I could smell the misogynistic energy from the first 30 minutes. I don't like when MCs use the word "tits" to seriously describe women. A lot of objectification going on here.

Lucien & Olivia is the debut novel by Canadian author and professor André Narbonne. It was recommended on the @getcanlitpodcast, and I was thrilled to find it at my local library! I also received an audiobook copy from @netgalley and @ecwpress. Thank you!

I really enjoyed this book. It takes place in the Canadian city of Halifax with Lucien, a marine engineer, and Olivia, a philosophy student. It's a short book, but filled to the brim with love, heartache, and the complexities of living and working on a Canadian tanker.

Lucien & Olivia was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller prize in 2022, and I think fans of Normal People by Sally Rooney and Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami will enjoy it too!

I enjoyed this novel much more than I thought I would! The narrator being Canadian is a positive for me. (The nationality of the narrator and their accent is on-brand for the novel, of course.)

This book was well-paced, i would love to have read the perspectives of the female characters without them being filtered through the male MC’s point of view. There was also a slight crime novel vibe to the book.

All in all, I’d give it a solid 3.5 stars, mostly because while it’s a solid book and kept me entertained, it doesn’t wow me.

When I first started listening to Lucien and Olivia I thought I'd made an error of judgement in choosing this book but as it developed I became more and more engrossed. There was a little too much ship based engineering talk for my personal taste but I really liked Lucien and his circle of colleagues and friends.
I think that maybe Lucien is somewhere on the spectrum, hence his difficullties with relationships and understanding how they work.
The narrator used a very deadpan form of delivery and sometimes this made me almost miss the little interjections of humour; 'she opened her window and spat' made me splutter my coffee over myself! He sometimes invoked his version of female voices, pantomime dame-like but more often than not he forgot and then it became quite difficult to work out who was speaking, especially in the conversation in the mall between Lucien and Sylvi, when I became quite confused.
Overall I wish the story had been a little bit longer as I found the ending quite abrupt and I'd been enjoying it.

I first read Lucien & Olivia by André Narbonne last year since it was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and I was excited to see it come out now in audiobook form. The narrator Steve Baker does a great job! I found the audiobook more engaging. Lucien meets Olivia in Halifax and it’s a little bit enemies to lovers as they don’t get along right away. This isn’t a romance book but their romantic relationship is the center of this novel. I enjoyed the Canadian setting. Upon my second read I concluded with the same thoughts that I didn’t love this book. Their relationship had its ups and downs and we only get Lucien’s perspective. He works away at sea for much of the time so he has a disconnect from Olivia. I’m glad I could listen to this one. It’s a short book so definitely give it a go if you’re interested.

I read Lucien & Olivia when it came out and I loved it. I was excited to revisit it as an audiobook and it did not disappoint. This complicated and interrupted love story between two young people is gritty and immersive. I loved the narration, but I occasionally found that sections involving several people got confusing. It was easy enough to sort out and didn't take away from the listening experience, just something that a listener would have to adjust to.

This was just OK. I did appreciate the accents used by the narrator. I liked hearing more about Lucien's life and his experiences as a sailor, more than the relationship with Olivia.

I received a copy of this ALC via NetGalley and ECW Press Audio in exchange for an honest review.

I liked that this was a short novel. I thought the narration was done well. I really don’t enjoy giving a negative review if I can help it but I just did not enjoy listening to this short novel. I didn’t think the characters were enjoyable and I didn’t particularly care for them. I could not get interested and involved. It just felt like it ended just because without anything redeeming about it.

A small but overall pleasant story. I did like the narrator, but the story sounded a bit too made up at times, not "natural", but maybe some people are like that.
Thanks to NetGalley, the editor and the author for the opportunity to access this ARC.

I tried very hard to get into this book but the narrator's voice sounded computer-generated (although I think it was a real voice) and it made it impossible for me to finish.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The description, "the novel satirizes the transactional view of human relations...," led to my expectation of a somewhat sarcastic look at how two people interact. However that is not the book I listened to. Instead I felt the author's attempts at satire were crude, misogynistic, and offensive. The hope I had for a novel set in the 1980s was that of nostalgia and instead I came away feeling insulted. Besides the narration by Steve Baker there is nothing else I would recommend about this book.

Lucien is an engineer who lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia. On shore leave he meets Olivia through a friend. At first they do not like each other but as time passes the two become close although neither seems to want to admit the relationship exists. Something unexpected happens which throws their relationship into doubt. The question Lucien must ask is does he care for this girl enough. Olivia needs to know who to believe and whether to trust her heart to Lucien.

I listened to the audio version which was well narrated by Steve Baker (Newfoundland accents and all). I only got confused a couple of time during short, sharp bursts of conversation as it is difficult for any narrator to modulate quickly between male and female voices. Otherwise it was excellent.

The story is a short one but delves deeply enough into relationship problems to be interesting. I enjoyed it very much and would recommend it as a short read.

I requested this audioARC from NetGalley expecting it to be a nostalgia trip to the 1980s, and while there were elements of that, the cultural reference point for me was really the 1990s TV show Dawson’s Creek. While I loved that series, I couldn’t deny the criticism levelled at it that “people don’t speak like that.”

I don’t know, maybe Andre Narbonne and his friends do have conversations like the ones his main character, Lucien, had with everyone around him, but for me they would be exhausting - there’s a faux depth that somehow manages to miss true connection.

Having said that, there is something fascinating about Lucien’s extreme naval gazing, and I enjoyed most of this listen. I did not like the sex scenes (I never do - it’s not something that interests me) and I did think the title slightly misleading - everyone in the book, including Olivia, is seen solely through Lucien’s eyes and exists only insofar as they relate to him. It’s a book that not only presents the male gaze as the norm but is actually about the gaze of one male and how his perception of the world impacts his reality. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I’m glad to have heard it and would recommend it to others who like literary fiction.

I listened to the sample and really enjoyed the narrator and the sense I got of the book. I was eager to dive in - as a philosophy major, it sounded right up my alley. Unfortunately once I tried to listen to the entire thing I discovered that the audio book format doesn't work for me with complex stories - I simply don't glean as much from listening as i do from reading. . I had a really difficult time with it and simply could not follow or connect with the characters or story over the course of the book... I definitely think that was down to the format as opposed to the story itself though and I want to try this one in a reading, not listening, format!

Unfortunately the narrator sounds like a computer voice, I tried hard but could not get into this audiobook at all.

It’s pitched as different, and it definitely is. I’m not sure that a lot of the detail was really necessary, but it was an okay read/listen. A very short novel that read very much like a play to me.

Thank you to NetGalley and ECW Press audio for the opportunity to listen to this audio book in return for an honest review.

A lovely, short romance about a sailor and a student who accidentally find each other and have a whirlwind romance that suffers heartache. Quick and sweet.