Is your line editor DEAD?
There are also several points where Olive as narrator just comes across as monumentally stupid. I cannot think that this is on purpose, for two reasons: 1) it is just not what most writers aim for, especially in commercial fiction and 2) I can’t give Gannon credit for trying to pull a ‘The Idiot’ style move with her POV character. Here are some of the more egregious examples:
Olive, a woman of thirty-three in 2019, still smokes.
Pursuant to that, she also VAPES.
Pursuant to that, her dentist has told her off for smoking because it stains her teeth, and this is the thing that sticks. Her dentist. HER DENTIST.
“I also used to think that people were actually stacked on top of each other during University Challenge - it’s actually just edited that way.”
What even is this sentence.
“My ankle drips [blood] over my bath mat and I stick some tissue to it because – surprise surprise, adult that I am – I have no plasters in the house.”
I mean. Plasters aren’t, like, a Smeg fridge or something. They’re two euro a packet in Boots, you could just buy some literally any time, Olive.
“Yes, [Olivia]’s technically my full name on my birth certificate, but I hate it. I am Olive.”
I honestly don’t know what’s hilariously dumber, the fact that she’s picking a ‘true’ name that’s one letter different from her given name, or that the name she gloms on to like it’s some amazing elf star princess title is Olive. Olive. As in, the little green fruit that tastes of vomit. Which, consistently, is exactly what reading this book feels like.
“It’s called Blue Assassin, and centres around a kidnapped dolphin: Splash with a dark twist.”
Except that Splash isn’t about dolphins OR kidnapping? So, what the fuck, please?
“ ‘What normally happens at a baby shower then?’ I whisper to Bea. I almost feel like I’ve paid money to be here, and I want a performance.”
This is, and I cannot stress this enough, an utterly insane response to have to baby showers, and a nonsensical question from a person with a phone in their hand at all times.
“[…] drink a latte from a paper cuyp, which is kind of gross but it’s sustainable and blah-blah.”
Leaving aside for a minute that Olive sounds like a baby-boomer, not a Millennial, what has she been drinking from that’s not a paper cup? Is she wistful for the days of Styrofoam?
Olive boasts of having feminist credentials – in an early scene, she snaps at someone to turn off R. Kelly because he’s a sexual abuser. Later on, however, she says things like:
“Her boobs are suspiciously high up and unmoving.”
… suspiciously? As in, they’re fake? And you find it suspicious that she’s … pretending they’re not? Except I think this character is fully aware that her boobs look too perfect to be natural. Isn’t that surely, say, the point of getting a boob job? I dunno, I feel it’s more feminist to just not comment on people’s boobs, suspicious or otherwise.
And lest we forget, Olive and Jacob’s meet-cute occurs when she takes a creepshot of him in his place of work and posts it online to a forum for objectifying men reading books. This is treated as cute and romantic, instead of a horrifying breakage of boundaries. That being said, if it were treated with sensitivity and consideration, you could sell me on a romance where one half does that to the other half … but not if you didn’t at least provide a better acknowledgement of how deeply dodgy it is than “admittedly it was a strange way of us ‘breaking the ice’”. I SHOULD FUCKING SAY, OLIVE.
When it comes to the child-free aspect of the novel – its pseudo-notorious selling point, no doubt – I think I’ve made it clear that Olive isn’t the kind of protagonist you want on your side. Then again, I’m not sure Gannon as a writer is someone I want on my side, as a child-free person. (‘Child-free by choice’ is a phrase I find risible, because it’s redundant. If you’re ‘child-free not by choice’ you’re childless, so you can keep the old name. ‘Child-free’ does exactly what it says on the tin.) She paints everyone in stark shades of black and white, yet she seems conflicted in her own message. Olive attends a child-free event where a big advocate of the child-free lifestyle announces her pregnancy onstage. Um, what? Olive goes on rants about child-rearing at baby showers and at her friend who’s struggling with IVF, which doesn’t exactly shower her in legitimacy. And Olive ends the book as a mother: a step-mother, sure, but a very involved one who’s a surrogate for the children’s dead biological mother. If the book was supposed to be about how you don’t have to squeeze infants out of your vagina to earn the appellation ‘mother’, then that is the book Gannon should have written. Olive is not the child-free heroine I wanted, and she sure as fuck isn’t the one I deserve.
*This is going by their consistency in reviewing mediocre-to-astonishingly-bad books with universally positive – indeed glowing – epithets. Now, there’s a whole other essay to be written on how your outlook changes – at least in public – when you become a writer with writer friends. Certainly, if Emma Gannon was my friend, the strongest move I would make against her work is to damn it with faint praise. However, Gannon is not my friend, she is not a good writer, and this is not a good book.
There is literally no part of the craft needed to create a novel on show here. The structure is flimsy. The plot is a series of events happening with no cohesion or unity. Each character is the same character, split into several bodies, all with interchangeable personalities and dialogue. On a sentence level, the writing is shockingly poor, to the point where I questioned Gannon’s ability to cut it as a journalist, never mind a novelist.
“Yeah okay.”
“You do look a bit tired my love.”
There are so many examples of missing commas, which, if you have any sensitivity to how a sentence flows, is incredibly jarring. And it makes the writing read like a high schooler’s first fiction essay.
“ ‘That must have been scary?’ I ask, chomping on another biscuit.”
Someone must have sent a chain email to all these ‘TELL NEVER SHOW’ women’s fiction writers about the use of small actions to break up your dialogue beats. Here is how NOT to do that. You could not possibly sound invested in the scary thing you’re being told while ‘chomping’ on a biscuit. In fact, you’d only use that verb, and this action beat, if you wanted to convey a distinct lack of interest on the part of the speaking character. However, this is Olive supposedly at her most alert and supportive. This is what I mean by ‘shockingly poor’: Gannon just doesn’t know what words do.
In terms of characters, there’s Olive, who’s a dick, and her friends, who are slightly different and blander flavours of dick. There’s some antagonists, like Cyril, who arrive on the scene just to be taken down by Olive in a dick move that’s framed as an Empowering Feminist Moment. Mostly, people just exist in this book to teach you a lesson about something Gannon Googled five minutes ago.
“I’m slightly blindsided. […] I’d somehow put Dorothy into a small box of tradition and convention. It’s just what I’d associate with her generation. […] But I suppose it goes to show, people can surprise you all the time. There doesn’t have to be one given path for everyone.”
Wow, thanks for hammering home that moral. Would you like to borrow Mjölnir* and beat it into my head some more, just in case I missed your Big Point?
*Joke. As if Gannon would be able to lift Mjölnir.
Oh, and there’s also several episodes of her repeating a really noticeable word like ‘annoyingly’ or ‘gently’ twice in the space of a page. Is your line editor DEAD?
There are also several points where Olive as narrator just comes across as monumentally stupid. I cannot think that this is on purpose, for two reasons: 1) it is just not what most writers aim for, especially in commercial fiction and 2) I can’t give Gannon credit for trying to pull a ‘The Idiot’ style move with her POV character. Here are some of the more egregious examples:
Olive, a woman of thirty-three in 2019, still smokes.
Pursuant to that, she also VAPES.
Pursuant to that, her dentist has told her off for smoking because it stains her teeth, and this is the thing that sticks. Her dentist. HER DENTIST.
“I also used to think that people were actually stacked on top of each other during University Challenge - it’s actually just edited that way.”
What even is this sentence.
“My ankle drips [blood] over my bath mat and I stick some tissue to it because – surprise surprise, adult that I am – I have no plasters in the house.”
I mean. Plasters aren’t, like, a Smeg fridge or something. They’re two euro a packet in Boots, you could just buy some literally any time, Olive.
“Yes, [Olivia]’s technically my full name on my birth certificate, but I hate it. I am Olive.”
I honestly don’t know what’s hilariously dumber, the fact that she’s picking a ‘true’ name that’s one letter different from her given name, or that the name she gloms on to like it’s some amazing elf star princess title is Olive. Olive. As in, the little green fruit that tastes of vomit. Which, consistently, is exactly what reading this book feels like.
“It’s called Blue Assassin, and centres around a kidnapped dolphin: Splash with a dark twist.”
Except that Splash isn’t about dolphins OR kidnapping? So, what the fuck, please?
“ ‘What normally happens at a baby shower then?’ I whisper to Bea. I almost feel like I’ve paid money to be here, and I want a performance.”
This is, and I cannot stress this enough, an utterly insane response to have to baby showers, and a nonsensical question from a person with a phone in their hand at all times.
“[…] drink a latte from a paper cuyp, which is kind of gross but it’s sustainable and blah-blah.”
Leaving aside for a minute that Olive sounds like a baby-boomer, not a Millennial, what has she been drinking from that’s not a paper cup? Is she wistful for the days of Styrofoam?
Olive boasts of having feminist credentials – in an early scene, she snaps at someone to turn off R. Kelly because he’s a sexual abuser. Later on, however, she says things like:
“Her boobs are suspiciously high up and unmoving.”
… suspiciously? As in, they’re fake? And you find it suspicious that she’s … pretending they’re not? Except I think this character is fully aware that her boobs look too perfect to be natural. Isn’t that surely, say, the point of getting a boob job? I dunno, I feel it’s more feminist to just not comment on people’s boobs, suspicious or otherwise.
And lest we forget, Olive and Jacob’s meet-cute occurs when she takes a creepshot of him in his place of work and posts it online to a forum for objectifying men reading books. This is treated as cute and romantic, instead of a horrifying breakage of boundaries. That being said, if it were treated with sensitivity and consideration, you could sell me on a romance where one half does that to the other half … but not if you didn’t at least provide a better acknowledgement of how deeply dodgy it is than “admittedly it was a strange way of us ‘breaking the ice’”. I SHOULD FUCKING SAY, OLIVE.
When it comes to the child-free aspect of the novel – its pseudo-notorious selling point, no doubt – I think I’ve made it clear that Olive isn’t the kind of protagonist you want on your side. Then again, I’m not sure Gannon as a writer is someone I want on my side, as a child-free person. (‘Child-free by choice’ is a phrase I find risible, because it’s redundant. If you’re ‘child-free not by choice’ you’re childless, so you can keep the old name. ‘Child-free’ does exactly what it says on the tin.) She paints everyone in stark shades of black and white, yet she seems conflicted in her own message. Olive attends a child-free event where a big advocate of the child-free lifestyle announces her pregnancy onstage. Um, what? Olive goes on rants about child-rearing at baby showers and at her friend who’s struggling with IVF, which doesn’t exactly shower her in legitimacy. And Olive ends the book as a mother: a step-mother, sure, but a very involved one who’s a surrogate for the children’s dead biological mother. If the book was supposed to be about how you don’t have to squeeze infants out of your vagina to earn the appellation ‘mother’, then that is the book Gannon should have written. Olive is not the child-free heroine I wanted, and she sure as fuck isn’t the one I deserve.
June 4, 2020
Olive Stone now 33, has been friends with Bea, Isla and Cecily since school days. Olive is ambitious and doing very well in her journalistic career at .dot magazine. She has no maternal urges whatsoever which leads to a split from long term boyfriend Jacob who wants children. Although the book focuses on Olive, the choices of her friends are also portrayed as are the ups and downs in their personal lives and interactions with Olive. The story is narrated by Olive and goes backwards and forwards from university days today.
Olive is very likeable although she probably wouldn’t be keen to hear that she can be a bit self centred and judgey over her friends choices She struggles sometimes to accept the path they have chosen and she feels they don’t always try to understand her choices. She can blurt things out especially when a tad inebriated and her interactions with Isla particularly become tricky. Her three friends are easy to picture as they struggle in various ways with partners, children and work. It’s a well written book with plenty of humour, it touches on important issues of the value of friendship, motherhood, infertility and stereotyping with the overall message to be content with who you are. At no point is the book preachy or judgemental, it’s heartfelt, warm and a very insightful portrayal of friends, personal choice and acceptance of that choice. Much of what Emma Gannon writes will resonate as all too frequently people have expectations of the path a woman should take. I kid you not, at my wedding I was asked several times when I was going to have children as that is the ‘expected route’. The presumption!!! At that point nothing was further from my mind so Olive’s story really strikes a personal chord.
Overall, this is a well written book which looks at relevant issues and is thought provoking. It’s funny, sad, happy with tension as the main characters different perspectives tests their friendship but ultimately it’s a message about acceptance about who we are rather than whether we do or don’t wish to reproduce and being happy in our own skin. The author has proved that it is possible to look at feminist issues in an entertaining way and I applaud her for that.
With thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins, Harper Fiction for the ARC.
Olive is very likeable although she probably wouldn’t be keen to hear that she can be a bit self centred and judgey over her friends choices She struggles sometimes to accept the path they have chosen and she feels they don’t always try to understand her choices. She can blurt things out especially when a tad inebriated and her interactions with Isla particularly become tricky. Her three friends are easy to picture as they struggle in various ways with partners, children and work. It’s a well written book with plenty of humour, it touches on important issues of the value of friendship, motherhood, infertility and stereotyping with the overall message to be content with who you are. At no point is the book preachy or judgemental, it’s heartfelt, warm and a very insightful portrayal of friends, personal choice and acceptance of that choice. Much of what Emma Gannon writes will resonate as all too frequently people have expectations of the path a woman should take. I kid you not, at my wedding I was asked several times when I was going to have children as that is the ‘expected route’. The presumption!!! At that point nothing was further from my mind so Olive’s story really strikes a personal chord.
Overall, this is a well written book which looks at relevant issues and is thought provoking. It’s funny, sad, happy with tension as the main characters different perspectives tests their friendship but ultimately it’s a message about acceptance about who we are rather than whether we do or don’t wish to reproduce and being happy in our own skin. The author has proved that it is possible to look at feminist issues in an entertaining way and I applaud her for that.
With thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins, Harper Fiction for the ARC.
April 6, 2020
I was afraid to give this 5 stars because I´m completely biased here: I´m the same age as Olive, and I also chose not to have children. It´s NOT EASY to find characters like her in contemporary lit.
Emma touches on subjects like friendship, women fertility, marriage, relationships, careers and society´s overall pressure on women throughout the book in a way that just made me feel all the feels.
I was just happy to pick up a book so light and easy to read (amidst a pandemic I must add) that made me just want to call my girlfriends and tell them I love them!
I was already a huge Emma fan because of her podcast - I wont´shut up about this book now to everyone I know.
Emma touches on subjects like friendship, women fertility, marriage, relationships, careers and society´s overall pressure on women throughout the book in a way that just made me feel all the feels.
I was just happy to pick up a book so light and easy to read (amidst a pandemic I must add) that made me just want to call my girlfriends and tell them I love them!
I was already a huge Emma fan because of her podcast - I wont´shut up about this book now to everyone I know.
March 31, 2021
Olive is a contemporary novel about Olive and her three friends, all in their early thirties. Bea is a mother of three, married to a movie director. Cec is a lawyer, pregnant with her first child. Isla is a therapist, who's struggling with fertility issues. Olive, on the other hand, is adamant she doesn't want children, which, of course, causes consternation, reprobations, and a long-term relationship to fall apart. How dare Olive not want what she's supposed to want?
Kudos to Gannon for approaching this controversial topic of women opting to stay child-free. I think she covered the many facets very well. Women don't owe anyone any explanations about their choice to procreate or not. Not in this day and age anyway.
Kudos to Gannon for approaching this controversial topic of women opting to stay child-free. I think she covered the many facets very well. Women don't owe anyone any explanations about their choice to procreate or not. Not in this day and age anyway.
August 23, 2020
I reached this nonsensical sentence, and decided to cut my losses with this book: 'I was wearing a pair of velvet dungarees, hoping they wouldn't give me thrush.'. Right...
November 30, 2020
The extremely difficult plight of 4 rich white women
January 9, 2021
Finding it hard to pin point why I read this so quickly given all my initial thoughts are criticisms. The dialogue was entirely unrelatable and awkward, it read quite jarring. I also felt nothing for any characters, even Olive herself. But I guess what kept me going was how deeply it explored different experiences surrounding having children - the pros and cons of being both a parent or childless. It was interesting to gain an understanding of motherhood and the desire some women have for it, while understanding how it would feel to be childless in today’s world. It was definitely validating to read, considering I have never felt an urge or desire for children but am often told my mind will change. If anything, I feel far more certainty over being childless and more at peace with that decision because of this book. So while I had issues with the writing and the relationships and character building, it was still valuable.
March 26, 2021
I never write book reviews, but I'm writing this one to save you the pain of reading this book.
This book is so poorly written. The author has absolutely no concept of 'show, don't tell'. There are constant descriptions of how wonderful the four women's friendships are and how important they are to each other, and yet absolutely no evidence of any substance behind this, just lots of recaps of them getting drunk at parties when they were young. If they’re all such pals, why does it take Olive 2 months to tell them she’s broken up with her boyfriend of 9 years? The dialogue is atrocious. The characters say the most contrived, sappy, and unbelievable things. What author literally writes out characters saying, "Haha"??!
The story is a haphazard patchwork of events, present jumbled with past, with no clear storyline in sight. I had no idea where the book was going. The author has no sense of pacing. Seemingly important events are tossed aside - e.g. Jeremy cheating on Bea; Olive seems to completely forget or not care about this until she suddenly has the presence of mind to randomly call her ‘best friend’ while sitting on the toilet. So much for deep and lifelong friendship? And then skipping entirely over the start of Olive and Marcus's relationship? They're just suddenly together, comfortable, and cooking each other food; no mention of how this must feel coming out of a 9-year relationship. Unimportant events are included for no reason, such as getting ready to go out to a club with colleague Colin - but then the actual outing is skipped entirely.
There are all these minor, irritating inconsistencies that keep tripping the reader up. Things are mashed together with no coherency. Olive is out of milk and on her way to the shops and gets waylaid by her neighbour - she leaves her neighbour and suddenly she's then going on a day out with Isla; but weren't we getting milk? Olive leaves work at 5:30pm to visit Bea - suddenly, they're having lunch instead. There's too many more to keep track of. How were these things not picked up in editing?
The main character is whiny, self absorbed, judgemental and lazy. She definitely doesn't deserve to have the booked named after her - she's utterly uninspiring. She's a terrible 'mascot' for childfree women. I think it's clear the author does not truly grasp what childfree women are like - she conceptualises them as people who are too immature to sort their lives out and too self absorbed to ever consider making sacrifices for others. It actually damages the image of childfree women, rather than supports it.
Olive is described as being independent but can't even clean her house or cook without a man encouraging her. She's always skiving off at work, yet is described as a workaholic. She apparently doesn't care about her appearance and what others think, but then is constantly complaining that her friends don't understand her and aren't validating her life choices.
She's a terrible friend - she has zero empathy for the other women (especially Isla, who desperately wants a child through IVF) and constantly feels like she's the one owed an apology. She'd rather feel she's right than make up with her friends - in fact at one point she contemplates walking away from her friends completely. I mean, for what?! What terrible crime have they apparently committed against her?
She's jealous, judgemental and selfish towards her friends and those around her - snippy comments about Cec's luxurious house and baby shower, feeling put upon when helping elderly neighbour Dorothy, complaining that her sister, Zeta, isn't there for her because she's away doing charity work. Speaking of which, why doesn't Olive ever discuss childfree life with Zeta, who is 5 years older and seems not to have kids? One would think she'd be a great sounding board? Why does she keep hounding her poor three friends instead, who are all clearly are pro-kids?
The biggest elephant in the room: how does she feel about being in a long term relationship with a man with kids? Completely not addressed. It's incomprehensible, considering what the book is about. No one asks Olive and she doesn't offer any introspection on it.
This book is so poorly written. The author has absolutely no concept of 'show, don't tell'. There are constant descriptions of how wonderful the four women's friendships are and how important they are to each other, and yet absolutely no evidence of any substance behind this, just lots of recaps of them getting drunk at parties when they were young. If they’re all such pals, why does it take Olive 2 months to tell them she’s broken up with her boyfriend of 9 years? The dialogue is atrocious. The characters say the most contrived, sappy, and unbelievable things. What author literally writes out characters saying, "Haha"??!
The story is a haphazard patchwork of events, present jumbled with past, with no clear storyline in sight. I had no idea where the book was going. The author has no sense of pacing. Seemingly important events are tossed aside - e.g. Jeremy cheating on Bea; Olive seems to completely forget or not care about this until she suddenly has the presence of mind to randomly call her ‘best friend’ while sitting on the toilet. So much for deep and lifelong friendship? And then skipping entirely over the start of Olive and Marcus's relationship? They're just suddenly together, comfortable, and cooking each other food; no mention of how this must feel coming out of a 9-year relationship. Unimportant events are included for no reason, such as getting ready to go out to a club with colleague Colin - but then the actual outing is skipped entirely.
There are all these minor, irritating inconsistencies that keep tripping the reader up. Things are mashed together with no coherency. Olive is out of milk and on her way to the shops and gets waylaid by her neighbour - she leaves her neighbour and suddenly she's then going on a day out with Isla; but weren't we getting milk? Olive leaves work at 5:30pm to visit Bea - suddenly, they're having lunch instead. There's too many more to keep track of. How were these things not picked up in editing?
The main character is whiny, self absorbed, judgemental and lazy. She definitely doesn't deserve to have the booked named after her - she's utterly uninspiring. She's a terrible 'mascot' for childfree women. I think it's clear the author does not truly grasp what childfree women are like - she conceptualises them as people who are too immature to sort their lives out and too self absorbed to ever consider making sacrifices for others. It actually damages the image of childfree women, rather than supports it.
Olive is described as being independent but can't even clean her house or cook without a man encouraging her. She's always skiving off at work, yet is described as a workaholic. She apparently doesn't care about her appearance and what others think, but then is constantly complaining that her friends don't understand her and aren't validating her life choices.
She's a terrible friend - she has zero empathy for the other women (especially Isla, who desperately wants a child through IVF) and constantly feels like she's the one owed an apology. She'd rather feel she's right than make up with her friends - in fact at one point she contemplates walking away from her friends completely. I mean, for what?! What terrible crime have they apparently committed against her?
She's jealous, judgemental and selfish towards her friends and those around her - snippy comments about Cec's luxurious house and baby shower, feeling put upon when helping elderly neighbour Dorothy, complaining that her sister, Zeta, isn't there for her because she's away doing charity work. Speaking of which, why doesn't Olive ever discuss childfree life with Zeta, who is 5 years older and seems not to have kids? One would think she'd be a great sounding board? Why does she keep hounding her poor three friends instead, who are all clearly are pro-kids?
The biggest elephant in the room: how does she feel about being in a long term relationship with a man with kids? Completely not addressed. It's incomprehensible, considering what the book is about. No one asks Olive and she doesn't offer any introspection on it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 15, 2020
Whilst the style is far too commercial for my tastes, I appreciated the exploration of motherhood in its myriad forms. This book will definitely be discussed by millennial podcasters everywhere (not my scene), which can only be a good thing.
For:
Reading on the beach
Avoid if:
You crave good writing
For:
Reading on the beach
Avoid if:
You crave good writing
January 20, 2023
I was originally drawn to this book as the main character Olive is on a journey to discovering how she feels about choosing not to have children. I enjoyed the different perspectives and experiences around motherhood within her friendship circle. However, as a story, it really lacked structure. I didn’t like her friendships or the ending. Almost felt like Olive’s diary with a string of random events. Some interesting themes and an easy read, but not a gripping story for me.
March 20, 2021
While everyone on here seems to hate Olive, I found her so relatable. She doesn't do the right thing always but she loves her friends and she loves her job and she is just really struggling. I might be in a completely different life stage - none of my friends are even remotely thinking about having kids - but it felt like I saw my future reflected back at me: single, anxious, and pushing away the friends that you should probably hold on to, because you don't want to bother them with your issues.
I might not be in the settling down phase of life yet, but the way people talked about her choice not to have kids, the "what if you change your mind later?", the "are you sure there's nothing wrong with you medically", and the "it's a bit selfish, don't you think?"s were super relatable to me as someone who is both aro-ace and has completely no interest in dating. It angers me how much people care about the decisions of others. Just let people be, and if they change their mind, fine. Who cares?
I might not be in the settling down phase of life yet, but the way people talked about her choice not to have kids, the "what if you change your mind later?", the "are you sure there's nothing wrong with you medically", and the "it's a bit selfish, don't you think?"s were super relatable to me as someone who is both aro-ace and has completely no interest in dating. It angers me how much people care about the decisions of others. Just let people be, and if they change their mind, fine. Who cares?
August 21, 2020
I received a free advance reader copy of Olive in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to the publisher, author and Netgalley! Receiving a e-copy has in no way influenced my opinions on the book.
Content warnings: Breakup, swearing, talk of sex, bullying, abortion, IVF process, sexism
This review is also published in my book blog (with pretty graphics yay!): https://bookaholicdreamer.wordpress.c...
1.5 stars
When I first saw the synopsis of Olive, my heart filled with joy. Despite of my efforts to find books about women who choose to remain childfree, these stories are nearly impossible to come by. Instead, women without children are often villainized and portrayed as miserable, angry ladies who hate kids. This is also what the society at large seems to think about women who don’t want children; I’ve been told that I’m selfish or that I’m not a woman at all if I don’t want children. I have been told that I will sorely regret not having children, and most often that I will change my mind. Books about childfree-living are sorely, desperately needed. And I felt a little spark of hope when I saw Olive’s synopsis. I wished so bad that it was the book that I had been looking for! And although the rep turned out to be as meaningful as I wished, otherwise Olive was a painful read. And not in a good way.
But let’s talk about the rep first! Olive is a 30-something powerhouse of a woman who works in a feminist magazine and loves meeting up with her friend group after work for dinner & wine. She is perfectly content with her life until her long-term boyfriend tells her that he is ready to start a family. But Olive doesn’t want kids. And even though this realisation doesn’t seem ground-breaking to Olive at first, she soon notices that her relationship and friendships are going to be turned upside down because of it. Everyone turns on her with the same offensive arguments that I have heard during my life.
Olive grows increasingly certain of her decision even though she doesn’t get any support from her friends. In fact, being childfree is explored from many different angles. Olive’s friends include Bea who has three children, Cec who has just given birth, and Isla who desperately wants a child but has had difficulty conceiving. This set up gives a rich platform for exploring the issue with loads of different perspectives and experiences in the mix. Unfortunately however, some encounters with fleeting side-characters felt like they were forced within the narrative only to spice up the debate; we have a random childhood friend who relates to Olive how she regrets having her child, bigoted parents who see Olive as less of a person for not contributing to the world’s overpopulation, and an older neighbour who has become estranged from her children. Although the rep is important, I felt awkward about some of these encounters and they didn’t seem to contribute anything to the book other than another perspective on Olive remaining childfree.
The book also went over the top in other areas. I found many of the characters annoying or one-sided; I felt like some characters refused to see anything from each others’ perspectives, and the dialogue was cringey at times. I even found a couple different disturbing remarks that the characters make, here is one of them:
“Like obviously it’s not great to be sexually objectified, but also I kind of missed it”
That isn’t a good take 😐
I also came across this unrealistic scenarios, which left me rolling my eyes:
“The night ended with loud music and dancing on tables, and the restaurant staff seemed to love it just as much as we did, pouring free shots straight from the bottle into our mouths.”
ermmmm well that never happened. Not even in fiction.
I found Olive herself to be the most frustrating character of all. She is childish and rude throughout the book which was such a disappointment to me. I really wanted this book to be a relatable account of a childfree character, a person who is independent, anxious, loyal and kind, like the synopsis says. Really, Olive is none of those things and most certainly not loyal or kind. She almost comes across as a bully, making mean comments about her co-workers and dismissing others constantly. Even though Olive does portray a character who doesn’t want children, the rep leaves a lot to be desired. In a way, Olive’s hatefulness brings to mind the traditional portrayal of childfree women as bitter and miserable.
There is one thing left to be addressed that almost made me DNF this book within the first few pages. Quite a few characters in this book constantly hate on vegans. In the beginning we get a completely unnecessary scene in which a vegan activist comes to Olive who is smoking outside her workplace to complain about the fur coat that she is wearing. Olive rudely points out to the activist that her coat is faux fur, and suggests that the activist secretly eats bacon sandwiches even though they are vegan. Later on in the book, the characters mock vegans again without any apparent reason. This random, ridiculous commentary happened here and there in the book from the mouths of different characters, and it almost made me feel like the author has some sort of an agenda against vegans rather than the characters. I just couldn’t understand what the hate added to the narrative. These scenes did nothing for the book. The characters could have as well been talking about how annoying it is when you forget to water your plants and they die on you. I’m still baffled by the vegan-hatred in Olive; was it a method to make the reader feel more connected to the characters in case they also hate vegans? Was it a way to showcase how mean the characters are? I honestly don’t know.
Overall, Olive promises a lot but doesn’t deliver. I found multiple scenes that made me wince with second-hand embarrassment, and I couldn’t relate to the characters. I was so excited for a book with rep on being childfree that I probably went in with unrealistic expectations 😓
But despite of all that, it is still the only book I know that provides a discussion on having children, being childfree and struggling with being childless. Here’s to hoping we get more of those books!
------------------------------------
24th June 2020 But alas, it was a disappointment. :(
------------------------------------
7th May 2020 Received an advance reader copy of Olive from the publisher, thank you so much! I can't wait to read it!
Content warnings: Breakup, swearing, talk of sex, bullying, abortion, IVF process, sexism
This review is also published in my book blog (with pretty graphics yay!): https://bookaholicdreamer.wordpress.c...
1.5 stars
When I first saw the synopsis of Olive, my heart filled with joy. Despite of my efforts to find books about women who choose to remain childfree, these stories are nearly impossible to come by. Instead, women without children are often villainized and portrayed as miserable, angry ladies who hate kids. This is also what the society at large seems to think about women who don’t want children; I’ve been told that I’m selfish or that I’m not a woman at all if I don’t want children. I have been told that I will sorely regret not having children, and most often that I will change my mind. Books about childfree-living are sorely, desperately needed. And I felt a little spark of hope when I saw Olive’s synopsis. I wished so bad that it was the book that I had been looking for! And although the rep turned out to be as meaningful as I wished, otherwise Olive was a painful read. And not in a good way.
But let’s talk about the rep first! Olive is a 30-something powerhouse of a woman who works in a feminist magazine and loves meeting up with her friend group after work for dinner & wine. She is perfectly content with her life until her long-term boyfriend tells her that he is ready to start a family. But Olive doesn’t want kids. And even though this realisation doesn’t seem ground-breaking to Olive at first, she soon notices that her relationship and friendships are going to be turned upside down because of it. Everyone turns on her with the same offensive arguments that I have heard during my life.
Olive grows increasingly certain of her decision even though she doesn’t get any support from her friends. In fact, being childfree is explored from many different angles. Olive’s friends include Bea who has three children, Cec who has just given birth, and Isla who desperately wants a child but has had difficulty conceiving. This set up gives a rich platform for exploring the issue with loads of different perspectives and experiences in the mix. Unfortunately however, some encounters with fleeting side-characters felt like they were forced within the narrative only to spice up the debate; we have a random childhood friend who relates to Olive how she regrets having her child, bigoted parents who see Olive as less of a person for not contributing to the world’s overpopulation, and an older neighbour who has become estranged from her children. Although the rep is important, I felt awkward about some of these encounters and they didn’t seem to contribute anything to the book other than another perspective on Olive remaining childfree.
The book also went over the top in other areas. I found many of the characters annoying or one-sided; I felt like some characters refused to see anything from each others’ perspectives, and the dialogue was cringey at times. I even found a couple different disturbing remarks that the characters make, here is one of them:
“Like obviously it’s not great to be sexually objectified, but also I kind of missed it”
That isn’t a good take 😐
I also came across this unrealistic scenarios, which left me rolling my eyes:
“The night ended with loud music and dancing on tables, and the restaurant staff seemed to love it just as much as we did, pouring free shots straight from the bottle into our mouths.”
ermmmm well that never happened. Not even in fiction.
I found Olive herself to be the most frustrating character of all. She is childish and rude throughout the book which was such a disappointment to me. I really wanted this book to be a relatable account of a childfree character, a person who is independent, anxious, loyal and kind, like the synopsis says. Really, Olive is none of those things and most certainly not loyal or kind. She almost comes across as a bully, making mean comments about her co-workers and dismissing others constantly. Even though Olive does portray a character who doesn’t want children, the rep leaves a lot to be desired. In a way, Olive’s hatefulness brings to mind the traditional portrayal of childfree women as bitter and miserable.
There is one thing left to be addressed that almost made me DNF this book within the first few pages. Quite a few characters in this book constantly hate on vegans. In the beginning we get a completely unnecessary scene in which a vegan activist comes to Olive who is smoking outside her workplace to complain about the fur coat that she is wearing. Olive rudely points out to the activist that her coat is faux fur, and suggests that the activist secretly eats bacon sandwiches even though they are vegan. Later on in the book, the characters mock vegans again without any apparent reason. This random, ridiculous commentary happened here and there in the book from the mouths of different characters, and it almost made me feel like the author has some sort of an agenda against vegans rather than the characters. I just couldn’t understand what the hate added to the narrative. These scenes did nothing for the book. The characters could have as well been talking about how annoying it is when you forget to water your plants and they die on you. I’m still baffled by the vegan-hatred in Olive; was it a method to make the reader feel more connected to the characters in case they also hate vegans? Was it a way to showcase how mean the characters are? I honestly don’t know.
Overall, Olive promises a lot but doesn’t deliver. I found multiple scenes that made me wince with second-hand embarrassment, and I couldn’t relate to the characters. I was so excited for a book with rep on being childfree that I probably went in with unrealistic expectations 😓
But despite of all that, it is still the only book I know that provides a discussion on having children, being childfree and struggling with being childless. Here’s to hoping we get more of those books!
------------------------------------
24th June 2020 But alas, it was a disappointment. :(
------------------------------------
7th May 2020 Received an advance reader copy of Olive from the publisher, thank you so much! I can't wait to read it!
December 31, 2024
2024: 4th read and this book just had a choke hold on me 😳 I love it so much! It’s now kind of become a yearly diary for me as I write down my thoughts through-out this book as the parts of my life also change year on year 🙈
2022: yay now it's all tabbed and pretty <3
2021: Still love this book just as much!!
2020 review:OMG!! One of my fav books!!! Loved it!!! This is why I haven't filmed my "fav books of 2020" yet! Knew there was a gem to discover near the end of the year, haha!
2022: yay now it's all tabbed and pretty <3
2021: Still love this book just as much!!
2020 review:OMG!! One of my fav books!!! Loved it!!! This is why I haven't filmed my "fav books of 2020" yet! Knew there was a gem to discover near the end of the year, haha!
July 25, 2020
I devoured this warm hug of a book over one weekend. It's a light read yet nuanced too - sensitively exploring a woman's decision to be child-free.
We meet Olive in her early 30s as she's lacking the maternal urges she presumed she'd have by this age, feeling that actually - maybe she doesn't want children. Through flitting between the past and present we get to know her and her group of friends, seeing their lives change through the decisions they make and how this impacts their relationships.
I think so many women will see themselves in this book. I could definitely connect to that feeling of being "behind" and separate - the description of Olive being with a group of mothers feeling outside their bond and with nothing to contribute to the conversation is so perfect. We don't see characters like Olive in books or media and it's a breath of fresh air to have her here - it will mean a lot to many I'm sure.
Olive's is not the only perspective to relate to though - each of her friends have a different relationship to motherhood and family - with one friend struggling to conceive through IVF, another with older children but a struggling marriage and a new mother navigating pregnancy and then life with a baby. Empathy is cultivated for each character, poignantly highlighting the struggles that aren't always seen or understood and yet how easy it is to be jealous without knowing this. While the friendships are strong it doesn't shy away from showing how maintaining connection through such huge life changes can be challenging, and the ways we can miss each other when communicating. I loved how this friendship group feel like the heart of the novel too, over any romantic narratives.
It was interesting to read this straight after Cho Nam-Joo's Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 which explores similar themes within a different cultural context. The novel depicts a Korean woman's life and the resentment and mental distress that can build from a lifetime of small and large oppressions and misogyny. In Olive, instead, we see a lighter and more optimistic take: what's possible when a woman strays from the well-trodden path laid by centuries of women before her.
While there is struggle and sacrifice in getting there, through Olive we ultimately see the relief, freedom and feeling of content that can come from letting yourself choose the life you want.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC.
We meet Olive in her early 30s as she's lacking the maternal urges she presumed she'd have by this age, feeling that actually - maybe she doesn't want children. Through flitting between the past and present we get to know her and her group of friends, seeing their lives change through the decisions they make and how this impacts their relationships.
I think so many women will see themselves in this book. I could definitely connect to that feeling of being "behind" and separate - the description of Olive being with a group of mothers feeling outside their bond and with nothing to contribute to the conversation is so perfect. We don't see characters like Olive in books or media and it's a breath of fresh air to have her here - it will mean a lot to many I'm sure.
Olive's is not the only perspective to relate to though - each of her friends have a different relationship to motherhood and family - with one friend struggling to conceive through IVF, another with older children but a struggling marriage and a new mother navigating pregnancy and then life with a baby. Empathy is cultivated for each character, poignantly highlighting the struggles that aren't always seen or understood and yet how easy it is to be jealous without knowing this. While the friendships are strong it doesn't shy away from showing how maintaining connection through such huge life changes can be challenging, and the ways we can miss each other when communicating. I loved how this friendship group feel like the heart of the novel too, over any romantic narratives.
It was interesting to read this straight after Cho Nam-Joo's Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 which explores similar themes within a different cultural context. The novel depicts a Korean woman's life and the resentment and mental distress that can build from a lifetime of small and large oppressions and misogyny. In Olive, instead, we see a lighter and more optimistic take: what's possible when a woman strays from the well-trodden path laid by centuries of women before her.
While there is struggle and sacrifice in getting there, through Olive we ultimately see the relief, freedom and feeling of content that can come from letting yourself choose the life you want.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC.
April 6, 2021
Ah, the woes of four rich white selfish women who probably shouldn’t cling on to the idea of being forcibly ‘besties’ just because they knew each other as kids...
This started off well — we have Olive, the only single one in her friendship group, who doesn’t want kids and is surrounded by babies and talk about babies. She’s happy about her career and confident in her decision not to have kids. There were a few relatable moments. We were getting along, and I really enjoyed Sian Clifford’s narration.
And then. Suddenly it’s a soap opera where characters get upset with each other because someone decides to make different life choices than they do??? A journalist takes the whole book (months and eventually YEARS) to write an article she doesn’t even publish??? Friends treat each other like crap and then suddenly it’s all ok because they have dinner together??? Olive gets a promotion out of nowhere??? She and her boyfriend can afford a nice house in Soho???? What is this universe???
Also, no one I know gives a flying fuck about their friend’s decision not to have a baby (not in this dramatic personally insulted way I mean, obviously people care about their friends), so Olive worrying about this FOR A WHOLE ENTIRE BOOK and going to a psychic or whatever to mull over it even more feels... a tad unrealistic, just sayin’.
And still, all of those things I could excuse (this being basically chick lit after all) but when the book gives Olive two step-daughters whose own mother has died, making Olive a maternal figure who suddenly loves this role and is actively taking care of the girls after knowing them mere weeks, I was left feeling like the message was along the lines of it’s ok not to have kids as long as you’re still maternal.
Definitely wouldn’t have finished this if it wasn’t a book club book.
Finally, because they were too hilariously horrendous not to mention, here are my favourite quotes:
“My journalistic instinct takes me to Twitter.”
“I was swatting away my partner’s penis like an annoying fly.”
“His face appears on my laptop, he obviously has his camera on.”
”I stood there like an awkward lemon.” {this phrase appears at least THREE times}
This started off well — we have Olive, the only single one in her friendship group, who doesn’t want kids and is surrounded by babies and talk about babies. She’s happy about her career and confident in her decision not to have kids. There were a few relatable moments. We were getting along, and I really enjoyed Sian Clifford’s narration.
And then. Suddenly it’s a soap opera where characters get upset with each other because someone decides to make different life choices than they do??? A journalist takes the whole book (months and eventually YEARS) to write an article she doesn’t even publish??? Friends treat each other like crap and then suddenly it’s all ok because they have dinner together??? Olive gets a promotion out of nowhere??? She and her boyfriend can afford a nice house in Soho???? What is this universe???
Also, no one I know gives a flying fuck about their friend’s decision not to have a baby (not in this dramatic personally insulted way I mean, obviously people care about their friends), so Olive worrying about this FOR A WHOLE ENTIRE BOOK and going to a psychic or whatever to mull over it even more feels... a tad unrealistic, just sayin’.
And still, all of those things I could excuse (this being basically chick lit after all) but when the book gives Olive two step-daughters whose own mother has died, making Olive a maternal figure who suddenly loves this role and is actively taking care of the girls after knowing them mere weeks, I was left feeling like the message was along the lines of it’s ok not to have kids as long as you’re still maternal.
Definitely wouldn’t have finished this if it wasn’t a book club book.
Finally, because they were too hilariously horrendous not to mention, here are my favourite quotes:
“My journalistic instinct takes me to Twitter.”
“I was swatting away my partner’s penis like an annoying fly.”
“His face appears on my laptop, he obviously has his camera on.”
”I stood there like an awkward lemon.” {this phrase appears at least THREE times}
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 9, 2020
Do my real life child free friends view me the way Olive does?! I can only hope not.
Olive is a self centred narcissist who treats her friends awfully.
The spare characters in the book are over exaggerated, and the book is full of encounters that simply wouldn't happen, as well as editorial errors such as spelling mistakes and plot inconsistencies.
I'm obviously not the target audience for this book, but it's probably the worst book I've read all year.
Olive is a self centred narcissist who treats her friends awfully.
The spare characters in the book are over exaggerated, and the book is full of encounters that simply wouldn't happen, as well as editorial errors such as spelling mistakes and plot inconsistencies.
I'm obviously not the target audience for this book, but it's probably the worst book I've read all year.
November 16, 2020
Will come back with my full thoughts later because I have a lot of them. But I'm thankful this reading experience is over.
Video review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8qXZ...
Video review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8qXZ...
June 14, 2021
Even though I rate it at two stars, I actually enjoyed the book. It did make me examine my thoughts on motherhood and life choices, and helped me understand where I stand. It had a lot of (mostly side) characters telling different stories which I found inspiring.
However, this book is full of so many clichés I just couldn't take it seriously at some point. I found all four main female characters rather flat, like they were taken out of a trendy TV-series rather than real life. Most of their dialogues were so boring "oh, I can't believe you're pregnant", "oh, I can't believe we've grown so much", "look at us, we've gone so far". All the time. I even caught myself laughing at some bits not because they were funny but because I found them poorly written. I was also quite irritated by the ending. The main character ends up acting as a motherly figure towards her new partner's teenage daughter. I mean, that is of course a valid way to find fulfilment, but for a book that tries to say "you are free to make your life decisions and you don't have to become a mother if you don't want to" that was kinda lame.
However, this book is full of so many clichés I just couldn't take it seriously at some point. I found all four main female characters rather flat, like they were taken out of a trendy TV-series rather than real life. Most of their dialogues were so boring "oh, I can't believe you're pregnant", "oh, I can't believe we've grown so much", "look at us, we've gone so far". All the time. I even caught myself laughing at some bits not because they were funny but because I found them poorly written. I was also quite irritated by the ending. The main character ends up acting as a motherly figure towards her new partner's teenage daughter. I mean, that is of course a valid way to find fulfilment, but for a book that tries to say "you are free to make your life decisions and you don't have to become a mother if you don't want to" that was kinda lame.
July 26, 2020
I didn't really enjoy this, but finished it for the sake of completeness.
The writing felt too casual, too much internet-speak thrown in. The use of "super" as a modifier was overdone and really grating. The protagonist often felt like a conduit for the author's random thoughts that would have been better as tweets. Overall, the writing was poor.
As for the protagonist...I found the amount of drinking too off-putting and hard to relate to. She was generally unlikable in many ways, and not interesting enough to be compelling. Other characters (her neighbour, a teenager introduced later in the book) felt thin shells who were used in order for Olive to learn something. The problem is that Olive's lessons aren't explored in much depth. They seem to be plonked on the table and then just dropped without examination. I found it annoying--I wanted more depth, more investigation, but the story just moved on.
Mostly, though, I was frustrated at this depiction of being 'child-free by choice' because it didn't reflect any of the reasons that I am child-free by choice. I picked up this book after it was recommended as a reflection of people like me, then felt disappointed by not seeing myself in it.
The writing felt too casual, too much internet-speak thrown in. The use of "super" as a modifier was overdone and really grating. The protagonist often felt like a conduit for the author's random thoughts that would have been better as tweets. Overall, the writing was poor.
As for the protagonist...I found the amount of drinking too off-putting and hard to relate to. She was generally unlikable in many ways, and not interesting enough to be compelling. Other characters (her neighbour, a teenager introduced later in the book) felt thin shells who were used in order for Olive to learn something. The problem is that Olive's lessons aren't explored in much depth. They seem to be plonked on the table and then just dropped without examination. I found it annoying--I wanted more depth, more investigation, but the story just moved on.
Mostly, though, I was frustrated at this depiction of being 'child-free by choice' because it didn't reflect any of the reasons that I am child-free by choice. I picked up this book after it was recommended as a reflection of people like me, then felt disappointed by not seeing myself in it.
September 5, 2020
I have nothing nice to say about this book lol
July 28, 2021
3/5stars
I really wish I loved this, but it just simply felt like I read it... too late? It has such a unique premise and one I was super interested in - about a woman who wants to remain child free - but after discovering that community on tiktok and other spaces online, this was just very repetitive. Also the characters were just so incredibly over the top and ridiculous, they felt much more like archetypes than actual characters. I also felt like the amount of drama being child free caused Olive was kinda ridiculous? Not just from an enjoyment place but also for young women reading this, it felt like it was trying to explore the topic but also showing only the bad parts? idk i just wasn't a fan. it wasn't bad but it wasn't great either.
I really wish I loved this, but it just simply felt like I read it... too late? It has such a unique premise and one I was super interested in - about a woman who wants to remain child free - but after discovering that community on tiktok and other spaces online, this was just very repetitive. Also the characters were just so incredibly over the top and ridiculous, they felt much more like archetypes than actual characters. I also felt like the amount of drama being child free caused Olive was kinda ridiculous? Not just from an enjoyment place but also for young women reading this, it felt like it was trying to explore the topic but also showing only the bad parts? idk i just wasn't a fan. it wasn't bad but it wasn't great either.
February 7, 2022
3.5 ✨
I happened to read 2 books about friendship, right after the other and it got me thinking about my own 😌. I actually told my high school friend the other day that I’ve been so blessed when it comes to friends (which I’m super grateful about 🥺). However, that also meant that while I was reading this novel I found myself struggling to understand Olive and her relationship with her friends.
In this novel, we’re introduced to Olive, a thirty-something year old, still trying to figure out life (does it ever stop 💀?). While she’s figuring out everything, we see how she navigates herself around relationships, motherhood (especially since her friends are mothers or expecting mothers) and by extension womanhood.
I went through this book mostly nodding because everything that is explored is relevant especially considering how women’s experiences are so affected by the patriarchal society we live in. But at the end of the day I feel like 90% of Olive’s problems could have been solved by speaking to her friends 👀 I was also leaning towards the feeling that the conversation felt outdated but I realised that that sentiment stems from the fact that my friends and I have never assumed each other’s position when it comes to motherhood, a topic that we explore every now and then (just to keep each other updated you know 😂)
Anyway, all in all it was a lovely read 🥺I’m also a sucker for books that explore motherhood because for far too long mothers in literature lacked autonomy or only functioned as literary devices.
I happened to read 2 books about friendship, right after the other and it got me thinking about my own 😌. I actually told my high school friend the other day that I’ve been so blessed when it comes to friends (which I’m super grateful about 🥺). However, that also meant that while I was reading this novel I found myself struggling to understand Olive and her relationship with her friends.
In this novel, we’re introduced to Olive, a thirty-something year old, still trying to figure out life (does it ever stop 💀?). While she’s figuring out everything, we see how she navigates herself around relationships, motherhood (especially since her friends are mothers or expecting mothers) and by extension womanhood.
I went through this book mostly nodding because everything that is explored is relevant especially considering how women’s experiences are so affected by the patriarchal society we live in. But at the end of the day I feel like 90% of Olive’s problems could have been solved by speaking to her friends 👀 I was also leaning towards the feeling that the conversation felt outdated but I realised that that sentiment stems from the fact that my friends and I have never assumed each other’s position when it comes to motherhood, a topic that we explore every now and then (just to keep each other updated you know 😂)
Anyway, all in all it was a lovely read 🥺I’m also a sucker for books that explore motherhood because for far too long mothers in literature lacked autonomy or only functioned as literary devices.
January 12, 2023
You've read Expectation by Anna Hope? Ghosts by Dolly Alderton? Adulting by Emma Jane Unsworth?
Congratulations - you've read this book. Maybe this is slightly worse than all of them though? If I have to read one more of the following books, I'm giving up:
"Insert stupid posh name here is a writer at a feminist magazine/high up in marketing/art gallery botherer. She wears fur coats and smokes but her flat is a bit shit but her friends are rich and have kids :/ but in university they got along better :/ being 30, white and middle class in London is hard :/"
You can absolutely skip this one guys. It's times like this I'm glad I thrift most of my books, cos I'd have hated to have spent the equivalent on 25 mins of work on this book at retail price.
Congratulations - you've read this book. Maybe this is slightly worse than all of them though? If I have to read one more of the following books, I'm giving up:
"Insert stupid posh name here is a writer at a feminist magazine/high up in marketing/art gallery botherer. She wears fur coats and smokes but her flat is a bit shit but her friends are rich and have kids :/ but in university they got along better :/ being 30, white and middle class in London is hard :/"
You can absolutely skip this one guys. It's times like this I'm glad I thrift most of my books, cos I'd have hated to have spent the equivalent on 25 mins of work on this book at retail price.
March 10, 2023
“Sometimes we don’t ‘know’ for sure, and maybe we never will, but we just have to live each day in the way that feels most natural to us.”
3 stars for this novel, and here is why.
We meet Olive in her early 30s, where she's coming to terms with the fact that she doesn't want children. Through scenes between the past and present we get to know her and her group of best friends, seeing all their lives change through the decisions they make and how this impacts their relationships.
Olive is rather cynical and very forward in many ways. She's a journalist primarily focused on the lifestyle section in a magazine. She's at the age where all her best friends are getting married and having babies, meanwhile Olive doesn't want children. It's a realization that ends a 9-year relationship and puts her at odds with her long-time friend group, which includes a mother of three, one who is pregnant, and one whi is struggling through IVF.
There is definitely a societal expectation to get married, buy a house, have a baby, so it was understandable that Olive felt lonely and jugded by her group of friends.
The loneliness and judgement Olive feels was understandable. I liked seeing how Emma Gannon didn't write the perfect female friendship but each of the four friends were flawed in their own ways, which gave the book a realistic take. But at the end of the day, I felt like 80% of Olive's problems could've been solved by speaking to her friends.
I really flew through this book as I found the topic interesting but I also found Olive to be a frustrating character in some ways. She was quite rude in many scenarious which disappointed me, since we was said to be kind and loyal to her friends. She was mean at times, and I don't say people can't have bad periods in life but in general she wasn't the nicest person. I get that it can be frustrating to be the only one not wanting kids in a friend group, feeling exluded, feeling that your friends don't understand you - but must of these disagreements could've been tackled better by being honest with each other, and still support each other although you disagree.
“I guess this is being human: we can never be 100 percent sure about any decision we make.”
Although the audiobook was really engaging and the narrator did a good job, some things stood out, and made me lower my rating and thoughts about the book.
All these four women have big, successful jobs, a lawyer, an editor at a magazine, a gallery curator, a therapist. I just don't get why one of these characters couldn't have been a liberian or a barista or you know what I mean. Also not a single POC was mention, and there was a slight criticism towards vegans. And then what screamed PRIVILEGE was this line "if anything, you're weird if you didn't have one of these days" read=therapist. I couldn't help but thinking it suddenly only revovled around privileged straight white post women..
And I couldn't help but getting mad over the fact that she pats herself on the back, when a friend has an argument with her partner and comes to stay with Olive. Olive promptly claims triumph for being a great friend but the next day can't wait to have her out of her space. Everyone loves a good me-time but I guess I just see helping and supporting your friend a little differently than Olive does.
Overall I really found the topic interesting, also reading about various' friends' and peoples prejudices to women not wanting children, the sense of loneliness among friends, the general ganging up of moms, the feeling about feeling exluded, left-out and not understood, and the feeling that your problems and being childfree isn't as important or big as if it where the opposite. All really good discussions and valid points. I think what's most important is that everyone respects each other.
I listened to this book as an audiobook, and prefered that to reading the book I also have. I heard the writing format is quite british and not edited well. The ending did end cute although it ended with some clichés. I do recommend that you give it a go if you're interested in hearing some thoughts to not wanting children, and what it feels like.
“Did you know six minutes of reading can help reduce stress levels by up to sixty percent?"
... "That's sixty-eight percent better than listening to music, one hundred percent better than drinking tea, and three hundred percent better than going for a walk.”
3 stars for this novel, and here is why.
We meet Olive in her early 30s, where she's coming to terms with the fact that she doesn't want children. Through scenes between the past and present we get to know her and her group of best friends, seeing all their lives change through the decisions they make and how this impacts their relationships.
Olive is rather cynical and very forward in many ways. She's a journalist primarily focused on the lifestyle section in a magazine. She's at the age where all her best friends are getting married and having babies, meanwhile Olive doesn't want children. It's a realization that ends a 9-year relationship and puts her at odds with her long-time friend group, which includes a mother of three, one who is pregnant, and one whi is struggling through IVF.
There is definitely a societal expectation to get married, buy a house, have a baby, so it was understandable that Olive felt lonely and jugded by her group of friends.
The loneliness and judgement Olive feels was understandable. I liked seeing how Emma Gannon didn't write the perfect female friendship but each of the four friends were flawed in their own ways, which gave the book a realistic take. But at the end of the day, I felt like 80% of Olive's problems could've been solved by speaking to her friends.
I really flew through this book as I found the topic interesting but I also found Olive to be a frustrating character in some ways. She was quite rude in many scenarious which disappointed me, since we was said to be kind and loyal to her friends. She was mean at times, and I don't say people can't have bad periods in life but in general she wasn't the nicest person. I get that it can be frustrating to be the only one not wanting kids in a friend group, feeling exluded, feeling that your friends don't understand you - but must of these disagreements could've been tackled better by being honest with each other, and still support each other although you disagree.
“I guess this is being human: we can never be 100 percent sure about any decision we make.”
Although the audiobook was really engaging and the narrator did a good job, some things stood out, and made me lower my rating and thoughts about the book.
All these four women have big, successful jobs, a lawyer, an editor at a magazine, a gallery curator, a therapist. I just don't get why one of these characters couldn't have been a liberian or a barista or you know what I mean. Also not a single POC was mention, and there was a slight criticism towards vegans. And then what screamed PRIVILEGE was this line "if anything, you're weird if you didn't have one of these days" read=therapist. I couldn't help but thinking it suddenly only revovled around privileged straight white post women..
And I couldn't help but getting mad over the fact that she pats herself on the back, when a friend has an argument with her partner and comes to stay with Olive. Olive promptly claims triumph for being a great friend but the next day can't wait to have her out of her space. Everyone loves a good me-time but I guess I just see helping and supporting your friend a little differently than Olive does.
Overall I really found the topic interesting, also reading about various' friends' and peoples prejudices to women not wanting children, the sense of loneliness among friends, the general ganging up of moms, the feeling about feeling exluded, left-out and not understood, and the feeling that your problems and being childfree isn't as important or big as if it where the opposite. All really good discussions and valid points. I think what's most important is that everyone respects each other.
I listened to this book as an audiobook, and prefered that to reading the book I also have. I heard the writing format is quite british and not edited well. The ending did end cute although it ended with some clichés. I do recommend that you give it a go if you're interested in hearing some thoughts to not wanting children, and what it feels like.
“Did you know six minutes of reading can help reduce stress levels by up to sixty percent?"
... "That's sixty-eight percent better than listening to music, one hundred percent better than drinking tea, and three hundred percent better than going for a walk.”
Read
May 20, 2020What a load of pompous drivel. I DNF Olive. I'm clearly not the target audience for this book as I have two kiddos and although I only got 10% through this book, I ended up avoiding my kindle and dreading having to read more.
Olive is meant to be early 30s but the character is clearly stuck in her teenage years and complains about not seeing her friends as often but then actually actively disengages when they discuss anything she isn't interested in. Way to go, one-sided friendship! The relationship she describes with her friends at university seems more suited to behaviour of 14-18 year olds. There's also quite a few incorrect references - such as mentioning Bridesmaids in 2009 when it wasn't released until 2011.
I dunno. You might like this book, and I guess I won't judge you for it, but I think I also will a little bit.
Olive is meant to be early 30s but the character is clearly stuck in her teenage years and complains about not seeing her friends as often but then actually actively disengages when they discuss anything she isn't interested in. Way to go, one-sided friendship! The relationship she describes with her friends at university seems more suited to behaviour of 14-18 year olds. There's also quite a few incorrect references - such as mentioning Bridesmaids in 2009 when it wasn't released until 2011.
I dunno. You might like this book, and I guess I won't judge you for it, but I think I also will a little bit.
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