I joined a book club through my work community and each month a new book is selected by whomever volunteers to lead the next discussion. This month, the book of choice was Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine.

Before I begin my review, I want to say this book is rated 4.25 out of 5 stars on goodreads.com, by over one-million ratings, which makes it a pretty highly enjoyed book by most.

I however, have only rated it 3 out of 5 stars.

The Beginning

Starting this book was like climbing down a really rocky, unsteady, barely visible path going at a snail pace so not to hurt yourself. I was STRUGGLING to get into it. Hence, why I only read one book the entire month!

The only reason I kept trucking through the book was because it was our book club read and I didn’t want the book club to spoil the ending for me when we got together, nor did I want to skip out on getting together.

A real dilemma 😂

Anyway, the book starts out explaining the very boring, basic, repetitive life of Eleanor Oliphant. She gets up, goes to work, stops by a liquor store, goes home, eats, drinks, watches a show and then goes to bed.

On repeat. Every. Single. Day. She has no friends, no social calendar (or social skills for that matter as you’ll learn throughout the book).

This basic, mundane, character build up takes way too long in my opinion.

“If someone asks how you are, you are meant to say FINE. You are not meant to say that you cried yourself to sleep last night because you hadn’t spoken to another person for two consecutive days. FINE is what you say.”

Gail Honeyman (author)

The Middle

Once the story finally took off, somewhere in the middle, after about 150 pages, it became a super quick read and I really enjoyed it.

Eleanor eventually, almost accidentally, makes a friend and realizes some issues she’s facing in her life.

She has a “rock bottom” moment, and then starts to realize she needs to work on healing herself from past traumas in order to really move forward and live the life that she wants to live. She begins counseling and things start to reveal themselves as to why she is the way she is and living the boring life she has been living.

This section of the book was much easier to read than the first section. Once I got going, I couldn’t put the book down. My opinion of the book took a full 180 degree turn.

“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.”

Gail Honeyman (author)

The End

In my opinion, the progression through the last half of the book all happened too fast. The timeline seemed rushed and improbable.

Real trauma takes time to heal from, even when you’re ready to seek help. There are setbacks, which in this story, the author didn’t leave enough time to allow for Eleanor to slip, have any setbacks, or fail at any part of her recovery, which is something I think would have made her more relatable.

I loved that Eleanor went to counseling and the author made it seem like a normal thing to do, therefore erasing any kind of stigma in her book. Not only did Eleanor go to counseling, but it really saved her life.

This IS a book that leaves you with warm fuzzys. It definitely has a happy ending. I think all readers were really pulling for Eleanor by the end.

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

Gail Honeyman (author)

Main Topic Analysis

Most importantly, Gail Honeyman, the author of Eleanor Oliphant Is Complete Fine chose to write about a topic that is very prevalent in society now and has been over the past few years: Loneliness.

Not only does she address the idea of loneliness as being something that can have serious impacts on our overall health and wellbeing, but I love that she did it with a character who is just reaching her 30’s.

Oftentimes when people speak of loneliness they refer to older men/women who’ve had a spouse pass away or friends/family members that are starting to die out.

But loneliness is something experienced by EVERYONE at all stages of life.

To reference current pop culture songs that talk about loneliness I immediately thought of Mac Miller’s “Good News” and Justin Bieber’s “Lonely” songs that came out within the past couple years. In these two songs, young artists were also discussing the topic of loneliness.

Book Title

My book club discussed the meaning of the book title “Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine” and what the author meant by that.

There were a few opinions, but I think the majority of the group decided it was more of a personal mantra for Eleanor. A word that means two things contextually.

At first it was just a way to get by, as the quote above says “If someone asks how you are, you are meant to say FINE” and that’s just the way of life, like getting up, going to work, coming home, eating/drinking, and repeating it all over again.

But by the end of the book…

It was still a mantra for life, but more of a powerful YOU CAN DO THIS type mantra. Yes Eleanor Oliphant, (there’s power in saying your own name), you are fine! You are doing well! You have been through a lot and look at you now, still COMPLETELY FINE!

I like it.

Last Thoughts

I find the build up of Eleanor creating herself into something she isn’t to potentially get a man she’s never met fall in love with her, was almost completely irrelevant and awkward. I understand it allowed the author to build Eleanor as a disassociated character who has no sense of social culture, but even in writing my review, I didn’t find it necessary at all to mention.

Overall, I find the topic is relevant and timely. The character development was slow, but definitely becomes easily relatable throughout, and the overall story is wholesome.

I would recommend this book, however, with a caveat that the first half is lengthy, a bit boring, and difficult to push through. I think Honeyman could have better proportioned the story out by focusing less on the build up and more on a slower progression of healing, which would of been more realistic.