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purplesky02 's review for:
The Night Olivia Fell
by Christina McDonald
This book. I don't even know where to begin. Let's start with the gratuitous use of the word fell or fall. Every time a character thought about or talked about the night on the bridge, it was "when Olivia fell" or "before Olivia fell" or "where were you when Olivia fell?" It was such an awkward phrase, that every time it was used, I cringed. Instead, maybe the night of Olivia's accident, or when Olivia was injured. Or even the night of whatever date it happened to be. It would've sounded so much better than constantly referring to it as her fall.
Pretty much every character annoyed me in some way, the worst of all being Abi. What a self-centered, awful person. I know we the reader are supposed to be sympathetic to her, but I just found her to be really annoying. It was so unrealistic. Her involvement in the police investigation made no sense. Her not knowing her daughter's boyfriend's last name. What? "I knew there was something familiar about the last name Harris, but what was it?" COME ON. The whole Anthony sub-plot was also pretty weak and pointless. I'm still unsure who exactly he was. Some kind of counseler with the Seattle PD? I have no idea why she was so mad at Jen, Derek and Madison's mother. She seethed with anger at her at one point. That seemed to come out of nowhere.
Olivia's best friend, Madison, what a sociopath! I thought for sure it was her that killed Olivia because of the things they kept saying she did. Lying to get her brother sent away, hurting herself and blaming her brother when Olivia would show more interest in him, such crazyness. But that went nowhere.
Actually, Sarah was not an annoying character. Also, I liked Derek. Olivia was alright, minus the fact that she was cheating on her boyfriend the whole book. But I suppose that was the reason he killed her so that had to be in there. Olivia's chapters were hard to read at times. Randomly inserting the word "like" into a sentence was unnecessary. Yes, I get that she is a teenager, but she didn't talk like that. Why would her internal monologue sound like that?
Overall, it was a good idea for a book, but I felt it just wasn't pulled off in a believable way. There was so much suspense of disbelief that it took me out of the book.
Spoiler
Pretty much every character annoyed me in some way, the worst of all being Abi. What a self-centered, awful person. I know we the reader are supposed to be sympathetic to her, but I just found her to be really annoying. It was so unrealistic. Her involvement in the police investigation made no sense. Her not knowing her daughter's boyfriend's last name. What? "I knew there was something familiar about the last name Harris, but what was it?" COME ON. The whole Anthony sub-plot was also pretty weak and pointless. I'm still unsure who exactly he was. Some kind of counseler with the Seattle PD? I have no idea why she was so mad at Jen, Derek and Madison's mother. She seethed with anger at her at one point. That seemed to come out of nowhere.
Olivia's best friend, Madison, what a sociopath! I thought for sure it was her that killed Olivia because of the things they kept saying she did. Lying to get her brother sent away, hurting herself and blaming her brother when Olivia would show more interest in him, such crazyness. But that went nowhere.
Actually, Sarah was not an annoying character. Also, I liked Derek. Olivia was alright, minus the fact that she was cheating on her boyfriend the whole book. But I suppose that was the reason he killed her so that had to be in there. Olivia's chapters were hard to read at times. Randomly inserting the word "like" into a sentence was unnecessary. Yes, I get that she is a teenager, but she didn't talk like that. Why would her internal monologue sound like that?
Overall, it was a good idea for a book, but I felt it just wasn't pulled off in a believable way. There was so much suspense of disbelief that it took me out of the book.