From the first few chapters, to the last sentence, this novel kept my interest. I thought it was extremely well written. I loved Eleanor and couldn't put the book down.

This is a great book, and I hated it.

Why am I giving it four stars if I hated it? I think the writing was great, so smooth and easy to keep you reading. It's such a thoughtful book and I think it resonates with a lot of people.

As for why I hated it - I really hated Eleanor's character, because she's every insecurity I have about myself. I see in her everything I'm terrified of being. It hit just a little too close to home how she's awkward with people, how she squirrels herself away, how she doesn't quite 'get it' - and it's also the reason this book is great.

I had incredibly conflicted feelings while reading “Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine”. It focuses on loneliness – a subject I come back to continuously on my blog which is, in part, a self-conscious exploration of that state. The beginning of this novel is prefaced by a quotation form “The Lonely City” by Olivia Laing, one of my favourite books from 2016 – so my expectations were incredibly high. Author Gail Honeyman has spoken about how her initial inspiration for the novel came from reading about an ordinary young adult who had an extremely solitary existence bouncing between work and home with no socializing in between. This is protagonist Eleanor’s routine life. She has a frosty relationship with her colleagues and no one to speak to outside of the office except for weekly phone calls with her belligerent and cruel mother. But, after watching a handsome singer at a gig, she’s inspired to change and camouflage herself “as a human woman” in order to make him fall for her. As she gradually emerges from her hermetic shell she’s forced to confront a painful past and all the emotions she’s suppressed for so long.

Although I’m really invested in the central subject and some sections were very moving, this novel ultimately didn’t come together for me because I couldn’t believe in Eleanor’s character. Even though she has no social contact and is a creature of habit, it doesn’t make sense to me that she’s entirely ignorant about many pop cultural references and aspects of society. It’s noted in the story how she’s someone who regularly reads the newspaper, listens to the radio and watches television, but she’s never heard of McDonalds, SpongeBob SquarePants or the dance YMCA. She’s completely at a loss as to how to conduct a transaction when ordering a takeaway pizza or buying a computer and when a beautician giving her a makeover asks if she’d like a smoky eye she replies she doesn’t like anything to do with smoking. Even for someone who lives in such an isolated way, it feels like she could glean a lot of this information and get an idea of how people interact from the media she consumes. But many times it feels like she’s literally an alien.

You could argue that she has some sort of developmental disability or personality disorder based on trauma or years spent in intense isolation. Or it could be she’s just really bad at social situation. She expresses at one point how she finds people unfathomable: “I often find that I don’t understand why they do and say things.” However, this doesn’t seem compatible with the fact that she’s highly intelligent and could deduce many things about how social situations work. Also, later on, she expresses how “by careful observation from the sidelines, I’d worked out that social success is often built on pretending just a little. Popular people sometimes have to laugh at things they don’t find very funny, do things they don’t particularly want to, with people whose company they don’t particularly enjoy. Not me. I had decided, years ago, that if the choice was between that or flying solo, then I’d fly solo. It was safer that way. Grief is the price we pay for love, so they say. The price is far too high.” So it’s not that she doesn’t understand social norms, but chooses to reject them. This seems inconsistent with her character’s actions and reactions throughout the novel where she literally doesn’t understand what people mean or why they act the way they do.

Also, the tone of the novel felt quite uneven where I wasn’t sure if the author or Eleanor were being intentionally funny or not. At a funeral she considers the various ways that a corpse can be disposed of and she thinks how when she dies she’d like to be fed to zoo animals. She plans to write to the WWF to find out if this would be possible. It felt very difficult to know if instances like this were supposed to be funny or not. Also, she expresses how much she loves reading and has a particular fondness for Jane Eyre, but later she remarks how she ends up reading dull manuals because she’s so entirely baffled as to how to find literature she’d like more and states “There are so many books in the world – how do you tell them all apart?” But someone who is as smart as she is and went to university surely would be able to guess that if she likes Jane Eyre so much she’d probably like to try reading some other classic fiction.

On the positive side, there were some sections I found effective. In particular, I found Eleanor’s relationship with money really powerful. She’s highly conscious of spending much money and is scrupulous about contributing anything to social occasions such as buying people drinks. She describes how “if I were to run out of funds, find myself indebted, there is no one, not a single soul, on whom I could call to bail me out. I’d be destitute.” So it’d make sense that she’d be particularly anxious about safeguarding her personal finances. I also appreciated the gentle way the author handles the way people react to Eleanor’s odd behaviour where some sneer/mock her and others approach her with more sensitivity. Her journey towards building somewhat stable friendships and accepting herself was well plotted. But Eleanor as a character didn’t feel wholly convincing to me. I also think the story would have been stronger if Eleanor’s hidden history wasn’t so melodramatic. It feels like it would have been more effective and relatable if she just happened to be an awkward introvert.

It’s interesting reading this novel now that it’s been out almost a year and gained some supporters as well as strong detractors. It was the winner in the debut fiction category of the Costa Awards and has been nominated for numerous other awards such as the Women’s Prize and the Desmond Elliott Prize. So it’s caused this book to come under a lot more scrutiny than a debut novel would usually get. I don’t think opinions could ever become as sharply divided as they were for the novel “A Little Life”, but this novel seems to be coming close.

I had heard such a lot about 'Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine,' so much so that I was desperate to read it! I don't really know what I expected it to be; exciting, page turning? Who knew!
When I read the first few pages I must confess that I began to wonder what all the fuss was about. The main character, Eleanor, didn't appear to have any remotely likeable characteristics; her life is bland and her character is bland - in the beginning.
This was definitely a slow burner. You had to appreciate quite how bland Eleanor's life was, and then gradually, gradually it began to build. By part two, 'Bad Days,' I was hooked; by 'Part Three,' I had certainly reached that page-turning threshold.
Most importantly, for me, was the fact that long after the book was finished, it continued to make an impression. I remembered Eleanor, her story and her transformation long after the last page was turned.
I give this book four stars.

This is a book that will have you reading all day and night!! And you will laugh and cry in equal measure. The main character Eleanor gets under your skin and you just want her to be happy. Lots of issues dealt with around mental health and it has a strong message. Definitely read this, it will stay with you. Thank you for writing such a fab book and letting me review it. I loved it and recommended it to so many people.

A nice unexpected gem.
Couldn't put it down - doesn't happen often these days.
highly recommended.

I love this book. everyone I've told about it is either reading it, about to read it or has just read it! I couldn't stop thinking about Eleanor after I'd finished. Buy it, read it, and fall in love with it

Eleanor Oliphant manages her empty life by relying on ritual. She works in an office all week, eating solitary meal deal lunches. She listens to The Archers every night and phones her mother once a week. Every Friday night she goes home, heats up a supermarket pizza, drinks two bottles of vodka and speaks to nobody until Monday morning. She rarely speaks at week and her colleagues know little about her life.
The reasons for her isolation are uncovered as the story progresses. She is gradually drawn into connection with others when she wins tickets to a concert in a lottery and falls in love with the singer who she knows only through his Twitter feed, and when a new colleague arrives at work and they are both involved in helping an old man after an accident.
This book is truly original, perceptive, wise, touching, unpredictable and unexpectedly funny’’ It is also an outstanding portrayal of loneliness.
There is an emphasis on the importance of kindness which is reminiscent of Alexander McCall Smith’s work.
It is an unforgettable and life-affirming story with an extraordinary but totally convincing heroine.

Eleanor Oliphant is anything but "completely fine" - or certainly that is the case at the outset of this excellent novel. She plods away at her routine job in an advertising office and adheres to an utterly boring regime outwith office hours which involves consuming a great deal of vodka. All this is necessary to allow her to deal with her demons caused by a dreadful trauma as a child. Then her life changes. Firstly she sees Johnnie Lomond - a singer at her local pub - and instantly falls madly in love with him. Secondly her computer stops working in the office and, as a result she meets the office computer geek Raymond. How these two men gradually take over her life forms the backbone of this book but the twists and turns are endless and unpredictable. Eleanor's lack of social skills produce truly hilarious moments. Gradually, however, she begins to acquire the ability to interact with people and, as a result, her weekly phone call from her Mum loses its importance whereas previously it was the only verbal interaction she had with another human being. The journey Eleanor takes to climb out of the dark pit of her desperately lonely life is both hilarious and tragic but above all it is uplifting. I recommend this well crafted novel for the sensitivity with which it addresses isolation and mental trauma.

I just found this too uncomfortable to read. A totally personal thing.

It has been a while since I read this and I still think about Eleanor Oliphant most days. I know this book has been incredibly hyped and popular but I don't always go along with popular opinion. I cannot fault the majority of reviews though - This book was incredible. So thought provoking, I really felt there is a part of Eleanor in all of us. Some parts of this book were so funny - I laughed my head off about part where people are dancing to the YMCA aswell as when Starbucks write customer's names on cups. So cleverly observed.

I absolutely loved this book, Eleanor is such a complex character with such a lot going on in her head and not so much in her life at the beginning of the book but as the book develops, she does along with it and she almost finds herself during the course of the narrative.

I loved the relationship between Eleanor and Raymond - everyone needs a Raymond in their life. The thing I loved the most about this book though was it was refreshing to read as there was no formulaic plot, along with the very unique characters and wonderful writing. I would read another book by this author in a heartbeat.

Utterly amazing debut. Very different to anything I’ve read before. Really made me think about how we judge people superficially without ever knowing what and why they do what they do. I can’t tevomm this enough. Surely THE book of 2018?
Reviewed on Amazon https://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R1HOFFK9V976XX/ref=pe_1572281_66412651_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv

This was a re-read of Eleanor Oliphant - and despite being a person who rarely re-reads, it was 100% worth it. I love Eleanor. I relate to her, I empathize with her, I cringe for her - I want nothing but the best for her. In some ways the optimism of the book's end didn't sit right, it's a little too happily ever after for such a complex individual, but this doesn't detract from a great read.

Wonderful - I always need a main character to identify with, and perhaps I identified with Eleanor a bit too much, but just loved how she overcame the world.

I loved this book. From the first page it grabbed me. In some way or another, aren’t we all Eleanor? Aren’t we all just trying to be completely fine? At least, that’s my aim. Daily.

Eleanor is relatable, especially since I’m from Glasgow too. The way Glaswegians speak in the book is bang on. The emotional rollercoaster within this book is, at times, heartbreaking. At others it’s heartwarming.

A perfect book to read while curled up in a blanket...just remember the tissues because this book will unlock your emotions.

Although I was struck by the skill of the writing from the outset, I must confess to finding the first third of this pretty slow going and I wondered if maybe this book wasn't for me. I am so, so glad that I persevered. Eleanor is a singular creation and she lives and breathes within the pages. Her journey is remarkable and I felt privileged to have been on it with her, What an astonishing and memorable debut - I'll be buying it for everyone!

Hi, and thanks so much for the opportunity to read this book. I've heard so much about it, from so many friends and students, all of whom love it. Unfortunately, and completely unexpectedly, I'm one of the majority with whom it just didn't click. This has nothing at all to do with the quality of the writing: some books just don't grab me, and I couldn't get interested in what was going to happen to Eleanor. This is so hard to express in star ratings, but luckily the overwhelming majority of those who love the book will allow me to give a very personalised three star without running any risk of affecting the overall outcome :)

Eleanor Oliphant may be Completely Fine, but I’m not sure that I am after reading this book! This is a pretty short review considering how many feelings this book stirred up, but I can’t put many of them into words.

Eleanor is an eccentric woman who is trying her best to forge a life despite having a truly horrific childhood, she has no guidelines on how to have relationships with others so she keeps herself to herself and hopes she doesn’t die of the loneliness.

More than anything else, Eleanor is sensible. She’s clever, logical and very damaged by her past but thanks to recent events, she’s being forced to confront her loneliness and become part of the world or die trying. Her character’s voice is distinctive and unintentionally witty, she sees the world in a different way to everyone else and is an unreliable narrator at times because of this – but most of all, she’s totally lovable.

She’s befriended by Raymond, a man who doesn’t mind that she’s eccentric and standoffish. He’s befriended her and there’s not much she can do about it now… Raymond is defined by the kindness he shows everyone, he doesn’t see Eleanor as a project, just somebody who needs kindness. He doesn’t try to change her.

The writing of this book is so raw, combining humour with the truly awful, that I had to take a few breaks to catch my breath. It’s uplifting for the most part and thankfully has a positive ending (Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, after all!) but getting there is harrowing.

I also enjoyed that the book was set in Scotland, it wasn't mentioned much in the book but you could pick up on the speech patterns of some of the characters and though it's not a big deal - it's something I really loved.

It’s not a book to lift your spirits if you suffer from depression, but it’s a book that reminds you that other people feel the same way.

Prepare. To. Cry.