My favourite book of the year so far.
.Laugh out loud funny,sad and thought provoking.There is always someone you meet in life who is a bit odd and makes you think what might have gone on in their past or what kind of life they really lead.
How nice it would be if there were more people like Raymond who just accepted Eleanor and treated her the same as everyone else.
I can't say anymore than all the other reviews have been saying except this book was pure dead brilliant!

C'mon, Gail Honeyman, admit that this is a pen name and you have written other books under another one! No one writes a first book so gripping, so engaging, so literary. And to think that I almost gave it up after 20 or so pages. Then I realized that every word, every sentence , was measured to put you inside the head of this scarred, screwball recluse and is hysterically funny.

Eleanor's face is scarred from a fire she escaped as a child. She has grown up in foster homes, fed and clothed, but lacking in human touch and care. She finished school at 21 and works as an accounts receivable clerk. She lives in government housing with barely any furniture. Eleanor is brilliant, but strange. She goes to sleep each night by drinking huge quantities of vodka to numb her pain. Yet despite it all, Eleanor performs he job well and is a keen observer of her surroundings.

We know that she was mistreated by her mother, who still talks to her weekly and manages to reinforce the negative self-image Mummy instilled in her. Enter Raymond, a nerdy IT guy who comes to fix her computer. Badly dressed and coiffed, and with disgusting eating and smoking habits, he nevertheless drives a chink into Eleanor's loneliness.

The novel is an absorbing and entertaining ride into the life of an unusual heroine. Spoilers will not be revealed, but there are a few. Don't peek at the end.

Gail Honeyman, I sure hope you're working on your next book, although this one will be difficult to top. Meanwhile, come here for a big hug.

Eleanor Oliphant is completely and utterly fine. She is set in her rigid daily routine, she is very intelligent and very well-spoken but she is also very slightly odd. At first I was wondering if she may be on the spectrum or have some form of a learning disability, but once you get down to it I don't think she has - perhaps just neglect from Mummy's part that made her the way she is, I am not sure how to explain it.

Eleanor has no filter or social graces so to speak, she very much speaks what comes to mind, much like an innocent child may do, but for Eleanor it is seem as socially unacceptable really. She intrigued me and I felt drawn into the story watching her social awkwardness from afar. When she is thrust into a situation with one of her work colleagues and man they help on the street, we see Eleanor is truly fine in herself, it is clear that something terrible happened in her past, though it is not until the last moment that we find out and then it all makes sense.

I really enjoyed this book and for a debut book I will definitely be checking out Gail's other works in the future.

Eleanor Oliphant is more than fine... she’s magnificent.
From early on in this quirky novel when she tells how she deals with cold callers (“I whisper ‘I know where you live’ to them and hang up the phone very, very gently”) I was smitten by the alternatively hilarious and heartbreaking heroine.
When we meet socially awkward Eleanor it becomes clear very quickly that she leads a strange and lonely existence.
Her work colleagues treat her like the oddball she would agree she is and she has no friends outside the office.
She is a creature of routine, every evening she makes herself pasta and pesto with salad, every Wednesday she has a fraught 15-minute conversation with her mother on the phone... and every Friday she buys a margherita pizza from Tesco Metro, “some Chianti and two big bottles of Glen’s vodka” to get her through the weekend “neither drunk nor sober”. It’s clear she is damaged, both physically and emotionally, and she is bravely trying to hold her life together but her direct manner of speaking and attitude to many of the phenomena of modern life give great moments of humour.
She is bemused by the banality of the things her colleagues find interesting or funny “they must have lived very sheltered lives”, she decides.
But her ordered, repressed existence comes to an end when she falls for a local musician who she knows to be a true gentleman and husband material because he wears the bottom button of his waistcoat unfastened.
Eleanor, the creation of Gail Honeyman who took postgraduate studies at Oxford, then embarks on a series of self-improvement... discovering what a Hollywood wax is the painful way along her journey.
She may sometimes display a naivete that stretches credulity – she is, after all an intelligent woman – but overall this is a fine first novel with a truly memorable title character.
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, Gail Honeyman, £12.99, ebook £7.99

Funny, moving and utterly relatable in some places. A very enjoyable and entertaining read.

Brilliant! Intriguing, challenging, and a delightful way to spend a few hours!

Eleanor Oliphant leads a simple life, she wears the same clothes and eats the same food every day and drinks two bottles of vodka every weekend.

She is happy, there is nothing missing from her ordered world.

Until a chance meeting and an act of kindness force Eleanor to reassess her life. In doing so she must face the darkest memories she’s been avoiding.

Can Eleanor learn to live, instead of just survive?

I requested this book from NetGalley as it has been receiving a lot of attention on social media. I was anticipating an excellent, blow you away read, but what I got was far from that.

Unlike other ‘low scoring’ reviews I have seen, I didn’t have a problem with Eleanor. It seems a lot of readers found her to be an unlikable character, for me that wasn’t really the case, she didn’t bother me either way. In fact, I didn’t become attached or empathise with any of the characters in this story, which would have been bearable had there been a story.

Unfortunately, there was just no plot. It was just a plod along story where nothing really happened, I saw it through to the end in the hopes of a final twist or shock but there was nothing.

For a debut novel, the writing itself was admirable, when not overly padded out with Eleanor’s rambling thoughts, but all in all, this is an average and unengaging read.

Rarely has loneliness been described in such a humorous, if deadpan, way; Eleanor works a Monday-to-Friday, 9-5 job, drinks 2 litres of vodka at the weekend and doesn't speak to another soul until she is back in work Monday morning. She is stoical about her own social awkwardness and exclusion for the most part; only occasionally does the curtain lift to reveal the raw pain behind her calm demeanour.
This is a book I couldn't wait to get back to reading whenever I left it down - both laugh-out-loud and sob-inducing, it is a book I can't wait to put into the hands of everyone I meet.

I normally avoid hugely hyped books because a lot of the time they disappoint but Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine did the exact opposite. It blew me away. As a story it sucks you in immediately, you start to care very quickly about Eleanor and her life and you start to worry about her. You want her to be ok, you want her to emerge from the terribly lonely life she has and to realise that while life can be awful it can also be shiny (you have to read the book to get that reference!).

I guarantee you will laugh, I guarantee you will shed more than one tear (but definitely one) and I can't see how anyone would come away disappointed from reading this book. I will be urging friends to read it and I am pretty sure it will be among one of my favourite books of the year.

The sad/happy story of Eleanor Oliphant has left me wanting more. I really enjoyed finding out about Eleanor and never wanted the story to stop! I want to know what happened in her younger life, if she ends up with Raymond in the end, please write a sequel. A fantastic page turner of a book.

This book was... interesting. 

The writing style put me off at first. It was quite staccato-ed, and although I guess that was the point of it, it was difficult to understand. However, it definitely grew on me. It really gave Eleanor such a unique voice, that eventually I was thinking in that way of talking too. 

The plot was difficult, because there were many subplots all combining into an almost coming-of-age/discovering yourself story. It was, actually, really quite nice to read and I liked that there was a mystery of what was happening, what Eleanor's past had been about. 

I also liked that Eleanor was different, but still appreciated. It was, I suppose, a bit wish-fulfilling, because of course if you're not liked, you're not liked - people aren't secretly harbouring a friendship with you (sorry, but it's true). So, whilst I did like this plot point, of Eleanor discovering that ~she does fit in after all~, it was really tricky to actually believe in it. 

That is what is so strange about this, I guess; it is so unbelievable, overall. I figure that the book was really good. I was gripped the entire way through, I really loved it and was thinking about it for days afterwards, but overall? It was so unbelievable. Well, not all of it; just some of it, I guess. It was just difficult for me to understand, perhaps, especially because this was definitely an adult novel and despite the fact I am legally an adult, in actual fact, I definitely am not. 

I think that this book will become a new best seller, because it is wholly unique and wonderful in its own right. I really loved reading it, and it was the right book for me at the right time in which I was reading it, but all in all I don't think that it's a new favourite of mine, in the grand scheme of things. However? Overall, I would definitely recommend it, partly because of just how different it is.

Eleanor has been through a lot so it's no surprise that she is rather socially awkward. She is perfectly satisfied with her simple life and doesn't think she is missing out at all by not having friends or any love in her life. She is 'fine'. That is until she unexpectedly falls for a chap she spies while on a rare evening out, inspiring her to begin a self make-over. The results are hilarious and cringe worthy at times.

This book is so beautiful. Heartbreaking and heartwarming in equal measures. Eleanor may not be 'fine' but she is amazing.

The most unique book I have read. Nothing quite like it. This book shows the power of social media as I would probably have never picked it if I hadn't heard so much about it. Definitely lives up to the hype.

Eleanor Oliphant works as an accountant for a design company in Glasgow. She has a routine which makes her feel comfortable, wearing the same clothes, eating the same food, and doing the daily puzzles. She doesn’t have any friends but she is completely fine. Until she falls in love with the lead singer of a local band. Convincing herself that they are meant to be together, Eleanor starts to stalk him on social media (to a point that borders on obsession) and recreates herself, buying new clothes and wearing make-up. But her life completely changes when she meets Raymond, the new IT guy at her company. Raymond is intrigued by Eleanor and doesn’t seem to mind all her quirks. Although Eleanor isn’t too interested in getting to know Raymond, their lives are thrown together after they help Sammy, a man who fell ill on the street. As Eleanor spends more time with Raymond, his mother, and Sammy, she learns to overcome her difficulties and her fears and to stand up for herself.
I enjoyed this engaging and thought-provoking debut novel. I laughed and I cried (just a tiny bit) and I just loved the character of Eleanor. Eleanor seems weird and lacking in social skills, but she is also funny, intelligent and a kind and generous person with a dark and heartbreaking childhood.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC of this utterly fabulous book. This is my honest review and I confirm I do not get paid for reviewing this or any other book.

Eleanor Oliphant is an extraordinary character. I absolutely loved her. I felt an immediate affinity as she prepares herself to meet a sexy rock star. There is no question that once he meets her, they will be together as a couple.

Of course to her, it is everyone else who is odd. Their reactions to her are as joyful to read as Eleanor's reactions to situations mundane to others. Her experience in the beauty salon had me in stitches. I love the way Eleanor makes us see how strange 'normal' people can behave.

At first I presumed Eleanor had always been this quirky, but heartbreakingly it becomes evident that something happened in her childhood. But her blossoming friendship with Raymond has her emerging like a butterfly, even if she is reluctant to leave the safety of her cocoon.

Raymond is a wonderful character, showing endless patience towards the woman everyone else just dismisses as weird. Slowly he shows Eleanor that not everything is black and white and that the world is a beautiful colourful place. It touched my heart in many ways.

I do love this book so much. It is such a warm, refreshing read - perfectly constructed. I highly recommend it!

This book just wouldn't have been on my radar if I hadn't been invited to read it and I'm really glad I did.

This was funny, sweet, heart warming and poignant. I really enjoyed following Eleanor through her journey to make some changes and their often disastrous consequences. I really identified with the way she has trouble filtering what she should say - it's taken me years to get over that. Overall this was a great book and one I will revisit.

Without doubt, this is an exceptional book and I honestly can't remember when I enjoyed a book as much. The protagonist, Eleanor, though a strange character, is somehow endearing and gets you on side almost from the start. This is a touching, humorous, compelling book, especially for a debut and can't wait to hear about Gail Hineyman's next book.

Charming is the word. The book is such an easy ready, it slips down like a delicious ice-cream, despite its sad and slightly bleak centre.

Eleanor Oliphant, who narrates the book, is self-evidently not fine. She has a job and a flat (in Glasgow, and how nice to read an urban book set outside London), but she really doesn’t understand how modern life works, and there is something very dark in her background. Many of the tropes are familiar - it is something like Graeme Simsion’s lovely Rosie books, with a touch of Mark Haddon’s Curious Incident – though you wouldn’t necessarily conclude Eleanor is on the Asperger’s spectrum.

It is a very very funny book, which many of the laughs coming from Eleanor’s composed and certain approach to life, coupled with her complete lack of knowledge. She describes things like a Martian: her mug which we, but not she, can see is a Top Gear mug. And then she adds this:
I don’t profess to understand this mug. It holds the perfect amount of vodka however.
As she says later
Even alcoholics deserve help, I suppose, although they should get drunk at home, like I do, so that they don’t cause everyone else any trouble. But then, not everyone is as sensible and considerate as me.
She has a job, but is not popular with her officemates: she knows that she seems odd to other people, but she has that certainty that it is they who are out of line, not her. At a manicure bar:
She and her companion were both staring, their expressions a combination of alarm and… well, alarm, mainly.
Just as you would predict, and hope, the book is about her starting to change her life, via a first disastrous crush, and then a slowly blossoming friendship.

Of course she has to get some new clothes,above – this is a standard scene but none the less enjoyable for that. (There was a similar scene in Catriona McPherson's The Child Garden on the blog recently.) And I endlessly enjoyed the joke that Eleanor thinks Bobbi Brown is the department store employee doing her makeup.

She has plenty of great passing comments:
I’d recently finished reading a management tome which seemed to be aimed at psychopaths with no common sense (quite a dangerous combination).
And
Was I alive? I hoped so, but only because if this was the location of the afterlife, I’d be lodging an appeal immediately.
And
I stared at the floor, my mind racing. Did I… did I look like the kind of person who ought to be avoided in a game of bus seat selection? I could only conclude, in the face of the evidence, that I did. But why?
Slowly, as her life takes a gentler turn, we learn though hints what it was in her childhood that left her so damaged, and it is not a happy read.

But still this is a mellow, optimistic book. Gail Honeyman has created a wonderful, wholly convincing, character, and the book is highly entertaining – and does a good job of reminding us all not to judge by appearances, and that a little generosity and kindness never goes amiss. I would strongly recommend it.

I am overwhelmed by Eleanor Oliphant's story, it made me laugh a lot and cry, it is deeply moving. I wish I could read it again for the first time. It is the story of a very damaged child now a woman who has never experienced love and support and friendship before, who has struggled through life as an oddity and built an emotional wall around her for protection. Raymond becomes her friend and shows her what life could be. But first she has to free herself from her horrific childhood at the hands of her sadistic mother. So good, so well written, read it.

I normally get ‘put off’ by a novel that has reviews of itself at the start – I would rather make up my own opinion than feel like I am being told how I should think of the book, before it has started. I have also noticed that I tend not to like books that have won or been nominated for prizes, as I find they often lack interest or action. However, I was happily surprised to find that I really liked this book – the subject matter was a little disturbing and somewhat sad, but the story was absolutely compelling. The twist at the end was something I had half-guessed, or wondered about but it was not really obvious and will come as a surprise to many readers. If the author writes so compellingly, I would be fascinated to see what she will produce in the future. I received a free review copy but have my own opinions.