Definitely a book of our times and very much needed. Olive doesn’t want children. She’s known it for a long time but half of the battle is convincing those around her that it’s ok that she feels this way. What follows is a story of friendship, bravery and finding yourself- whatever that looks like. I definitely enjoyed this one and it opened my eyes to many things at the same time which is always the sign of a good read!

It was such a shame that this book was a let down because I really do think Emma (the author) does really amazing things. I will keep my review of the book relatively short because I don't have any good things to say and therefore there is no need for it to be long!
This book is poorly written and I think the editor should have worked harder with Emma to construct the story better and develop characters. The problem with this book is it felt like Olive's thoughts were just thoughts Emma had but she didn't want to write a non-fiction book about being child-free. Therefore there's no narrative or character development, instead, it's inane thoughts about not wanting a child and all the horrible things society says to you because of this. Which is all fine and well if you want to write an essay about the subject but if you want to craft a fictional story about it, it needs to not just feel like personal ranting.
Aside from this I thought Olive was a poorly constructed character, I can't deal with women who think their childhood friendships should never ever change and that things will always be the same. She moaned a lot about her friends being awful but never seemed to come to the realisation that perhaps she was also a bit awful to, and that they all really deserved each other? The other thing I couldn't grasp was this book was really Olive finally coming to grips with her not wanting to be a mother, the book begins with a relationship that ends because of that. She is incredibly resentful to her friends regarding motherhood and kids, but the thing is she hasn't ever said before any of this (and rarely says this during the book) that she doesn't want to be a mum. Her friends assume she does because she's never said otherwise and it's pretty annoying to dither on for pages and pages about how awful they are when you've never said to them "actually, I don't want to be a mum." So absurd.

I'll leave this as is for now and finish off on Goodreads.

This one really wasn't for me, sadly. I didn't bond with any of the characters and it felt like there was a lot of story suddenly packed into a short space at the end, after very little had happened during the rest of the book. The issues surrounding society's attitudes towards having children are, of course, important ones but it seemed as if they were being hammered home relentlessly at the expense of the plot.

Loved this book- read in almost one sitting!! Thought the main character Olive was fabulous and enjoyed getting to know her circle of friends. Very well observed realistic characters...all with very plausible issues. Felt the style of the book was very suitable... bobbing between the past and the present. Emma explores the emotions of each character sympathetically. Whilst an easy read felt it exposed some much deeper issues. Thoroughly recommend. Will be looking out for the next book!

I loved this book. I felt like I knew the main character in minutes, could related to her life and just enjoyed (and felt for) her life journey. This book is so well written, ever women will relate to it in some way. Each chapter unravelled like a real life story, which kept me gripped from start to finish.
I love a good book, which peeps in to the lives of other- somehow they make me feel more normal- whatever that may be.

Interesting subject matter and one that isn’t really ever covered.

I enjoyed the fact it looked at someone who didn’t want children for a change.
I felt the book lacked some depth but was enjoyable.

Just a bit too light and fluffy regarding such a difficult topic and the ending failed to follow through on some of the earlier themes

Olive follows the story of Olive, a thirty something struggling to come to terms with her decision to not have children surrounded by a friendship group and a society who all appear to have embraced motherhood with open arms. Olive is such a refreshing book to read for a woman my age and really resonated with me.

Whether you're a mother or not, this book is a joyful read. The depiction of Olive and her friendship group is beautifully honest, I find a lot of books in this genre paint female friendship as something that is perfect, with friends keeping in touch constantly, always getting along and having seemingly endless amounts of time to spend together. This book felt so refreshing as I felt it showed real friendship, friends argue, friends have their own things going on and struggle to keep in touch, but no matter what, will always be there for each other when needed.

This book was a easy, enjoyable read, but covers the topic of motherhood and the choices involved so well that it really gave me food for thought. I would highly recommend!

This book filled me with so much joy, sadness and longing. It depicts Olive who is mid 30s in present tense and the novel reflects on her 20s life. It weaves together so beautifully the trauma and upset that this period of life can cause and the uncertainty of which direction your life goes it. It captures these friendships of a girl called Olive and how these dynamics change as the girls grow and choose their own paths. I couldn't put this book down and I felt so strongly for the characters. They felt real and alive and this book was read in such a right moment for me. So much comfort!

Olive is a story and a character for the modern day. On the surface she has her life together and the life she wants, but she feels she's falling apart inside. Even though she is clear she never wants children, she puts her relationship situation to the side and gives her friends' challenges more importance. I did like the long running friendship - I have one of these too and it's wonderful, but I do recognise how you can let the competitive element in. The revelation about Doris at the end is great, and shows things aren't always what they seem, and how not to take people for granted. A lovely story of friendship.

DNF at 22%.

I liked the idea behind it. I have no desire to have children and I related a lot to Emma’s questions over whether she wants to have children or not, many over whether she’ll regret it and what it means for her now all her friends are becoming parents. I’ve always wanted to read more about women choosing not to have kids and how she’s strong in her opinion, but there wasn’t much else to the story that kept me engaged. I might try again one day, but I don’t know when that will be.

I thank NetGalley and Harper Collins for providing me an ARC copy of this novel that I freely chose to review.
Not a huge fan of the subject matter but read it as I could sense it was going to be a huge in store it.
Really enjoyed the narrative and the themes of friendship, loneliness. Beautiful cover, very easy to read, light hearted and humorous in places, would highly recommend as a holiday read.

This is a great story to take you out of the perspective of your own world and try to identify with other women's experiences of transitioning from carefree 20-somethings into women who are expected to have it together and don't always succeed in conforming to the world's expectations of this.

I enjoyed the characters in this book.

Thank you for allowing me to review this book.

Refreshing, modern, likeable characters, thought provoking and well written. Really enjoyed this book!

Olive is 33. She is part of a quartet of very close friends who have known each other since school and university. Her closest friend Bel has three children, another has just had her first and the third friend is desperate for a child but is suffering infertility problems. On top of that Olive has just split with her long-term boyfriend because he wants children and she has finally admitted to herself and her friends that she never will.

Throughout the book each of the friends comes to examine their choices and reflect on what it means to be a mother, or not. However, deep it isn’t. I wanted to love the book as I was looking forward to reading a refreshing story about a woman who doesn’t want kids and doesn’t bow to society’s expectations to reproduce and live a conventional family life. However, I found Olive and her friends two-dimensional and irritating in the extreme and overall the book felt shallow with stilted writing and unnatural dialogue. To be fair it’s probably aimed at women a lot younger than me, but that doesn’t mean to say that that generation doesn’t deserve good writing (see Louise O'Neill). However, I’ve given it three stars rather than two because the idea of a protagonist who doesn’t follow the traditional path which is set out for young women, even today, is very positive and refreshing.

Reading Olive was like a breath of fresh air. Without the cliche's in some books, I can't think of a novel that honestly portrays honestly, a woman freely choosing not to have children. Its an increasingly familiar discussion in society now, where women want to have careers and explore other opportunities in life besides becoming a mother.

Although for me personally I want to have children, I felt that Gannon handles the complexities, worries, frustrations and uncertainties of it all brilliantly. I think Olive for many women will be such a comfort, and for myself I felt the connection Olive had of feeling 'behind' with life's plan compared to her peers, and I think mentally this is a huge issue with young women today alongside the use of social media.
This isn't the only avenue that Gannon touches on in this novel. She also covers the one friend who is struggling to conceive through IVF, then another who is struggling to balance children and her marriage, and lastly another who navigates through pregnancy, birth and then her new life with a baby. All of the characters' struggles are prominent and addressed delicately by the author. The friendhship between the women are the core of this novel which was, again comforting to see because there always seems to be love interests in books like these and not enough girl power!

To conclude, Olive is our friend who supports the decisions we make for ourselves and will be our biggest fan for making ourselves happy and not everyone else. This is a book you recommend to your girlfriends, and I'll certainly be doing the same!

This is one of those books that kept popping up in my timeline – recommended by bloggers, instagrammers and tweeters I follow. I was interested in the blurb:

“OLIVE is many things.

Independent.
Adrift.
Anxious.
Loyal.
Kind.
Knows her own mind.

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

Moving, memorable and a mirror for every woman 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.”

This sounds like just my thing, a voice for her generation and covering a topic which resonates with me – I’m 37 and don’t have children, although I am fortunate to have lots of nieces and nephews as well a surrogate nieces and nephews. I’m sorry to say, as I do appreciate how much blood, sweat and tears go into the publication of anything – I really disliked it. I hated Olive and her voice, she is breathtakingly selfish and self centred and then constantly wonders why her friends are not replying instantly to her WhatsApp messages. This review is going to contain spoilers, so I can talk a bit about specifics. Don’t read on if you do want to read this without knowing some of the details and plot points.

 A problematic or unreliable narrator is nothing new, of course, and they can often make for interesting narratives – a redemptive character arc, the shape of someone based on the people around them, a bit of a detective story as you try to work out what’s really going on. “Gone Girl”, by Gillian Flynn, for example. The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger. Olive learns nothing new in the course of the 4oo pages. Literally nothing, and her bad behaviour is validated by her friends and family, even to the point where her new boyfriend applauds her independence to the point of selfishness.

 Her inner monologue, as we never hear from anyone else, is of a pretty dreadful human being. She moans when her friends are late but continually mooches around and turns up 15 minutes late to all of her meetings – including boasting that she’s so good at her job and so senior that she can turn up when she wants and no-one will challenge her.

She lies, too, telling people she’s busy with work when she really wants to run a bath and relax. Nothing wrong at all with relaxing, and taking time for yourself – but I believe that you should be honest and tell your friends and boyfriends what you’re doing, or at least recognise that it’s a bit crap of you to lie outright.

She also pats herself on the back when she reaches out a tiny pinky finger to help her supposed best friends. One of them is going through post natal depression, one has three kids and a cheating husband and the other is just enduring her third round of IVF and is desperate for children. At one point, this friend has an argument with her partner and comes to stay with Olive. Olive promptly claims triumph for being a great friend, then leaves her to go to an improv class, followed by beers with the class. She then has a tantrum when her friend suggests they eat dinner together, telling her she needs to work and basically, that’s her too bad if she can’t handle that. At one point she wonders where her elderly next door neighbour is as her lights are off at night, very unusual for her. She shrugs, goes to bed and then when she wakes up in the morning she decides to go and knock on her door – but makes sure she washes her face and gets properly dressed first. Her neighbour turns out to be dead in the hallway, having been found by the postman that morning. Seriously. She then goes to the funeral and wears what sounds like casual clothes because they're the only black clothes she had clean. Despite being an editor for a magazine. Sure. 

It isn’t just Olive’s jaw dropping narcissism that made this unlikeable for me to read, but also the lack of any other characters’ perspectives. She is front and centre, and I think it would have been great to hear from other people in her life. What does her boyfriend of nine years really think about what happened – did they break up simply because he wanted kids and she didn’t? How about her sister, who dips in and out but doesn’t seem to hold any sort of view, really, apart from to tell Olive how she should work for charity because it’s so rewarding.

Additionally, there were some wince-inducing.. mistakes, I guess, which I would have thought would have been picked up by an editorial read. A couple of times she orders a ‘small beer’ in pubs. What’s a small beer? I have drunk beer in pubs for 20 years and have never ordered a small beer. If I had, I would have been laughed at by the person behind the bar. Some of the timelines were strange too – she has an appointment at 9am and then goes to get a gin immediately afterwards, encouraged by her gay BF from work. With the rest of the book, getting a gin on a work day and on what would have been about 11.30am at the latest, would have received some attention, but this passed without her comment. There’s another section where she talks about it being light and warm in the evenings because the clocks have just gone back, mid summer. Er. Clocks go back in October. Head scratching.

I know, none of this sounds particularly important or life changing, but for me they really bounced me out of the story.

Lastly, there were no distinct voices. I struggled to remember who was talking most of the time – Cec, Iz or Bea, as they are all so interchangeable. I also struggled with the timeline, partly as a result of the lack of unambiguous dialogue – it jumped about without seeming to really settle on what it was trying to say or highlight.

Phew. I did like some aspects - a couple of Instagram accounts I follow were referenced, like Accidentally Wes Anderson. I also liked the premise that there is room for women who choose to not have children – unfortunately in this instance, it comes across as the only space available and everyone else is wrong.

I do think it’s important to write honest reviews, and I hope that’s come through with this one. Thank you as always to Netgalley and HarperCollins for the digital ARC!

Olive is a 33-year-old successful and ambitious woman. As the years pass her by, she realizes everyone around her is drastically changing. Her group of friends (since she's known since school) settled down and, like everyone in their age group, look forward to becoming mothers. But Olive can't seem to have the same maternal urges as her friends. She's broken up with her boyfriend of almost a decade because of this. Olive starts to question her life choices and explore what her future should look like.

My top three thoughts on 'Olive':
1. This is such an excellent, thought-provoking book that looks at topics that affect women—the whole choice of motherhood feminism, friendship, fertility, infertility, post-partum depression, and acceptance.
2. I can see myself quickly becoming friends with Olive. She's such a real and likable character who's always there for her friends. Like anyone, she has a few flaws like being a little judgmental and self-centered, but she's also kind, supportive, at considerate most of the time.
3. I related to many points in this book either because they applied to me or how they affected women in my life. The pressures that society and women themselves put on paths females should follow it resonated with me. I've always questioned, defied, or argued with a lot of these expectations. I appreciate all the different voices and perspectives Emma Gannon brings into this novel and highly recommend that this book be read!

I really loved this book. I found it extremely relatable and well-observed. I felt connection and sympathy with all the characters at some point in the story and enjoyed the fresh perspective on choosing to be child-free that is rarely heard about it.

I thank NetGalley and Harper Collins for providing me an ARC copy of this novel that I freely chose to review.
I’ll try to be brief, as I think my review won’t be very relevant to a lot of people, because I am not a big reader of chick-lit, and I have no previous knowledge of the author, who is better known for her work as a podcaster, writer and editor in magazines, and non-fiction. I am sure both, fans of this genre and of the author, will enjoy the novel.
This is a novel that reminded me of Sex and the City (there are four female friends whose lives have taken different directions but remain close) although set in London and more modest (and they are not as obsessed with shopping), and Bridget Jones’s Diary (yes, the London setting works well, and the many disasters the main character gets involved in also resonate). We have the four friends, who’ve known each other since they were children and shared an apartment in London while at university. We have a writer, writing for an online magazine (like the author of the book), a lawyer, an artist, and a therapist. The main events of the book take place at a particular point in their lives, and it is told, in the first person, through Olive’s (Olivia but she hates her name and most people call her Ol) point of view. Olive is at a point of crisis, as her long-term relationship (nine years) with Jacob has come to an end. He wanted to have children and she didn’t, and that became a deal breaker in the end. Olive is not the only one going through a crisis, and the rest of the women in the book are too. These crises centre on the issue of having or not having children (mostly) and how that can change a woman’s life. One of the friends is about to have a baby; one already has three kids and her relationship is not quite as good as it seems; one is desperately trying to get pregnant (on her second round of IVF), and then there is Olive. The story moves chronologically forward, but there are also interspersed fragments of the past (the year is clearly indicated) that help give us some background into the friends’ experiences together and how things have changed with time and their altered circumstances.
What I liked about the book: I enjoyed the London references (not long descriptions but rather a feel for the locations and the atmosphere), the British-speech (specially the colloquialisms), the quotes from random women on the issue of being child-free at the end of each chapter, and some of the side characters (Olive’s old neighbour, Olive’s sister, and Colin, a work colleague, were among my favourites). I also enjoyed the insights into the workings of an online magazine (it’s evident the author knows what she is writing about), and some of the interactions between the friends (although for me, those set early on in their relationship and the ones where Olive is with only one of her friends worked better than the big events or the four women’s reunions). I also liked the final section of the book, around the last 10%, when Olive seems to finally grow up and gain some true insight into her situation and understanding of others’ circumstances, and is no longer so self-absorbed.
What I disliked about the book: I am not sure how much I liked any of the main characters. I didn’t dislike them either, and I sympathised with some of them (especially Isla, although I can’t say I’ve ever felt like her), but they were as expected. Nothing particularly original, distinctive, or diverse about them. Upper to middle middle-class women, with no particular financial difficulties, fairly successful in their careers, whose only issues seemed to be their preoccupation with having children or not (and their relationship with their partners, but to a far lesser extent) and the fact that their friendship seemed to be deteriorating due to other aspects of their lives. I am not saying this is not important, but… I was intrigued by the main the topic, which is something not often discussed, but I am not sure the humorous tone of the book served it well. I felt at times frustrated by how slowly time seemed to move (Olive is set to attend a club meeting for child-free women early on in the novel, and it seems to take forever for that day to arrive), and I realised that it was in part because of the inserts of past episodes, and in part because the central character has not changed at all in her outlook or behaviour through the years. As I have said, this changes towards the end of the book, and I felt that made the book feel more realistic and interesting, but it was a bit too little too late for me.
In sum, this is a light read about a serious topic that is not usually discussed in this genre. I recommend it to lovers of chick-lit, especially if they enjoy a London setting, and to readers who follow the author. Although the final message is a positive one, I think women struggling with the issue of childbearing might find some of the content upsetting and they should approach it with some caution.