Olivetti - Allie Millington - ★★

AUTHOR: Allie Millington

NARRATORS: Christopher Gebauer & Simon Vance

GENRE: Middle-Grade Fiction

PUBLICATION DATE: March 26, 2024

RATING: 2 stars.

In a Nutshell: A middle-grade mystery with a dual narrative, one of which is from a typewriter’s pov. Had much potential but went awry in execution as it attempts too much and loses its track. It might work better for older readers, but not sure if I want to advocate this to kids.

Plot Preview:

Olivetti has stayed with the Brindle family for years. Each of the Brindles – the parents and the four kids – are busy doing their own thing, and the fights are about who gets to use the new laptop while Olivetti lies ignored. He remembers the good old days when Beatrice Brindle, the mother, used to type her feelings out on him regularly. But now she has gone missing. And no one has any idea of where she could have gone, except perhaps Olivetti.

As twelve-year-old Ernest, the third of the Brindle children, is the only one who seems accessible despite always having his nose in the dictionary, Olivetti decides to break the typewriter code of conduct and communicate with Ernest, divulging Beatrice’s memories in hopes of finding some clue about her whereabouts.

The story comes to us in the alternating first person perspectives of Olivetti and Ernest.

Bookish Yays:

💎 A typewriter story in the computer/smartphone era – points for originality

💎 Olivetti’s perspective is unique. As the self-proclaimed "Keeper of memories", he offers some wry observations on humans, which are quite funny.

💎 Quinn, the pawn shop owner’s daughter: a good character, and probably the only one in this story with some depth.

💎 The cover: stunning!

Bookish Mixed Bags:

💫 The blurb just doesn’t prepare us for the content. It is much sadder than expected, covering mental health issues, life-threatening health scares, and even an intent to suicide. While I know these are topics faced by MG-level kids as well, I still don’t like the idea of such upsetting content being offered to littlies.

💫 The vocabulary is a bit on the tougher side for the target age group. Not a surprise, as Ernest is always roaming with the dictionary, but little readers might stumble over the bigger words.

💫 While the idea of personifying a typewriter is great, I wonder how many middle graders actually know what typewriters are. Or even what pawn shops are. Without the exact knowledge, they won’t get the nuances of the story.

Bookish Nays:

💣 The book seems to suffer an identity crisis as it encompasses mystery, adventure, family drama, magical realism, humour, mental health, and sick lit within a single middle-grade work. This makes the flow feel quite haphazard. (In other words, it suffers from the infamous “kitchen sink syndrome” so common in debut works.

💣 There is little character development. The four Brindle kids all have a one-noted portrayal. We barely get to know any of them except for one quirk of each.

💣 I felt sorry for the Brindle kids. Their parents seemed really selfish and shortsighted. There’s no justification for the parents’ behaviour. While MG books do contain such parents, it was odd to see these two getting away with their problematic conduct with no repercussion at all.

💣 The final quarter is a major letdown as it is much exaggerated and illogical. This section also has a couple of major logical loopholes connected to Beatrice’s behaviour and Olivetti’s memory.

💣 I don’t understand why the “Everything that happened” was kept such a secret until around midway the book. The secret could be triggering for some kids (and even some adults), so it should either have been clarified in the blurb, or mentioned as the trigger warning at the start.

🎧 The Audiobook Experience:

The audiobook, clocking at 4 hrs 33 min, is narrated by Christopher Gebauer and Simon Vance. They both are quite good and I had no complaints about their performance.

I had grabbed this book mainly for the typewriter as I was eager to know how a typewriter’s perspective would be written. However, I found the story somewhat boring after a point simply because I couldn’t figure out what it was trying to do and the characters didn’t appeal to me at all. Moreover, I am not sure how I would have felt had I read this as a kid, what with all the traumatising content. I guess it would work better for kids who don’t question too much and readily suspend disbelief.

Because of the content, I wouldn’t advocate it to younger middle-graders. Actually, I am not sure if I want to advocate it at all to this age group. It might work better for teens. Before investing in the book, do check out the trigger warnings listed below.

My thanks to Recorded Books and NetGalley for the ALC of “Olivetti”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the audiobook. Sorry this didn’t work out better.

Content warnings: Parental abandonment, social anxiety, cancer, attempt to suicide. Can I also count Olivetti’s being completely broken once as a content warning? If I were a kid, I would have been heartbroken to see him shattered like that, even if the situation was resolved after a couple of scenes.