Olive Review

OLIVE is many things.

Independent.
Adrift.
Anxious.
Loyal.
Kind.
She knows her own mind.

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 and – sometimes – stereotypes to fulfil. So when her best friends’ lives branch away towards marriage and motherhood, leaving the path they’ve always followed together, she starts to question her choices – because life according to Olive looks a little bit different.

Moving, memorable and a mirror for anyone 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.

Emma Gannon is an award-winning writer, speaker, Sunday Times columnist and podcaster. Her writing has been published everywhere from The Guardian to Glamour. She is the bestselling author of memoir Ctrl Alt Delete and The Multi-Hyphen Method, which became a Sunday Times bestseller. She is also the host of hit podcast series ‘Ctrl Alt Delete’, the No.1 careers podcast in the UK which has reached almost 6 million downloads, featuring guests such as Ellen Page, Greta Gerwig and Elizabeth Gilbert, plus the first podcast episode recorded inside Buckingham Palace.

Emma is currently working with the Princes Trust and Media Trust charities which helps young people develop their voices in the media. She’s recently been involved with other charities including Women For Women International and Plan International’s ‘Girls Get Equal’.

Emma lives in East London with her partner. Olive is her debut novel.

Often the sign of a good book is how you feel about the characters and the author when reading it and this was perfect! I was reading with anxiety from worrying that the author would turn cliché and change the very idea of Olive. Olive doesn’t want children, she is ‘childfree by choice’ and she has never wanted them and my biggest dread was that when reading similar books, authors often end on the fact that it was a phase and they have a child and live happily ever after… not so in this book and so refreshing to see (sorry for the spoiler there too!). Emma Ganon has done a great job of sticking to the theme and carrying it through showing the differing thoughts and feeling and how lost Olive feels in this world that seems so different to everyone else’s.

Olive is, predictably, our main character and she is struggling with her place in the world, is she wrong to not want children? We follow along with Olive’s friends, one beginning their family, one who has been bringing up her boisterous family for a while and one who is struggling desperately to conceive. We see their differing life struggles from their discussions and Olive’s perspective.

The flashbacks make the most of showing how these friends have come together and the strength of their relationships, definitely, something most would love. They have been together for a long time and support each other through ups and downs, not always in the best way, but they are always ultimately supportive and there for one another. This shows the great strength of female friendships as well as exploring Olive’s child-free life and thoughts.

I found this to be a quick read that I really enjoyed. I’d love to hear more from Olive and her friends in future too!

Thank you to Net Galley, the Publisher and the Author for a free advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Title	Olive
Author	Emma Gannon
Series	N/A
Format	eARC
Page Count	416 Pages
Genre	Romantic Comedy
Publisher	Harper Collins
Release Date	23rd July 2020