'"I get that I'm impossible. I get that I'm mad and rude – perhaps even a drama queen at times. But you'd be impossible if you lived my life ...You'd be impossible if you were invisible. Shakespeare was an idiot. Love is not blind. Love is being seen."
'Plagued by a gypsy curse that she'll be invisible to all but her true love, seventeen-year-old Olive is understandably bitter. Her mother is dead; her father has taken off. Her sister, Rose, is insufferably perfect. Her one friend, Felix, is blind and thinks she's making it all up for attention. Olive spends her days writing articles for her gossip column and stalking her childhood friend, Jordan, whom she had to abandon when she was ten because Jordan's parents would no longer tolerate an 'imaginary friend'. Nobody has seen her – until she meets Tom: the poster boy for normal and the absolute opposite of Olive.
'But how do you date a boy who doesn't know you're invisible? Worse still, what happens when Mr Right feels wrong? Has destiny screwed up? In typical Olive fashion, the course is set for destruction. And because we're talking Olive here, the ride is funny, passionate and way, way, way, way dramatic. This story is for anyone who's ever felt invisible. This story is for anyone who sees the possible in the impossible.' (Publication Summary)
Writing Disability in Australia
| Type of disability | Blindness. |
| Type of character | Secondary. |
| Point of view | First person (not the blind character). |
The Implausible Story of Olive Far Far Away
Sydney South
:
HarperCollins Australia
,
2018
13519568
2018
single work
novel
young adult
fantasy
'Forget gypsy curses and invisibility. Forget stupid boys who are supposed to be my true love and then dump me. I've got one mission now – fun.'
'Olive has been dumped by Tom, the one person who could see her. So she takes off to see the world with her best friend, determined to have fun despite the gypsy curse that renders her invisible.
'On the road, Olive makes the startling discovery that another boy can see her: Dillon, dark Irish trouble and irritatingly inclined to disappear on (possibly shady) adventures of his own.
'Olive must juggle her friends, untangle her feelings for the boys and try to defeat her own self–loathing. Entrenched in a world of magic and superstition, Olive's journey pulls her from the peaks of the Himalayas to the purr of New York City, climaxing on the stark Irish shore where, finally, Olive can be free.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
