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Olive should be totally cool with death. I mean her mom is a mortuary cosmetologist and her dad is a monumental mason. But after an allergic reaction caused her to see the other side, she’s been petrified of returning to the Nothing. She has cut off all ties with anyone she cares about to protect herself from total emotional devastation. Even her parents and now ex-best friend Davis. So when the closest thing she’s ever had to a grandma passes right in front of her, she must find out what’s waiting after death.

However, after summoning the mysterious ghost Jay who proves to be less help than she expected, her classmates start getting attacked. Olive must find his grave and help him pass to the other side with the aid of Davis, new girl Vanessa, and her enemy/potential love interest Maren before more people get hurt. While also confronting her own fears of death, life, and love. Unless Jay isn’t the one causing these attacks…

This book surprised the crap out of me! A cozy horror steeped with spooky thrills and ghostly chills. I was not expecting such a twisted and enthralling mystery. Usually, there is a trade-off between plot and character development in the YA genre. And I normally have a bone to pick with the overly simplistic and needly descriptive writing style. However, Here Lies Olive may have caused me to change my opinion on the genre as a whole.

The mystery of this plot, although somewhat predictable, kept me turning pages faster than I have in a long time. And even I didn’t see the plot twists at the very end coming. Yes, there were ghosts, witches, and a general sense of the macabre. But there were also themes of self-discovery, friendship, forgiveness, grief, and trauma. Done in a tasteful and not at all pandering way. Which is so rare for both YA and horror. I truly felt Olive’s trauma and fear over the Nothing.

Olive was such a fun and unexpected main character. I loved her retro goth vibes and dedication to protecting the people she cared about. Plus her journey of queer self-discovery was perfectly woven into the overall story. It never felt forced or heteronormative. And her pure as-heck friendship with Davis had me rooting for them the whole time.

Speaking of Davis, I was pleasantly surprised to see the amount of Navajo representation throughout the book. I appreciated that it was informative without being tokenistic. Davis and his family's Navajo roots and storyline were, again, tastefully woven in with the overall plot. Although I’m not indigenous myself, my girlfriend is Chippewa and gave her stamp of approval on Davis and his family.

All in all, if you’re in the mood for a ghost story with plenty of depth and twists I highly recommend this read. And don’t let the YA stamp sway you. I promise you’ll fly through this spooky mystery faster than you can say Halloween. Happy reading!

Thank you to NetGalley, Flux, and North Star Editions for sending this eARC for review consideration. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

4.75/5 stars

CW: Blood, bones, bullying, child death, death, depression, gore, hallucinations, murder, occult, PTSD, torture, violence.

This was a really cool concept. I enjoyed all the elements of supernatural stuff that were employed in the story. I wanted there to be a better flow to the actual plot though. The twist was maybe a little too obvious. Someone can only repeat a motion so many times before we KNOW it’s going to become a huge plot point.

Overall I was entertained, just not wowed.

Here Lies Olive
By: Kate Anderson

5 Stars

As an adult reader I'll admit that every now and then, I love to pick up a good YA book and just get lost in the story. This story not only met that mark, but bypassed it. A classic ghost needs saving storyline is matched with an awesome unique town and a great set of characters to make an amazing ghost story.

When Olive has a near death experience, it leaves her with a few questions. The main one being, "where do we go after we die?". With a group of unlikely friends, she finds herself on a journey to answer this question. Even if she has to summon a ghost to do it.

This story is full of action. It was so well written that it is easy to get lost in the story. The storyline itself was well done. It had elements of spook and romance (which I LOVED), while also being packed with danger and drama. The descriptions were also done amazingly well. I love to read a book and be able to feel the scene from descriptions. Those are always the best.

The one thing that surprised me about this book is how easy it was to relate. Olive is a young girl who had a bad experience. Now she focuses on death. I can relate. As I have gotten older, its easy to make that leap to your soon-to-be mortality and want to know what comes next. I know I do. Who doesn't?

Overall, this was a great story. Whether this book is read by an adult or a teen, I believe anyone who picks it up will love it. I know I did.

*I want to thank Netgalley and the Author for this book in return for my honest review*

Stormi Ellis
Boundless Book Reviews

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to review this book.

After Olive nearly died from an allergic reaction, she began pushing people away. Now, two years later, she's left feeling unmoored and is looking for answers. When a new girl decides to check out one of the town's legends, Olive goes along too, hoping to find a spirit that can answer her questions about what happens next. What she doesn't count on are all the ugly things that come after.

While I will say I found this book predictable (I called the ending from a mile away) it did have some good twists. It was engaging and a good spooky season book.

Here Lies Olive is a queer YA light horror novel that focuses a lot on grief and death, and also touches on things like the evils of 20th and early to mid-21st century “mental health care” and colonisation.

Olive died for five minutes, and all she saw when she was gone was what she calls the Nothing. There was nobody in the darkness, and all she felt was a sea of shadows and loneliness. Afterwards, she was determined to cut off everyone she loved, and wall herself off. But despite this, she ended up becoming friends with a woman from the local nursing home. And after she passes, Olive is determined to find out if the Nothing is what awaits everyone after they pass away.

So Olive ends up summoning a ghost so that she can ask them what exactly comes after death. But nothing goes right, and the ghost ends up being one who hasn’t passed on so has no idea what comes next after all. To help the ghost cross over, and therefore find out, Olive promises to help Jay find his unmarked grave in hopes he can give her a message once he passes on.

I really would have loved some more page time and development of Jay. He was a character with a lot of potential but I never felt like he was present enough to become a central character to the story. If the core group had spent more time with him I feel like readers would have really invested in Jay’s journey to crossing over, and the search for his unmarked grave. Instead, I felt like he was sidelined a lot, even though I had thought his story would be a large part of the book. And instead of caring about him and befriending him, Olive just got angry with Jay when bad stuff started happening and she assumed it was because of him.

Jay wasn’t the only thing lacking some development. I would have liked to see some more build up of the relationship between Olive and Maren because I think it could have been a really cute ship, but in the end I felt like it was a bit rushed, especially because Olive hadn’t even figured out she was gay until about two-thirds of the way through the book. It was still cute, don’t get me wrong, but I just would have liked it to be more fleshed out because the goth girl and the preppy girl is a cute ship!

On the other hand, I thought the conversational writing style was really engaging and reminded me of paranormal books from circa 2010, which have all but disappeared. This style makes it really easy to connect to the MC because it feels like they are having a chat with you personally. So I liked that a lot!

Another great thing was how fleshed out Davis, Olive’s best friend, was. He was very central to the story, and also had things going on in his life outside of what he was doing with Olive. His Navajo heritage was also central to his character, and I loved this. He was definitely not a cardboard cutout character who only served the main character.

Overall, I did enjoy Here Lies Olive. There were somethings that could have been improved and then I have a feeling I would have loved it. But as it was, I still liked it and it’s a perfect book for the spooky season – especially if you’re looking to dip your toes into the horror genre but don’t want to be keeping the lights on after you stop reading.

Olive was very much a teen, predictable, and kind of one dimensional. I feel like many things were used more for shixk value, or to try and incite a woke reaction, but those subjects were not used too much, just on surfaxe imo, which made this whole book not as enjoyable.

Thank you NetGalley and North Star Editions for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

Exploring grief, trauma, friendship and young relationships, this atmospheric coming of age novel is a great way to start the spooky season.

Please do check trigger warnings before reading!

Olive has faced death before. After an allergic reaction almost k!lled her, Olive has become obsessed, and terrified, with what comes next.

Summoning a spirit to find out from someone on the other side, Olive meets Jay. A hitchhiking ghost who is stuck in the woods near where he died, it's up to Olive to help him. Strange attacks have been happening in town on Scary Road, targeting students at Olive's school, and they're getting worse. Olive teams up with her ex-best friend, nemesis, and the new girl to help Jay's spirit before he becomes too dangerous.

This was a great debut, full of interesting characters and some good exploration of grief, death and what comes next, friendship and young relationships.

Olive's character development was great. She is grieving the loss of someone close to her, and this is compounded by her fear of what comes next, or lack-thereof. She is navigating her friendship with Davis, who she distanced herself from following her near-death experience, and some rather complex feelings for her nemesis, Maren. The narrative was full of great dialogue and teen angst.

Some of the plot/characters were a bit predictable, but this didn't take away from the enjoyment of the novel too much. This will be a great read for autumn/spooky season.

This book releases Tuesday October 24th 2023.
Thank you again to NetGalley and North Star Editions for the arc.

This was a really difficult book to review because I loved a lot of it. The setting of this dark tourism capital town where everyone’s life revolves around death and spirits is so interesting. I wish it were a real place! Love the spooky aesthetic and moments where characters just have knowledge that you would acquire living in a town like this like casually discussing the differences between shades and revenants or the finer points of mausoleums and catacombs. Very fun and a nice detail.

Loved the mystery elements and the adventures the characters would go on to unravel those mysteries which let us explore the town and its history more along the way and which provided some pretty great horror elements.The characters themselves were diverse and interesting and I wish we went deeper with them.

The weak point for me however was the character of Olive. I get that teens can be dramatic and am ok with that, but at times it felt she read much younger than teen with the way she reacts to some things and her behavior. Her personality is her trauma of surviving a shellfish allergy after being revived by paramedics. The existential death anxiety that follows takes over her whole life. Lifelong friends are abandoned, any aspirations for the future are abandoned. Only her constant thoughts of “the nothing” and occasionally her obsession with Mrs. H, an elderly woman at the care home she volunteered at who she forms a bond with but who passes away suddenly. And look, if this were mentioned once or twice or was shown in a more indirect way or if there were more to Olive’s character, it wouldn’t be a big issue. But we hear about it through Olives thoughts over and over and over again. However, once the story gets going and we have the other characters show up it’s really fun and interesting and there are some great twists and turns. It’s overall a fun read.

This book is a great fall read, it is spooky season personified. If you are looking for a quick and spooky read where you get to explore old abandoned asylums and graveyards and mausoleums this book has all those fall vibes covered.

I received an advance review copy, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book.

I can confidently say I have not read a book like this and for that fact alone I enjoyed it. It is not often I read something that makes me feel like I am reading something new. This is a perfect book to add to a spooky reading list if you want something that wont scare you to death but will get you into the ghost spirit of things. I will say that if you are easily distracted you may have to reread certain parts more then once to understand what has happened as I had to do this many times having three kiddos running around while reading it. There were times I was completely lost but going back did help. (I will say this is not typically an issue with other books I read so maybe this was a writing style issue.) All in all A great book with characters I really enjoyed.

"Here Lies Olive" is deliciously sarcastic with teenagers dealing with real-life issues, worries, and angst. It's hilarious, it's sappy, and everything in between. 10/10 will be reading again.

I loved this book. I honestly think this is the perfect YA "Spooky Season" book. It hit every box I wanted- eerie without being cheesy, writing that understood and leaned just enough into camp to make it fun, light romance without the typical YA drama (ie "do they like me, my world will end if they don't like me back," love triangles, etc) LGBT and Indigenous representation, ponderings of existential dread that a LOT of teens experience, and some really good reflections on friendships and family, and what it means to love someone even when it's hard.
There was so much going on with this book, and yet it didn't feel rushed or forced. All of it was delicately wound into a story about a girl who is so scared about the "Nothing" after death that she's cut herself off from her loved ones-- and who makes a last ditch attempt to contact a ghost to see if they can tell her anything more concrete about the afterlife (which goes very wrong and catapults her into the events of the book.) The book follows several characters, and each one is unique and well-rounded. I didn't ever get the sense that someone was written in as a prop or to further along the narrative.
I am honestly blown away that this is Anderson's first book. I am so excited to see what she comes up with next.

Huge thank you to NetGalley and North Star Editions, Flux for allowing me to read this ARC!

This story was super interesting and I loved the characters! The vibes are perfect for spooky seasons. While this book seemed a bit young for me, I think this is a great book for the YA reader! Characters have great depth and development and deal with loss in a very understandable way. I loved the LGBTQ+ Rep!

Wonderful coming of age, fall read! Its coming to that point of the year when cuddling up on the couch with a book is a whole vibe, and here we are with the perfect book for this. I loved the relatability to the FMC to the coming of age experience! It tackles so many existential ideas in an easy way that were just wonderful to experience.

A spooky sapphic read with surprising emotional depth, HERE LIES OLIVE expertly balances lighthearted romance with serious topics like death and family trauma.

Our main character Olive is eDgY but self-aware; she wears dark lipstick and has a bit of an alternative style, but admits to being a basic white girl. She leans into the spooky vibes of her little hometown of White Haven, New Mexico, a dark tourism hotspot described as “a morbid Stars Hollow.”

Olive discovered she had a shellfish allergy in the worst possible way a few years ago, and technically died. She saw Nothing and her priorities shifted: Who cares about school and friends if when you die, you cease to exist?

Olive struggles constantly with her feelings around death and dying, which are exacerbated by the recent death of her surrogate grandmother, Mrs. Hernandez. She is haunted by the thought that Mrs. H is really gone, and the only thing keeping her going is the thought that she could be wrong–maybe she was somewhere in between.

Accompanied by a new girl who wants to be her best friend, the former best friend she abandoned, and an annoying type-A descendant of the man who owned the maybe-haunted asylum, Olive sets out on a mission to disprove what she thinks she saw when she died–Nothing. And the best person to ask about the afterlife is someone who’s in it.

I was so impressed with this book. I expected dark, I expected sapphic, but I did not expect the whirlwind of emotions I would experience with every page. Olive is an authentic teen with trauma who is just trying to figure things out. She doesn’t want anyone to get too close because loss is so painful, and her otherwise loving and supportive parents don’t talk about her experience so she doesn’t either. She is highly empathetic, quickly realizing that there is more to stuck-up Maren, who is just trying to get out from under the weight of her family’s dark past, and feeling an immediate flood of guilt when she realizes how she treated Davis when she went through her near-death experience.

The plot did dip a little bit in the middle, seemingly just to give them time to do regular teen things, but for a relatively short book this did not hurt my reading experience much. The prose is visual and descriptive, there is good LGBTQ+ and Indigenous rep, and I absolutely did not see that ending coming. A perfect first read for the start of spooky season. I highly recommend.

Thank you to NetGalley and North Star Editions for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Meet Olive. 2 years after she died and was brought back to life, shes still questioning what she saw in the hereafter. And was it the true hereafter.

Determined to find out she enlists the help of new friend Vanessa, an ex BFF Davis and Maren, her arch nemesis after she summons the spirit of Jay in the old Asylum. But not everything, or everyone is as it seems.

Dark YA with some heavy-ish themes. This was enjoyable & honestly there were a few parts were I was actually a bit afraid to turn the lights off after (I'm looking at you Shades. Actually, no I'm not 🫣)

Would definitely recommend as a spooky read, as well as a coming of age story with Indigenous and LGBTQ reps.

Like
- Absolutely loved the strong start. It was new, it was a great idea and I was excited to continue with this book
- I loved the charm New Haven had and it was a perfect setting used
- It generated that fall/Halloween vibe that I really enjoyed and the descriptions used were really strong
- Very diverse set of characters as well

Dislike
- It became very repetitive after the half way mark and especially nearing the end of the book
- The plot felt dragged out and I wasn't really interested in it anymore
- There were some holes I felt like were missing throughout and some of the actions felt disoriented

I'm not totally sure how I feel about this one. It felt a bit young for YA, reading more like a middle grade novel, except I don't think the horror elements would be appropriate for that age group. The plot and premise was interesting but the characters and their motives felt a bit flat. The humour was a bit corny for my taste. Appreciated the diversity and LGBTQ+ representation.

I loved the supernatural aspects of this engaging YA horror read! The dark tourism aspects of the town were fun to read. I was immediately invested in Olive's story. I couldn't turn the pages fast enough to find out what would happen next. This is Kate Anderson's first book. I can't wait to read her next novel!

Thank you so much to NetGalley for the ARC of Here Lies Olive in exchange for an honest review.

...and I'll be honest. I struggled quite a lot with this book.

**potential spoilers below**

The title, cover, and description all sounded right up my alley and drew me in to requesting (and ultimately reading) this book. Paranormal? Check. Cozy small town ala Gilmore Girls? Check. Creepy abandoned asylum? Check. Sapphic love? Check.

None of those, however, accounted for how annoying the main character is. She is incredibly two-dimensional for being a "not like the other girls" girl. She has one character trait and it's the fact that she died and came back. Maybe I'm being harsh, but like.... having a seafood allergy isn't special! I got nothing else from her, besides being completely obtuse to things going on around her. Most of the other characters were similar, with only one trait and not much else.

The plot had SO MUCH potential as well, but ultimately fell flat due to poor development. I didn't really understand Olive's motives, many of the scenes with paranormal activity were confusing to read, and as much as I love a sapphic love story, it was so forced I wanted to cringe. I really enjoyed reading the history of the asylum and getting into that aspect of it, but the plot line of what comes after death was not really cohesive across the story.

There were also moments in the narrative that nearly gave me whiplash. For instance, the first 4 chapters describe the small town and bring out a lot of Halloween vibes with no real nods to the "outside world", until in Chapter 5 there is seemingly random acknowledgements of school shootings, police brutality, and climate change. I did not see any of that coming, nor is it brought up anymore in the story.

After reading a few other reviews, I have to agree that I see this book fitting into the middle grade category, more than YA. If I were 10 years younger, I may have loved this.

To begin, thank you to Netgalley and North Star Editions for the Advanced Reading Copy in exchange for an honest review

Set in America's Halloween tourist town, after Olive has a near death experience, she begins to question what happens after we die and fears that there is an endless expanse of Nothing waiting for her. Soon after, one of her closest friends dies, and it gives her hope that there is something happier in the afterlife. She then summons a ghost in hopes of asking him what happens after we die, but instead she brings to life a traumatized boy who doesn't know he's dead. so, olive and her friends work together to set his spirit free into whatever comes next.

I want to preface by saying: I am not a paranormal fan. I don't read horror. so, I am biased. But the reason I didn't like this book was not the genre.

To start: Olive.
She was predictable and a huge stereotype. She's characterized as just... "different", but she's nothing of the sort. Her entire character is wanting to know what happens after life and liking dark lipstick. She has no complexity.
Plus, Olive was INCREDIBLY dense. Not once did she have a revelation that was shocking to the reader. Instead, for someone who seems to have such authority over the events occurring, it took Olive an insane amount of time to understand everything.
I did enjoy that we also watch her gain friendships back after losing them, but... that was it. Her love story was such a stereotype. It was expected and forced for her to fall in love. I didn't see any spark between the two. Instead, it felt like "oh, well, of course she's going to fall in love because that's just something she would do" instead of watching the story form naturally.

One thing I did like was the complexity of the conflict (although some parts were hard to read because it doesn't align with my beliefs, but I won't get into that). Death is one thing that people don't usually talk about seriously. Today, people dissect and question everything in life, but death is left untouched. Death is the one thing people say "well, you can have your own beliefs about that". it's invigorating to read a book about teenagers dealing with these issues. Teenagers who, evidently, feel almost invincible.
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The conflicts in the novel that Olive faces, give us an insight on the craziness, yet also ingenuous manner of her town. Her town simply ignores that Olive died, and they like to glamorize death in a cute, spooky way, but also won't discuss it with anyone. This highlights the differing sides of her town, which I found interesting.

The author has an incredible talent with writing. She uses beautiful, flowery language and has thousands of hidden messages in a seemingly cute, fun book. I could talk about the meaning of her words for hours, but, I just wish the plot and characters were developed better. Anderson had amazing writing and an amazing idea. It was just executed poorly. I will certainly read more of her books in the future.
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Overall, it's a 3.5 star book rounded down. I really wish I could rate it higher, but, I just think plot and character hold more significance than the writing and message.
If Olive had a better character, and some plot holes were fixed, then this would be a five star from me.
I recommend this to people who love spooky season and anybody who likes beautiful writing. This is probably not something I would recommend to any of my friends, just because it's not usually my thing, but I did enjoy it.