Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

9 reviews

silver_lining_in_a_book's review against another edition

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! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Mental illness, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Drug abuse, Addiction, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Alcoholism, Abandonment, Suicide attempt, Panic attacks/disorders, Alcohol, Death, Emotional abuse, and Drug use

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Domestic abuse, Rape, and Sexual violence

Minor: Fatphobia and Body shaming

miekss's review against another edition

dark funny fast-paced

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

3.5

Cleverly written book. The ending left me shocked, left me going back through the book searching for paragraphs to now compare this new knowledge to. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Child death, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Murder, and Physical abuse

Minor: Child abuse and Rape

bookishcookiemonster's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-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

3.25

Heartbreaking, but leaves on a good note of hope. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dysphoria, Gaslighting, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexual assault, Domestic abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Vomit, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Physical abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, and Murder

Minor: Confinement and Death of parent

dannythestreet's review against another edition

emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Addiction, Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Chronic illness, Death, Drug abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicide attempt, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Death of parent, Drug use, Bullying, Stalking, Violence, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Terminal illness, Murder, and Misogyny

ciarag88's review against another edition

dark sad slow-paced

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

3.5

This book is not my usual type of book as the plot is very slow and overall not much happens. However it is extremely well written and the character development is impressive. Eleanor is quite a lovable character despite all her flaws.
I’m not sure about the ending.

I wish the issue of her sister dying in the fire was revealed sooner in the book and was expanded upon further. I also don’t understand why the author revealed Eleanor’s mother was dead throughout in the final few pages and then ended the book without further explanation. I guess it is up to the reader to decide what is ‘wrong’ with Eleanor mentally?

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This book should also come with a lot of trigger warners.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Suicide attempt, Rape, Self harm, and Grief

Moderate: Death of parent, Death, Child abuse, Alcohol, and Child death

Minor: Drug use

alyssard's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective tense 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

I felt as if this book started EXCEPTIONALLY slow and I found that so difficult because of how unlovable the narrator comes off, but the narrator goes through so much character growth throughout the story that it makes up for how slow the beginning of the book felt.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Vomit, Drug use, Gaslighting, Grief, Alcohol, Suicide attempt, Emotional abuse, Addiction, and Mental illness

Moderate: Murder, Medical content, Child abuse, Child death, and Bullying

Minor: Fatphobia, Terminal illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Stalking, Physical abuse, and Sexual assault

mallory10100's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted relaxing sad medium-paced

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

4.75

i loved the character development and the discussions of mental health in this story. certainly didn’t expect abuse to play such a big part. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Alcohol, Death, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Sexual violence, Medical content, Addiction, Suicide, Gaslighting, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, and Vomit

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Body horror, Grief, Fatphobia, Body shaming, Bullying, and Violence

Minor: Gore, Confinement, Cursing, Drug use, Incest, Eating disorder, and Excrement

aliasbooklover's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense 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

3.5

it took me about 100 pages to get into the book. i had a hard time understanding the path the author wanted us to be on. with time, i got hooked on the characters. i especially loved the friendship between eleanor and raymond. really interesting reading experience and pov. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Drug abuse, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Self harm, and Alcohol

Moderate: Abandonment, Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Medical content, and Mental illness

kinahgrace's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Perfection

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Drug use, Child abuse, Child death, and Alcohol