Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine

4.5/5 stars

Eleanor Oliphant is fine. Really. She reassures herself, as she goes home, alone, after working at a job where she speaks to no one, without family, without friends. Alone. She is fine. Really.

And then she meets Raymond and together they save an old man. Things start to change for Eleanor. She is finally able to start confronting the demons of her past.

What are you waiting for?


You really need to read this book.

I wasn't sure what to expect when I picked this one up. I'd seen numerous great reviews, a lot of “you've got to read this” and it kept making book club lists. Most everywhere, people were raving about it. And what do you know, they were right. Full of charm, humor and a bit of sadness. Well paced and well drawn characters. Bonus points to the author because I didn't quite catch the big twist until a comment Raymond made after Eleanor started therapy.

If I didn't have to give full stars, this would likely be a 4.5, but I'm rounding up because I really loved this book. I loved getting to know these characters. Through reading this book, you start to get to know Eleanor, her way of thinking, her routines, and her story. Told from her perspective, you see the world through her eyes and the stories she tells herself. It's equal parts delightful and tragic. I miss her already!

There have been times when I felt that I might die of loneliness. People sometimes say they might die of boredom, that they're dying for a cup of tea, but for me, dying of loneliness is not hyperbole. When I feel like that, my head drops and my shoulders slump and I ache, I physically ache, for human contact–I truly feel that I might tumble to the ground and pass away if someone doesn't hold me, touch me. I don't mean a lover–this recent madness aside, I had long since given up on any notion that another person might love me that way– but simply as a human being. The scalp massage at the hairdressers, the flu jab I had last winter–the only time I experience touch is from people whom I am paying, and they are almost always wearing disposable gloves at the time. I'm merely stating the facts. People don't like these facts, but I can't help that.

Definitely one of the best books I've read in a long time. I felt comforted and uncomfortable, called out and understood. I was laughing and I did cry a little (at the end), and, perhaps most importantly, I was reading it very fast!
I'm always pleased when a book that is heavily adored by (it seems like) everybody and their mother actually turns out to be great, and worthy of the praise.

Wow, I don't think I've read a book about loneliness that's so personal in its experience.

In Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine you slowly but surely develop a picture of a whole person. She's not a great person, but she's not a bad either. She doesn't know who she is, she doesn't know she's struggling, which I think is the part that got me the most. This book is a perfect encapsulation of the simple fact that the small moments that we share with others may mean nothing to you, but so much to others.

Definitely a tough read if you're struggling with any sort of mental illness, loneliness or depression. It's a beautiful book of resiliency, but it doesn't mean that it's not hard to read.

4.25

I absolutely ADORED this book!! I honestly cannot praise it highly enough.

The book follows Eleanor Oliphant who is a lonely women with a regimented and solitary lifestyle, which she is, as the title suggests, completely fine with. Then a series of events occur, which may seem quite small and trivial to someone else but not to Eleanor - slowly her life starts to change, as does she.

Eleanor and the rest of the characters are wonderfully written and I enjoyed following their interactions and journey through the book. I especially loved Eleanor, her way of seeing the world, her straight talking attitude and her complete naivete at social situations. I smiled so much throughout.

This book is, at its heart, about kindness, friendship and how loneliness can affect someone. You really get a sense of how something you deem as small can affect someone and their life. It is warm, funny and touching and will stay with me a long time.

When I read the teaser for this book, I expected it to be a book about an incredibly social awkward girl who stumbles her way through life and then falls in love with her coworker.

In actuality, this book is an incredibly intense journey through Eleanor's psyche and personal growth. While there are many other side stories, Eleanor's growth is the true main character of this story. She is funny, and clever, and very strong person. By the end of this book, you'll be wanting to meet her as well.

Do you ever start a book because you've seen so much hype around it and you're sure you'll love it? And then you read it and... you really didn't like it at all? This was my experience with Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine.

I've seen such praise for this book. However, I thought it was very boring. There were only around 100 pages left once anything interesting/worthwhile happened. Then, even with this interesting and important psychological aspect introduced (far too late) to the sto

Such a heartwarming and thought provoking story; you never know what goes on with a person behind closed doors. You root for Eleanor the entire journey and empathise with her quirks. Gail Honeyman has created a beautifully complex character. There's light humour mixed in with the poignant moments. I smiled through most of this story.

I enjoyed this book, although I didn't love it like I hoped I would. It's quirky, sweet, awkward, funnysad, and hopeful. A bit slow, but I'd think about this more as a character study. Snuggle in with a cup of tea and prepare to learn all about Miss Eleanor Oliphant.

I am between 3 and 3.5/5 stars

Eleanor Oliphant is a book that will challenge your idea of depression and dealing with severe childhood trauma. Although this may sound like a sad book, on the contrary, it is a story of quiet perseverance.

More of a 4.5 really !

“I simply didn't know how to make things better. I could not solve the puzzle of me.”

What a surprise of a book! 4.5 ✨

Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine by Gail Honeyman is an emotional read that will stay with me for years to come.

In the book we follow our heroine, Eleanor, who is extremely socially awkward, takes everything literally and says exactly what she is thinking without a filter. At times, she can be very difficult to root for but the way the author handled Eleanor's growth is excellent. 

During the first half I thought it wasnt going to be a particularly memorable read for me — Eleanor, while at times relatable, frustrated me a couple of times. However, the second hand of the book makes it all come together so beautifully that it made me love the story and root for Eleanor. She truly is one of a kind 💕

The thing I loved most about the book was the way mental health struggles were portrayed. They were well-written, handled with care and relatable. This is what made the ending feel so rewarding and it gives you hope for the future without being overdone. 

I love and truly appreciate seeing neurodivergent characters being written with so much care. 

This book will definitely stay with me for awhile.

If you like audiobooks, I can highly recommend this one, it was superb.

At the beginning of this book I didn't know why it came so highly recommended. Eleanor was not initially likeable, with her awkward social skills, judgmental nature, and how she says everything on her mind. However, I plugged on with the book knowing that there was something more. Reese Witherspoon stated that this book was “incredibly funny” I did not agree with this statement. Perhaps it's because I routinely work with children who have experienced trauma like Eleanor has. I loved Eleanor's evolution, how though it was helped by Raymond, his mother, Laura, and Sammy showing kindness to her but it was largely her own doing and it was for herself that she was working on her trauma. I also liked that there was no implicit romance between her and Raymond. One thing that did bother me, the big reveal, I.e. that Eleanor was not actually ever talking to her Mummy, that her mother was in fact dead, seemed glossed over so much so that I didn't really pick up on it until Eleanor expressly stared it.

This is a story of survival and hope. I highly recommend this book for it's simplicity with which it has dealt with complex mental health issues. However, trigger warning: note that this book deals with issues of parent-child psychological abuse.

4:

Back in 2021, I picked up this book for the first time. Due to events that are later explained in the story, Eleanor has many oddities to herself. I didn't get very far that time: pretty early on she started to refer to her mother as “mommy”, and I was completely put off. Immediately after, I hit a reading slump that lasted almost a full year.

When I got back into my groove again this year, I decided to bite the bullet and give it another go, and boy was 2021 me stupid.

I think deep down I felt I related too much to Eleanor, and that put me off. I haven't gone through a traumatic event as gruesome as the one she did, but I've experienced life through similar lenses, and at the time I finally read the book, I was at a point where it helped to read a story that showed that sometimes, things for people like us can turn out okay.

Eleanor was endearing, and it was a joy to see her coming out of her shell. I liked her friends with Raymond and his mom, and with the elderly gentleman and his family (I forget his name, but it was all very sweet).

I did hope, though, that the whole extreme makeover thingy had been more of a sidenote, or an afterthought, instead of being basically what brings people to seeing her in a different light.

Overall, it was a very cozy read!

This is a spoiler-free review
Read on In The Sheets

I picked up Eleanor Oliphant as soon as it was released and read it in one sitting, but am just now getting around to actually reviewing it. I initially thought the concept sounded lovely needed a book with a cat on the cover for a reading challenge. Win win.

Considering it's called Eleanor Oliphant is Complete Fine, I went into this book assuming that Eleanor Oliphant was not, in fact, fine at all. She's socially awkward, delightful, and has clearly been through some stuff in life.

This is a beautifully written story that just goes to show how imperative mental health is and how one single person change another's life just by being there and caring.

Eleanor can certainly be unlikable at times and while I've seen some reviews of people saying that this turned them off of the book or the character, I think it really added to her and made her more real. We're all shitty or have less than pure thoughts from time to time, let's be honest.

I adored this book, it will definitely be something I pick up to re-read again and again.

Somehow my original review of this got deleted but if I remember anything about this book it's that I loved it. It's the kind of book that stays with you and comes back to mind every once in a while. Eleanor is interesting and funny and damaged and both likeable and unlikeable at the same time. The writing is excellent and does more showing than telling. I sped through it for my book club.

A sweet story about the terror of loneliness and the beauty of striving to reconnect.

I wanted to like this book more than I did, and some parts were funny. But ultimately I couldn't believe in the character of Eleanor, which is what this book rides on.

An excellent read. Eleanor is a very quirky character which you can not help but love. She has had a horrendous upbringing and has struggled throughout her life on her own until she meets the lovely Raymond. A funny, sad and uplifting book.

A sad story with a sense of humour and a tidy ending. I listened to the audiobook and probably enjoyed it more than I would‰ЫЄve otherwise, thanks to the Scottish accents for the characters who weren‰ЫЄt Eleanor.

I LOVED THIS BOOK. It had just the right amount of mystery and character development. Eleanor moved from being a quirky character in a book to my best friend. I'm impressed with the author's storytelling chops. The more I read, the more my mouth dropped open, until I finally had to finish the book in one fell swoop, just to know what happened. I thought it all made sense and the writer left just the right amount of clues. Not enough that I could guess the ending, but enough to be believable. I will probably read this again at some point, and I rarely do that. The book deals with some very serious subject matter, but uses humor to keep it an enjoyable read over all.