Lynnie 
Amy 
contemporary fiction
Eleanor lives a lonely life with minimal human interaction. And
that’s completely fine with her until she decides to start experiencing more
that life has to offer.
I
really wanted to love Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, as a few friends have really enjoyed it, but I
thought it was just, well, fine. It has an extremely slow start- the
first quarter of this book is painful to read in its awkwardness. It's
not an adorable awkwardness either, it's just slow and not enjoyable.
The main problem is that Gail Honeyman has written Eleanor Oliphant as a rather horrible person. She has no social skills, is very judgmental and set in her ways and while I understand WHY she has developed this armor and routine, it didn't make me like her any better. It's clear from the beginning of the story that Eleanor has endured incredible trauma and while the story of her childhood is eventually revealed, there were so many hints and insinuations along the way that the revelation itself was anti-climactic.
I'm glad I finished it & that the relationships between Eleanor, Raymond, Sammy and Sammy's family helped Eleanor, but as slow as the first quarter of the book was, the last quarter felt oddly rushed. It is an interesting story, but didn't live up to the hype.
The main problem is that Gail Honeyman has written Eleanor Oliphant as a rather horrible person. She has no social skills, is very judgmental and set in her ways and while I understand WHY she has developed this armor and routine, it didn't make me like her any better. It's clear from the beginning of the story that Eleanor has endured incredible trauma and while the story of her childhood is eventually revealed, there were so many hints and insinuations along the way that the revelation itself was anti-climactic.
I'm glad I finished it & that the relationships between Eleanor, Raymond, Sammy and Sammy's family helped Eleanor, but as slow as the first quarter of the book was, the last quarter felt oddly rushed. It is an interesting story, but didn't live up to the hype.
Amy's Review
I really enjoyed this novel! I wanted to keep reading to find out what Eleanor endured as a child that had caused her to become so ambivalent about life. She was obviously intelligent and functional but socially inexperienced and stunted. It was evident that she had both some very unusual experiences and not enough usual experiences. The more I read, the more I feared her past had been truly terrible. It made me want to protect her. I couldn’t turn away.
The characters were easy to picture and Eleanor’s outlook on
life was sometimes refreshing and sometimes devastatingly naïve. I was charmed.
I appreciated the warm fuzzies it ended up creating in my heart.
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