Book #5: The Night Olivia Fell, Christina McDonald

Synopsis:

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 heartwrenching 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?

Topics and Questions for Discussion 

1. Consider the novel’s structure of Abi’s and Olivia’s alternating viewpoints and time periods. How do you think the reading experience might have been different if the story had been told chronologically? What about if it had been told by either one narrator or from a third-person point of view?

2. Compare and contrast Abi’s and Olivia’s perceptions of each other from what we learn about each woman through their own words in their designated chapters. Discuss the discrepancies between who they are and who the other person thinks they are.

3. It’s clear that Abi and Olivia love each other deeply, but as with any mother-daughter relationship, they sometimes misunderstand each other. Are there any moments in the novel in which you feel they could have communicated better? Do any of these scenes remind you of moments in your own life with your mother or daughter? If you feel comfortable doing so, consider sharing them with your book club.

4. “Mom told me I should stand up to her. Tyler said I always saw the best in people. The truth was, neither of them was right. I was just scared of not being liked” (p. 12). Discuss this statement of Olivia’s and compare it to Abi’s statement of “I was really more of an observer than a participator. I was better at standing on the sidelines” (p. 43). While Olivia may seem more social on the outside, how do both women isolate themselves from others?

5. When Anthony tells Abi that he’s “just grateful I have [my mother] at all,” Abi thinks, “It was a funny answer, so different from how I would look at it. But he was right” (p. 113). What else does Abi learn from Anthony about coping with grief? 

6. Sarah tells Olivia about an experiment from her college psychology class where the teacher asked the class if they would prefer happiness or truth. Sarah’s class chose happiness, but Olivia says she would choose truth, and claims that it brings happiness in itself. Consider these two statements. Do you think truth and happiness are mutually exclusive? Which would you choose?

7. “I was scared. Of rejection. Of loss. Of hurt. Of being anything other than Olivia’s mom” (p. 143). Why do you think Abi uses being a mother—the most vulnerable occupation of all—as a crutch to protect herself from the world?

8. When Kendall pretends she doesn’t know Olivia, Olivia is deeply hurt, and says that “the rejection was like acid in my stomach. I didn’t know what I’d done wrong” (p. 153). Compare Olivia’s feelings of rejection from Kendall, her half-sister, to Abi’s feelings of rejection from Gavin, Olivia’s father, years ago.

9. “Being a mother wasn’t something you just ‘handled’ . . . her death didn’t have anything to do with me at all” (p. 189). How do you think reading her mother’s suicide note and learning more about her mother’s death helped Abi cope with losing Olivia?

10. Mother-daughter relationships form the core of The Night Olivia Fell. Compare and contrast the relationships between Abi and Olivia, Abi and her mother, Olivia and her baby, as well as the relationship between Abi and Sarah, who plays a maternal role in Abi’s life, the relationship between Madison and Jen, and any others you can think of!

11. When Kendall and Olivia spend time together, Olivia eventually realizes she’s fond of her. “It was cool that she might be my sister. I’d always wanted siblings” (p. 171). Compare Kendall and Olivia’s relationship as half-sisters to Abi’s relationship with Sarah.

12. “If my mom had gotten an abortion, I wouldn’t even be alive, so I couldn’t do that to this baby”(p. 276). Compare Olivia’s reaction to her pregnancy to Abi’s reaction to her pregnancy with Olivia years before.

13. Olivia says, “My mom taught me that: Look to the future and you won’t stumble on the present . . . I knew now why she was like that, and maybe it wasn’t something you could unlearn, but I didn’t want to be like that” (p. 291). Discuss the merits of living in the present versus planning with the future with your book club. Is there a way to balance both in our lives?

14. Author Christina McDonald keeps us guessing throughout the novel on who was ultimately to blame for Olivia’s tragic death. When the guilty party is revealed, was it the person you suspected? Why or why not? If not, who else did you suspect, and why?

15. Throughout the novel in the present day, Olivia is kept on life support so she can carry her unborn child to term. Is it morally or ethically right to keep a woman, let alone a teenager, on life support to keep a baby alive? Respectfully discuss your views with your book club.

16. “I let myself stand on that cliff and peer over the edge into the future, at the happiness that I could have one day if I would only allow it” (p. 129). Do you think Abi finally allows happiness to come to her at the end of the novel? How else does she grow as a character at the end of the novel?

Enhance Your Book Club

1. Consider reading other novels centering around domestic suspense and mothers and daughters with your book club, such as Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight or What Was Mine by Helen Klein Ross. Compare their similarities and differences with The Night Olivia Fell. 

2. The lush landscape of the Pacific Northwest is featured prominently in The Night Olivia Fell. To better understand the novel’s setting, do some Internet research on some of the locales the novel mentions, such as Puget Sound, the University of Washington, and Mercer Island—or, if you live in the area, consider a field trip!

3. At one point in the novel, Derek claims that he didn’t tell the police he was the baby’s father because “I’ve seen CSI . . . they’d think I was the one who hurt Olivia or something” (p. 241). Consider watching an episode of a crime TV show like CSI with your book club, and discussing how television influences our views of criminal investigations. Compare them to the novel’s treatment of crime—what similarities or differences do you notice? Is one more believable than the other? Why do you think so?

4. Visit the author’s website at www.christina-mcdonald.com to learn more about her. Research some of her journalism for outlets such as The Sunday Times (Dublin), theGalway Independent, or the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.