Olivetti by Allie Millington

Book Synopsis:

Being a typewriter is not as easy as it looks. Surrounded by books (notorious attention hogs) and recently replaced by a computer, Olivetti has been forgotten by the Brindle family—the family he’s lived with for years. The Brindles are busy humans, apart from 12-year-old Ernest, who would rather be left alone with his collection of Oxford English Dictionaries. The least they could do was remember Olivetti once in a while, since he remembers every word they’ve typed on him. It’s a thankless job, keeping memories alive.

Olivetti gets a rare glimpse of action from Ernest’s mom, Beatrice--his used-to-be most frequent visitor—only for her to drop him off at Heartland Pawn Shop and leave him helplessly behind. When Olivetti learns Beatrice has mysteriously gone missing afterward, he believes he can help find her. He breaks the only rule of the “typewriterly code” and types back to Ernest, divulging Beatrice’s memories stored inside him.

Their search takes them across San Francisco—chasing clues, maybe committing a few misdemeanors. As Olivetti spills out the past, Ernest is forced to face what he and his family have been running from, The Everything That Happened. Only by working together will they find Beatrice, belonging, and the parts of themselves they’ve lost.

My Review:

4/5 stars. This was a cute story that I flew through in about three sittings. I don't have too much to say about it because it was so quick, but I enjoyed it. I liked the very unique POV character. The main (non-typewriter) character was a bit cliche and annoying at times, though. The ending was heartwarming.

After finishing a book that took me almost to get through, this was a nice change of pace, literally. I didn't realize how much I was flying through it until I looked down after only ten minutes or so and I was already a third of the way through.

I enjoyed the mystery. The author did a good job early on of keeping me intrigued by what was being said or explained. You could tell that whatever had happened in the past was a big deal to Ernest, but you didn't know the details. The overall progression of following clues and discovering things was a bit simple, but that is to be expected for a middle grade that's less than 250 pages.

My biggest critique that's maybe more of a personal complaint is that the main character, Ernest, felt very much like a trope. Especially at first, he was the stereotypical "nerdy loner middle schooler who does quirky things like read dictionaries for fun." I've seen it a few times in middle grade, but it feels like a bit of an unrealistic archetype. The combination of zero friends, social awkwardness, and quirky smart hobbies doesn't feel very believable. Super smart kids could still have lots of friends. Loners could still enjoy normal preteen hobbies and culture. Ernest got better as the book went on, but when he was introduced as always carrying around a dictionary and wanting to vomit because he has to give a presentation, I had to roll my eyes just a bit.

But overall, I liked Ernest. His emotions were very believable. And his character growth at the end was sweet. The ending in general was great and made me smile.

Content:

None in any category. This was a very clean book