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A review by b_tellefsen_rescuesandreads
The Night Olivia Fell by Christina McDonald
4.0
This was exactly the right book for the start of 2020. It was engaging, fast-paced, compulsively readable, and I really enjoyed it!
In the early morning hours of one October day, Abi Knight receives a call that every mother dreads: Her daughter, Olivia, has been found at the bottom of a bridge. She is effectively brain dead but she must remain on life support as she is pregnant, and they cannot legally terminate her life while the baby still lives.
Crushed under the enormous weight of grief, as well as the knowledge that she will now be raising a grandchild, Abi is determined to find out what happned to her daughter. The police believe it was an accident, but Abi is positive foul play was involved and she will do anything, and upset anyone, to find the truth.
Told in alternating perpsectives between Olive in the months leading to her "accident" and Abi in present day, this book weaves a suspensful tale that makes you wonder....how well do you really know your children?
This book is compared to Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight and, though I stand by the comparison (the plots are very similar), The Night Olivia Fell was what I had hoped Reconstructing Amelia would be.
First, I feel it is important for those who wish to pick up this book to know that this really is all about the journey. It is about you feeling Abi's desperation as she tracks down who is responsible for her dauther's death. It is about you questioning the honesty of every suspect and not knowing who to trust as everyone has equal motive to be guilty. It is about you following Olivia as she arrives to the place that left her brain dead and broken.
I say this, because the ending, is not going to be a surprise. As I have mentioned plenty of times before, with a limited cast of characters, there are only so many different plot twists that can occur and so you have to be ready for the fact that you will likely guess the ending. Or, atleast, not be shocked when the culprit is revealed
However, it was really the journey of this story that truly grabbed me, and didn't let go. I found myself thinking of this book when I wasn't reading it, and ended up finishing the audiobook in less than two days.
I also appreciated how the author did not rely on standard "mean girl" tropes to further the plot. Olivia herself was a smart, solid, respectable young woman. Additionally, this story is not really following cliques or other typical tropes you might find in these circumstances. I found this very refreshing and I was pleasantly surprised.
In the early morning hours of one October day, Abi Knight receives a call that every mother dreads: Her daughter, Olivia, has been found at the bottom of a bridge. She is effectively brain dead but she must remain on life support as she is pregnant, and they cannot legally terminate her life while the baby still lives.
Crushed under the enormous weight of grief, as well as the knowledge that she will now be raising a grandchild, Abi is determined to find out what happned to her daughter. The police believe it was an accident, but Abi is positive foul play was involved and she will do anything, and upset anyone, to find the truth.
Told in alternating perpsectives between Olive in the months leading to her "accident" and Abi in present day, this book weaves a suspensful tale that makes you wonder....how well do you really know your children?
This book is compared to Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight and, though I stand by the comparison (the plots are very similar), The Night Olivia Fell was what I had hoped Reconstructing Amelia would be.
First, I feel it is important for those who wish to pick up this book to know that this really is all about the journey. It is about you feeling Abi's desperation as she tracks down who is responsible for her dauther's death. It is about you questioning the honesty of every suspect and not knowing who to trust as everyone has equal motive to be guilty. It is about you following Olivia as she arrives to the place that left her brain dead and broken.
I say this, because the ending, is not going to be a surprise. As I have mentioned plenty of times before, with a limited cast of characters, there are only so many different plot twists that can occur and so you have to be ready for the fact that you will likely guess the ending. Or, atleast, not be shocked when the culprit is revealed
However, it was really the journey of this story that truly grabbed me, and didn't let go. I found myself thinking of this book when I wasn't reading it, and ended up finishing the audiobook in less than two days.
I also appreciated how the author did not rely on standard "mean girl" tropes to further the plot. Olivia herself was a smart, solid, respectable young woman. Additionally, this story is not really following cliques or other typical tropes you might find in these circumstances. I found this very refreshing and I was pleasantly surprised.