Olive’s Ocean

“She tried to imagine what it would feel like to be hit by a car… A mail truck sounded its horn as it thundered past and Martha could feel its power. The force blew her hair away from her face. She winced; even her toes tightened.” -Olive’s Ocean

Growing up, there wasn’t many books that talked about anything that felt like a reality check I wanted to see. Everything was romance novels or special magic that made everything instantly better all the time. While this can be fun, I set out in ninth grade to look for a book that better suited what I really needed.

Oliver’s Ocean was the answer to that. It actually talked about the harsh realities of family, crushed, friendship, and death. Olive is a girl who was ran over by a car that really wanted to be friends with and know Martha. She was always the “weird kid” who didn’t talk and had a hard time being able to speak to Martha. She never got the chance to be friends with her before dying.

Martha is given Olive’s journal that talks about how she wanted to be friends with her. She then wished that she had reached out to be friends with her. She had to go through the guilt of feeling like she could have been nicer to the girl labeled as strange. She starts to think about death and what it would be like. She gets help from her grandmother named Godbee with life’s harsh truths.

Godbee warned her when she was interested in a boy to not become too obsessed with him because it would keep her from seeing what is really there. She ends up being tricked to kiss him and is disappointed that she became so engrossed into him.

Within the ages of 12-14 is when so much starts to become more real in life. You start trying to figure out how to navigate love and tragedy. This helped me through realizing there is more to life than what is just right in front of you when transitioning to adulthood.