Notes on a Near-life Experience

by Olivia Birdsall

Mia never thought she'd be the child of a broken home. Yet when she's 15 years old, one day her father just up and moves out. As her family life crumbles, her love life is finally coming together. Julian, her brother Allen's best friend and her longtime crush, has finally noticed her—and being with Julian makes her happier than she can put into words.

Meanwhile, her mother has disappeared into work, her brother is skipping school and acting weird, and her father is cohabitating with a frighteningly sexy Peruvian woman named Paloma. Mia wishes the divorce would just go away so she could focus on Julian . . . but she can't ignore her problems forever. In this honest, witty, utterly accessible winner of the Delacorte Press Contest, first-time author Olivia Birdsall creates an authentic and lovable teenager in Mia Day.

Genres: Young Adult, Realistic Fiction, Romance, Divorce, Humor, Contemporary, Fiction

272 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Olivia Birdsall is the second of 10 children. She works as a teaching artist for the Teachers & Writers Collaborative in New York City, and as an instructor in the Expository Writing Program at New York University. Notes on a Near-Life Experience is her first novel.

Reviews

[Mehrsa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am not just giving this book 5 stars because I am friends with the author. This is a great Young Adult book. It's about a 15-year old girl whose parents get divorced and her family slowly falls apart. The book is very well written and insightful. There are some really great phrases and great perspective. Not a tidy happy ending, which is so refreshing for YA literature. I would recommend it to any YA (or adult) who has had a similar experience or any difficult experience. Olivia does such a great job at describing what happens to a teenager when things are wrong at home. Mia, the main character, is very likable and hilarious.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

its a great book to read. i personally love this book because ive been through 2 divorces in my lifetime already and its fun to relate with the book. i love hows theres no pause to explain something or it goes off track too much. i like the way that i get to see how this charecter delt with her problems. ive read this book three times so far and it gets more and more interesting eavry time i pick it up. if there was any book i had to suggest to teens my age struggling in life i would soo totally suggest this one. i hope that anyone who hasent read it should no matter what kinda books they would prefer i would highly highly reccomend it. before i read this book i would only read historical fiction or adventure books but it never occured to me id read something like this and become compleetly obsessed with it. so if my reasons arent working then sorry you are deciding to miss out in a great book

[Aidashs12 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although I read this book in fifth grade, it was nice to revisit and the familiar comfort of an old book was nice to have. The story-line is one of happy-go-lucky nature, with only about three main plot points. Mia is a fifteen-year-old whose parents have just "separated". Her dad unexpectedly flies off to Spain and comes back with a "special friend", Paloma. Each person in Mia's family behaves differently towards the divorce, and slowly her family starts disintegrating. Her friendship with her best friend is also deteriorating as Mia doesn't tell Haley about the divorce. As Mia's family life and friendship is falling apart, her love life is finally coming together. The love of her life, who has ignored her forever (being her big brother's best friend), Julian has finally noticed her and asked her to prom. This book is a nice, easy read that goes by super fast. In conclusion, I love this book, and would probably read it over and over and over again if I was allowed.

[~Hanna Mays!!! :) · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is a really good book. i had to read it for a reading project, and it was hard to put down!!!Some of the chapters are only a page long, but its a good book.

[Savannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating: 3.8/5 stars
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
That's me trying to gather my thoughts about this book. My technical opinion is that I hate the cover, the plot was decent but murky, and we don't know what happened. Mia wasn't as dynamic as I wanted her to be, and her father was written in a way that was unnatural, like the author wanted the audience to go "I hate this guy!" but she didn't disguise it in her writing in a natural way. The plot was a vessel for the bits of wandering thoughts and wisdom interlaced in the text. Also, the tense changed from present to past and vice versa numerous times. It had a cool affect but I'm not sure if it worked.
But the personal part of me, the part who's parents just got divorced, needed this book. I needed someone like me to show me how it's done. And the answer is: It isn't. It's just coped with, it's adapted to. And everyone deals with it differently, and it's okay to get angry or upset, but you need to understand each other.
The philosophical moments made this book rich, and the characters were all so real (except Dad, like I said). I've never felt closer to a character like Mia, and everyone can relate to her perfectly. There was a decent amount of diversity in this that I'm just now realizing.
All in all, this was a beautiful book that kids going through divorce should read. It's so real and raw.
"It means I am not a ghost, a serial-killer, a head-on collision."

[Christinalovesreading · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable book, lame cover, i mean, i don't think the cover, with its pictures of real people, lends itself to the reader imagining the characters herself, which is what I do. Good story, teen narrator, realistic views and problems. solid 3

[Joya Goffney · Rating 3 out of 5]

My overall reaction to this book was pretty consistent throughout: eh, nice, yeah, okay. It was good, fine.

[Jade Klemin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this book when I was a preteen, it had a very strong message. I still think about it from time to time.

[Mahek Manji · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is about a girl named Mia who never thought that she would be from a broken home. Mia is is a 15 year old girl who is in her Junior year of high school. She well as if her family is breaking she feels distance from her mom and dad after they start to fight and then one day her dad moves out of the house. After that her dad goes to a vacation and comes back with a girlfriend.She has two other siblings her older brother Allen and her younger sister Katie. All of the kid take the divorce in a negative way her brother Allen starts to drink and her younger sister tries to make everything seem as before she seems to deny everything. She has a bad time trying to keep her relationship with her friend and she feels like she stuck in a world where no one cares.Where everything in the world that has always been right went wrong and in her life the one bad thing went right. Her long time crush Julian also Allen's best friend. She had a crush on him ever since he moved to the neighborhood.This book is for young adults for ages 12 and up. I love this book I have read this whole book more than twice and loved it every time.I would recommend this book to read because its a easy read and the book goes by so fast that you fell like you just stated the book and it just ended.

[Jessica Mitchell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jessica Mitchell, 11
Notes On A Near-Life Experience
3.5 stars


I've always been attracted to books that were obviously targeted towards girls. The stories are always so simple and true. Whether they're about eating disorders (Yes, I know guys get these, too. But books about anorexia and bulimia are usually about girls), relationship problems, or family divorces, the plot is always so entertaining to read!
This book had a lot of potential to be a 5 star book. I didn't like how Mia treated Julian. I don't know why he stayed with her! She barely joked around with him, and when they were actually together, all they would do was make out! And when they DID talk, Mia only gave him one or two word answers.
Another thing; The ending..very confusing. You'll know when you read it.
But I DID like the casual writing style Olivia used. Despite the bad things about this book, it's still a good/decent read.

[Holly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this because it's in our middle grade collection, and it's starting to show some wear, but I can't re-order it because it's out of print. So I needed to decide whether to discard it or repair it. I'm glad I read it. I would recommend it to any middle school/high school kid--especially one whose parents are divorcing. It deals realistically with it from the perspective of an upper-middle-class high school girl (conveniently, the same SES as most families in this community, the type who can afford to pay for therapy). The main character has a great sense of humor, and the author doesn't beat you over the head with Lessons--the dynamics of family, friends, and new romance are realistic and the lessons learned are portrayed subtly.

[bea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Its been quite some time since I read a book like this, and it feels very nice to revisit my childhood. A book about real life teenage dilemmas was exactly what I needed after a tough week.

The chapters were short, and Mia is really perceptive for her age. I love how the author clearly illustrates the emotional stress of having your parents go through a divorce. I personally never experienced this myself, my parents are still married and going strong, but I sympathized with Mia nonetheless.
The story of her love life was entertaining for me too, and the right amount of awkwardness was really there. Mia is a tough girl, and I admire that about her.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

For months after my BYU Dept. of Humanities newsletter reported that BYU-grad Olivia Birdsall had won the Delacorte Press Prize for a First YA Novel, I looked forward to the book's publication. It seemed to take a long time. When I saw it on the newly-released YA shelf at the bookstore, I promptly bought it and then read it in one night. What I really enjoy about this book is the humor. It just makes me laugh, even though it is a girl's account of life after her parents' separation, which in itself is of course not a funny subject. Prize well earned.

[Jinx · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is written in a short chapter in how she realises, and realates her past with her future. Explaining how she ignored the divorce in her past and how they become a family to get help.
I can'treally relate to this book.
I thought it was awkward with siblings going out witheir biblings best friend--awkward.
I felt so sad for katie, for thinking of man who spends vaction time with them and eats dinner with them but i guess that's what happens when the famly slowly seperats starting with her birthday.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I appreciate Olivia Bridsall's take on a family whose parents are splitting up. Everyone is the family deals with the breakup in different ways, and it's interesting to watch and sympathize with each child's perspective.

While most of the story rings true, there are a few moments and character actions that struck me as a bit hokey or unrealistic, mostly when the adults were involved. It's not a story geared for adults, and maybe that's why those characters are a bit more two dimensional. My hope is to find YA books with flawed but complex adults (said the adult).

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

A teenage girl copes with her parents' separation and divorce. This comes across as an accurate portrait of three kids and their divorcing parents- I've never been through a divorce, but it does seem realistic. And it was definitely accurate in its portrait of a young woman dealing with grief/ life's traumas. I think the only problem I have with this novel is that there's no easy ending (which is very realistic, but unsettling).

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okay story about a teenage girl whose parents separate. Good description of the personal view of the situation and affects on the other kids and relationships. I kept waiting for some character growth or insight, or climax to the story and didn't find any. There was one semi-crisis, then they moved on without any indication of growth or change.

[C · Rating 5 out of 5]

Notes on a Near-Life Experience is about a girl who faces real teenage problems. Her parents get divorced, she falls for her brother's best friend, and much more. The "chapters" are short. Some aren't even a page. I don't mind that though. I don't like the ending very much. Nothing really gets resolved and I don't like that. There isn't really a happy ending. But, I still loved it.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Olivia Birdsall is a friend from college. I caught up with her in New York just before this was published and she said she wished she could have published something else first. I thought the book was good, though I felt a little more would have helped, as well.

[Derek · Rating 2 out of 5]

A discussion of the benefit of talking through problems in the immediate verses letting them fester; a difficult subject matter approached understandingly with moments of hilarity as the teen dealing with her parent's divorce finds love and rediscovers friendship. ...something like that....

[Anisha · Rating 3 out of 5]

a pretty good book. it was basically about this girl who goes through the tough times of parents divorcing...but it's not extremely depressing and super sad or anything, so you can give it a try if you want.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay, I am a little biased because I was really good friends with the author in high school, but she has a unique writing style that I really enjoyed. It is a young adult book but its not dumbed down, if that makes sense and I think it feels real.

[April · Rating 4 out of 5]

I may be a bit bias on the enjoyment of this book, but knowing the author and then reading her work actually made me enjoy it even more. I love Olivia's writing style and the way she is able to relate to the reader. Sure, it may be a young adult book, but it's a great read!

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great title, not all that related to the book. This book had an interesting cast of pretty realistic characters (great sibling banter!) but the end was, well, a non-ending. Wasted potential, in my opinion.

[Mad · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is so much like my life. The main person is so much like me. I love this book so much, and i love Miss.Birdsall just as much. Miss.Birdsall truly inspires me, every time i start writing. She is such a nice lady, and such an amazing writer!

[Stephanie A. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the format of dozens of brief, almost self-contained chapters. Good concept for a surviving-parents'-divorce story, although I could have done without the massively irritating existence of Paloma, even if the level of irritation surrounding her existence was the point.

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Crisp writing and an insightful and compelling protagonist distinguish this book about a family going through a divorce.

[Caroline · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was a downer for me. It reminded me of everything in high school I don't want to remember. It just made me feel dark and something like despair. Not really a fan.

[Kaleena Z · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good...bout divorce. Kind of sad and abrupt ending, which i didnt like.

[Carman · Rating 3 out of 5]

it good so far
but hard to get into in the begining