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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 is a cute story that I flew through in about three sittings. I don’t have too much to say about it because it’s so quick, but I enjoyed it. I liked the very unique POV character. The main (non-typewriter) character is a bit cliche and annoying at times, though. The ending is heartwarming.
I enjoyed the mystery. The author did a good job early on of keeping me intrigued by what was being said or explained. You can tell that whatever had happened in the past was a big deal to Ernest, but you don’t know the details. The overall progression of following clues and discovering things is a bit simple, but that is to be expected for a middle grade that’s less than 250 pages.
My biggest critique of Olivetti, which is maybe more of a personal complaint, is that the main character, Ernest, feels very much like a trope. Especially at first, he’s 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 can still have lots of friends. Loners can still enjoy normal preteen hobbies and culture. Ernest gets better as the book goes 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 are very believable. And his character growth at the end is sweet. The ending of Olivetti in general is great and made me smile.
Rated: None
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