Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman


Cover Wars

Canadian
Hungarian
Serbian

German
Swedish
Bulgarian
Portuguese
Hebrew

There are many more. I'm partial to the pink flamingo covers. Least fav is the German. I didn't get it. Google said it's Inkblot (Rorschach Test) to symbolize her mental health status, bleeding watercolor to represent her 'messy mind'.
Update: I didn't think she had a messy mind. Her thoughts and routine were very organized.  

G👀dreads About Summary

Eleanor Oliphant is a bit of an odd ball. She struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she’s thinking. That, combined with her unusual appearance (scarred cheek, sometime wearer of an eczema glove), means that Eleanor has become a bit of a loner – or ‘self-contained entity’ as she calls it. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life and phone chats with ‘Mummy’ (in prison for crimes unknown).
But everything changes when Eleanor falls for the local Hipster-band frontman, Johnnie Rivers. As Eleanor prepares herself for her inevitable union with the object of her desire (appropriate attire, new laptop for Instagram stalking), she inadvertently befriends the new guy from her office, Raymond.

As Eleanor navigates the waters of obsessive love and her long-distance relationship with ‘Mummy’, she realizes she can only overcome the horrors of her past if she accepts a little help from Raymond…

Filled with unabashed wit, Eleanor Oliphant follows its quirky and troubled female narrator as she realizes that the only way to survive her current state of mind is to open her heart to friendship.

Genre: Literary Fiction, Mental Health, Contemporary 

The How/Why: It is my book club's BotM for our July meeting. 

⭐⭐⭐⭐

🎉 Overall Storytelling? 🎉🎉🎉🎉

🎣 Did it grab and keep my attention? 🎣🎣🎣

🗣️Would I recommend it to anyone? Maybe 🤷 

🕮 Would I want a sequel? No ➖ 

📚 Would I want to read more books by this author? Maybe 🤷 Rumor has it she has another book in the works but no info as to what it's about. If it's another mental health, no. If it's humorous chick lit, possibly. 

💣💥 📢 Content Warnings? Google says: Sɇvɇrɇ ChïlƉ Abusɇ & Nɇglɇct, SȖicidal Idɇɐti0n & Aṱṱempṱ, Alc0h0lism & Substɐncɇ Abusɇ .
I'm adding Pɐsṱ Trɐumɐ.

🌶 Spice? No

🌪 Plot Twist? Yes

👟 Pace? Fair

💻 Tidbits ~ Not a spoiler ~ Eleanor Oliphant is NOT completely fine! Fine is word you're supposed to use when someone askes how you are:
"If someone asks you how you are, you are meant to say FINE. You are not meant to say that you cried yourself to sleep last night because you hadn't spoken to another person for two consecutive days. FINE is what you say." 

Right off the bat we are experiencing every thought Eleanor has. She is socially awkward with rigid routines, takes everything literally, and difficulty picking up on social cues such as slang expressions.
She has heightened logical and mathematical skills.
Initial impression was that Eleonor was autistic or on the spectrum. Not the case. She has PTSD from her past childhood trauma and suppressed memories.
Does she not remember or does she not want to remember? 

I know, it was a cheap laugh, but please tell me I’m not the only one who got a chuckle out of her bikini wax experience and the fate of her polka dot socks! Maybe I’m just easily amused! 

It took a minute but then she started to grow on me. I appreciated her ability to think things through to figure them out. 

My heart ached for her as she hit rock bottom when she realized accepted that her romantic relationship with a musician was one sided. 

I deducted one star because after ongoing alcohol abuse, she seemed to recover as quickly as some get over a common cold. Detox seemed unrealistic, even for a fictional character. A little time off work and a kitten to care for offered little conception of time for such a huge medical and psychological hurdle. 
An epilogue of One Year Later would have tied that up more realistically for me. 

Bottom line ~ Eleanor Oliphant is on the road to becoming completely fine!

Favorite Character - Raymond of course. Kind, gentle, patient, understanding. 

Extra Tidbit ~ Movie in the works. 🎥

🎧 Narrator: Cathleen McCarron 😑 heavy accent, difficult to understand at times. When she voiced Eleanor and Raymond I could understand her *completely fine* (staying on theme). When she voiced the other characters, her accent was thick and fast and words seemed to run together. She's an Audie Award winner so it must just be my ears!

🎧11.02 hours (Libby) 🕮 336 pages

Bookmark I created with
Gemini AI
Eleanor Oliphant is on the road to becoming completely fine

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

When Women Ran Fifth Avenue *DNF*

Image
  When Women Ran Fifth Avenue by Julie Satow *DNF* The cover is the best part G👀dreads A glittering, glamorous portrait of the golden age of American department stores and of three visionary women who led them, from the award-winning author of The Plaza . The American department a palace of consumption that epitomized modern consumerism. Every wish could be met under one roof – afternoon tea, a stroll through the latest fashions, a wedding (or funeral) planned. It was a place where women, shopper and shopgirl alike, could stake out a newfound independence. Whether in New York or Chicago or on Main Street, USA, men owned the buildings, but inside, women ruled. Genre: NonFiction, History, Fashion, Biography. Circa early 1900's. I listened a little while I was puttering around in the casita in the morning. There is a part where she says the sales ladies would say "Oh Harriett" to warn another employee that a customer could not be pleased. Like a take off of modern day ...
Read more

Killers of a Certain Age ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Image
Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn From Goodreads: Older women often feel invisible, but sometimes that's their secret weapon. They've spent their lives as the deadliest assassins in a clandestine international organization, but now that they're sixty years old, four women friends can't just retire - it's kill or be killed in this action-packed thriller. Billie, Mary Alice, Helen, and Natalie have worked for the Museum, an elite network of assassins, for forty years. Now their talents are considered old-school and no one appreciates what they have to offer in an age that relies more on technology than people skills. When the foursome is sent on an all-expenses paid vacation to mark their retirement, they are targeted by one of their own. Only the Board, the top-level members of the Museum, can order the termination of field agents, and the women realize they've been marked for death. Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Fiction ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I really liked it a lot. It ho...
Read more

Home of the American Circus ⭐⭐⭐⭐💫

Image
Home of the American Circus by Allison Larken  G👀dreads After an emergency leaves her short on rent, thirty-year-old Freya Arnalds bails on her lackluster life as bartender in Maine and returns to her suburban hometown of Somers, New York, to live in the house she inherited from her estranged parents. Despite attempts to lay low, Freya encounters childhood friends, familial enemies, and old flames—as well as her fifteen-year-old niece, Aubrey, who is secretly living in the derelict home. As they reconnect, Freya and Aubrey lean on each other, working to restore the house and come to terms with the devastating events that pulled them apart years ago. Set in the birthplace of the American circus, this deeply moving novel is an exploration of broken families, the weight of the past, and the complicated journey of finding home. Genre: Literary Fiction, Contemporary, Family Drama Dual Timeline: ETA: This is listed as dual timeline but I thought it was more like memory flashbacks. It's ...
Read more