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A review by fionafsw
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
This book is over-hyped. It's not the worst novel ever, but as a NYT bestseller and multi-award winning book, it's disappointing.
I liked the main character quite a bit; some aspects of her loneliness really resonated with my own situation. And the story is entertaining enough. But the writing struck me as juvenile, as if the author was completing an assignment for a creative writing class. Her portrayal of the protagonist was inconsistent (how can someone so lacking in knowledge about the world be good at crosswords?) and superficial. She tries to make every sentence funny by making poor Eleanor react obliviously, ignorantly to everything, just to get a cheap laugh out of the reader, at Eleanor's expense. I'm not okay with that. The themes that the book introduces are heavy: child abuse and neglect, loneliness, depression, suicide, death... but the presentation of these themes feels trite, as if the author didn't do any research.
It's (very) easy reading and I finished it in a few days. If you need a novel for a long flight or a lazy weekend at a cabin/on the beach, this could be a contender. But if you want to read something that doesn't feel like the author sat down and thought, "Okay! How do I make this funny? How many sniggers can I squeeze out of the reader on this page? How do I make this edgy?" then you may want to look elsewhere.
Reese Witherspoon's book club recommends it. If I'd known that, I probably would have passed on it
I liked the main character quite a bit; some aspects of her loneliness really resonated with my own situation. And the story is entertaining enough. But the writing struck me as juvenile, as if the author was completing an assignment for a creative writing class. Her portrayal of the protagonist was inconsistent (how can someone so lacking in knowledge about the world be good at crosswords?) and superficial. She tries to make every sentence funny by making poor Eleanor react obliviously, ignorantly to everything, just to get a cheap laugh out of the reader, at Eleanor's expense. I'm not okay with that. The themes that the book introduces are heavy: child abuse and neglect, loneliness, depression, suicide, death... but the presentation of these themes feels trite, as if the author didn't do any research.
It's (very) easy reading and I finished it in a few days. If you need a novel for a long flight or a lazy weekend at a cabin/on the beach, this could be a contender. But if you want to read something that doesn't feel like the author sat down and thought, "Okay! How do I make this funny? How many sniggers can I squeeze out of the reader on this page? How do I make this edgy?" then you may want to look elsewhere.
Reese Witherspoon's book club recommends it. If I'd known that, I probably would have passed on it
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Alcohol