The Night Olivia Fell

By: Christina McDonald

Narrated by: Kelly Burke, Laurel Lefkow

Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's summary

In the vein of Big Little Lies and Reconstructing Amelia comes an emotionally charged domestic suspense novel about a mother unraveling the truth behind how her daughter became brain-dead. And pregnant.

A search for the truth. A lifetime of lies.

In the small hours of the morning, Abi Knight is startled awake by the phone call no mother ever wants to get: Her teenage daughter, Olivia, has fallen off a bridge. Not only is Olivia brain-dead, she’s pregnant and must remain on life support to keep her baby alive. And then Abi sees the angry bruises circling Olivia’s wrists.

When the police unexpectedly rule Olivia’s fall an accident, Abi decides to find out what really happened that night. Heartbroken and grieving, she unravels the threads of her daughter’s life. Was Olivia’s fall an accident? Or something far more sinister?

Christina McDonald weaves a suspenseful and heart-wrenching tale of hidden relationships, devastating lies, and the power of a mother’s love. With flashbacks of Olivia’s own resolve to uncover family secrets, this taut and emotional novel asks: How well do you know your children? And how well do they know you?

©2019 Christina McDonald (P)2019 Simon & Schuster

A long, less dramatic episode of SVU...

The narrators did absolutely nothing for the story, unfortunately making it something to bear just to finish. I found myself debating on whether to just buy the actual book and read it with my own character voices.

Good story, but narrated by a robot

Really good listen, but the narrator for Abby could have been a robot. Honestly, she was so bad it was distracting and definitely took something away from what should have been a great story.

Eh, okay

Decent story but horrible narration. The narrator did okay with the primary character but unless you like over enunciation and robot voices, you'll be dissatisfied with the rest. This why I much prefer actor-narrated books.

Poorly narrated!

I thought the book was average for the genre and although I detest writing reviews I felt it necessary to add remarks about the narrator. The woman speaking Abby’s character was terrible, choppy and halted. I considered not continuing with the book based on this performance.

Unfulfilled potential

The plot synopsis was intriguing, but the author just didn't make it work. Totally predictable, not one sympathetic character (everyone is either lying or keeping secrets). And the narrators do not help, especially the reader for Abi. Pass on this one.

Decent read

After reading all the comments about this book, I was not sure wether should I read it or not. I am glad I decided to go ahead and bought it. I enjoyed the book. It is not really that much of a thriller, the focus is mainly on mother - daughter relationship between two main characters. I liked the ending, I think it was very realistic and sad. I read comments that performer reading Abi is like robot - for me both performers were ok.

Not her best but a good story

The narrator was a little slow and annoying at times this was a little disappointing after her previous book.

Realistic life like scenarios, hitting close to home for many .

As always Christina McDonald didn’t disappoint. This book was full of so much emotion, adventure, real life scenarios that everyday people go through. The story is about a woman who has an affair with a man of status, she becomes pregnant things end badly. The woman Abby ends up raising the baby girl Olivia on her own. Throughout the book as Olivia grows up she starts asking questions about her missing father like any child would do. Abby continues to be mysterious about Olivias father, so Olivia goes about finding her father herself. The book has many twists and turns while Olivia completes the mission of finding out who her father really is and why he wasn’t around. This book contains lots of twists, turns and everyday lessons for teenagers, shows the struggles of being a single teenage parent. It shows how sometimes the person we love isn’t the person we really think they are. Sometimes the person we love is the person we shouldn’t be with or others don’t think we should be with. But at the end of the day Olivia followed her heart and ended up with the one she was meant to be with. This book pulled at my heart strings and the ending was devastating to me but then bitter sweet knowing that a piece of Olivia will always be alive through her daughter. I highly recommend any and all of Christina McDonalds books. I can’t wait to see what she comes out with next!!!

Very Well Written, Story Sucks You In

The Night Olivia Fell was a very pleasant surprise. The book itself is about a depressing issue, but the reader has natural empathy for the characters and we are sucked in from beginning to end.

A young girl has mysteriously fallen and she's brain dead. However, when mom arrives to the hospital in a panic to see if her daughter's alright, she finds out that the tragic fall is only part of the shock. The other shocking news is, she's pregnant. The doctors explain that they have to keep her daughter on life support until the baby is ready to be born.

While her daughter lays as a human incubator, her mother believes that her 'accident' was no accident at all. Frustrating with the way the police are handling it, Mom decides to play detective to see what happened on the night her daughter fell, and what lead up to it.

I was hooked from beginning to end. The story has an excellent flow and it's beautifully narrated.

Four solid stars

interesting story line

I liked this book from the start. Suspenseful, interesting characters and the back & forth chapters worked.