Reviews with content warning for Child abuse - Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine

i love feel good fiction and i love Eleanor Oliphant 💛

Read this if you like:
- Literary Fiction
- Character driven stories
- Mental health rep ❤️‍🩹
- Healing journey
- Books that feel like a warm hug ☀️
- CHARACTER GROWTH
- Friendship / Found family
- Recovery

I picked up Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine on a whim, the audiobook was available on Libby and I was in the mood for some good lit-fic. Little did I know it was going to end up being a 5 star read ⭐ and I would love it so much I had to go buy a physical copy!!!

This book is about Eleanor Oliphant and as the title suggests, she is completely fine- not thriving, not suffering, maybe not even happy. Just completely fine. She has a good job, a place all to her own, and her safe, comfortable routine. Raymond is the new IT help desk guy at their office. When the pair witnesses an old man fall and hit his head on the sidewalk, an unlikely friendship blooms. ☺️

I've said this many times before, but I absolutely love books where the main character is on a healing journey. Eleanor has A LOT of unresolved trauma from her past and this book follows her on her healing journey. Her character arc is truly inspiring, and this book has such a special place in my heart now. Eleanor is a very complex character and she definitely has her quirks but I just adore her. I think a lot of people could relate to her and her story. There were so many times when I wanted to give her a hug!!

At it's core, this book is about friendship and the importance (and power) of human connection. This was such a lovely story! The audiobook was a fine reading experience but I did end up switching to my physical copy once I bought it and liked that better. The narrator's voice doesn't match Eleanor Oliphant in my opinion but it wasn't a big deal.

I really hope Gail Honeyman writes more because this was an amazing debut novel! I don't think this book is for everyone but if you like feel good fiction and a little bit of Fredrik Backman style writing, you should pick this up and give it a try!

Content Warnings

vavocado's review against another edition

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dark emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

A beautiful rendition of a seemingly normal person healing to actual normal life. Relatable and kind.

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bella613's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Made me laugh and cry. Relatable and heartbreaking. Highly recommend ♡

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mayjulyn's review against another edition

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hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.75

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anne_reader's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

aye_pena_'s review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

The characters, including the main character, are so easy to gradually fall in love with. Information is dropped so naturally throughout the story. Many authors make the mistake of trying to make their character a likable person. Eleanor is so wonderfully flawed. The author flawlessly has the skill to "show not tell" while writing despite this being such a introspective narrative and character driven story. A friend recommended this to me and I couldn't be more glad.

Content Warnings

silver_lining_in_a_book's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

These days, loneliness is the new cancer—a shameful, embarrassing thing, brought upon yourself in some obscure way. A fearful, incurable thing, so horrifying that you dare not mention it; other people don’t want to hear the word spoken aloud for fear that they might too be afflicted, or that it might tempt fate into visiting a similar horror upon them.

This book has been a long-time coming. I was a little scared going into this because of all the high praise surrounding this book, but I shouldn't have been. I thought it was very well written, with an engaging plot and a lot of important messages to get across to the reader. I certainly had a couple of issues with how some things (the therapy, the SA, and the alcoholism to give just some examples) were handled and I found Eleanor's fatphobia (although in no way endorsed in the book) was somewhat difficult to read.

However, Eleanor was a very unique character and her charm really grew on me throughout the book. Despite the dark themes, Gail Honeyman's humour came across very well in my opinion and I loved the way she made me feel Eleanor's loneliness. If the trigger warnings do not look to overwhelming, I can definitely recommend this book to many of my close friends, it is one that is certainly worth the read!

Content Warnings

reading_racoon69's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

This is one of those books where characters are so realistic that you feel like you really know them and get very attached and feel what they feel.

It’s a very emotional cute book
Not a romance !! If you’re looking for romantic love this is not what you’re looking for it’s much more self discovery and friendships !

Not the type of book I usually read, some times a little too slow for me but either way very enjoyable :) totally fell in love with Elenor

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