maireadsbooks 's review for:

Olive by Emma Gannon

5.0

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective sad fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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This book follows Olive, a thirty-something journalist living in London. Olive has just broken up with her boyfriend of nine years after they disagree about having children - Olive doesn't want any children, he does. In the meanwhile Olive's close friend group is also focused on children - one is a mother of three kids, one is pregnant with her first baby and, one is struggling with fertility and going through IVF.

This books explores the question of whether or not to have children, and Olive is deciding if she is happy to live her life without children - even if that means the end of her relationship and a distancing from her friends, or if she wants to give it a chance and have children - even though she is unsure.

As someone who always wanted children, but recently started to question that decision, this was such an impactful book to read. I related so much to Olive's internal debate and the fear of being left behind as friends from childhood/school start to grow distant as lives change direction - be that through work, relationships or family. I would highly recommend this book to anyone in their 20s/early 30s who is experiencing the feeling of being left behind as friends lives progress, especially if they are also dealing with the question of having children. I am so glad this was my first five star read of the year.