A wonderful,m easy-going read. Predictable but still addictive which proves the author is obviously very talented.

I gave this a 6/10 or 3 stars. I'd heard so many good things about this story and seen so much hype, that I was expecting big things from it. However, for me it just didn't quite deliver all that I was hoping for.

I love quirky reads and this certainly fits that bill nicely. I felt that I engaged with Eleanor and she had her ways, she was blunt and to the point. Socially, she had a few flaws and she's not alone in this at all, she didn't see the need to conform.

If I'm honest I found some of the story quite predictable in parts, particularly regarding Eleanor's past.

I did enjoy the writing style and I will look our for more books by this Author. I feel that this would make a great reading group read, with lots of topics that can be discussed.

My thanks to the publishers via NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book, and can see why it's received so many accolades. Eleanor Oliphant is a young woman who lives alone. We learn early on that she spent a lot of time in foster and care homes, and she clearly has big issues forming any kind of relationship. Then an accident sets off a chain of events that sees Eleanor begin to blossom and confront the horrors of her past. The story is sad, funny and ultimately uplifting. Thanks to NetGalley for a preview copy.
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Eleanor is immediately likeable as a girl who does a boring job, and believes she has a boring life, not needing anyone else. It tells her story of becoming involved with other people, and ultimately leading to caring. Well written and great characterisation

This book was an interesting read. Initially for me it was a hard read. I did not like Miss Eleanor Oliphant one bit. She was pretentious and judged others, I was all but willing to give up until Raymond appeared on the scene and made me stick with it and it was at the point I started to enjoy the book completely. Eleanor starts the book by believing her life is completely fine, that the office bullying was a normal part of living and having no friends was okay. She had a drinking problem she didn't really she had and was falling in love with a singer of a band even though they had never met. She kept having niggling memories that she was blocking out. Suddenly out of no where you see her realisation that her life is not okay and the incidents in her life need addressing. Whilst this is happening she starts to go to social events and ends up very close to Raymond. The book doesn't develop this into a romance even though I was hoping it would. You can't help but realise how deeply troubled Eleanor is at the start and you do end up loving her character more because of it. Her facial disfigurement does not seem to trouble her but she doesn't seem to be a little bothered when people unashamedly stare at it.
Overall I would say to others that this book is a slow burner but to hold on as it is exquisitely written and you eventually come entranced by the characters. I definite fell good book.

Loved this book! So wonderfully endearing and feel good. So deserving of all the praise that's been heaped upon it! Can't wait to see more from Gail Honeyman.

I've heard so much lately about this book, but who or what is Eleanor Oliphant? Well, she's a young lady working in the office of a graphic design company. Eleanor is a bit of a loner, certainly not part of the 'in crowd' at work, far from it. She's very intelligent, but when it comes to social skills, her naivety is often funny and almost always painful. Early on in the book, there are hints of some kind of terrible trauma in her childhood which has obviously impacted on her adult life. The details slowly emerge, but it's not until the end that the full horror of her early life is revealed.


Eleanor strives to be normal. She wants to love and be loved and she thinks she knows what to do to achieve just that. When she catches sight of Johnnie Lomand, she knows that they are destined to be together and she hatches a plan to achieve her goal. Unfortunately, Eleanor learns that reality isn't quite that straightforward and things don't exactly go the way she had hoped.


Eleanor's adventure was full of unexpected events. I found her story totally captivating. I willed her on to do the right thing, make the right decision, flinching when she failed and at one point I even feared for her life.


I was totally absorbed in this book. I couldn't stop thinking about Eleanor and she was on my mind way after I finished the last page. Meeting Eleanor was a wonderful, unique experience and one I shall always treasure. I think she found a little spot in my heart that hadn't been touched before. She made me laugh and she made me cry and this is the book that I'll be buying as presents and recommending to all other family and friends. This book is pretty special.

Eleanor Oliphant has no friends or family, she works in an office, she feels her grip on life is tenuous and it does indeed seem to be. Eleanor’s social skills are limited because of bad life experience to date, but now things are changing.
This reader was wary of Eleanor and her story initially but warmed to her as time went on. Although, it must be said that it might be easier to deal with Eleanor’s quirks on the page than it would be in real life. The pace of this read feels just about perfect, and Eleanor gets right under your skin enough to minimise worries over inconsistencies in the quirky behaviour.
Just like Eleanor, I had to google what Mofo means. I loved this read.
With thanks to Netgalley and HarperCollins UK Harper Fiction

There was a really solid campaign behind Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine and it’s no less than it deserves. This is a book that should be read widely because it perfects the balance of being perfectly and equally heart-breaking and heart-warming in a measured, almost everyday, way. At the same time, through Eleanor, we see an astute commentary on some of the more absurd aspects of society and human ritual. Some are hilarious and some are illuminating and troubling. It’s a meditation on loneliness and friendship and love. What I loved was that it wasn’t romantic love that was prioritised or held up as saviour – but simple human connection and every day kindness. The importance of the little loves. There is trauma and drama lurking in the background, but Honeyman writes Eleanor in a way that we could all recognise there’s a little bit of her inside of all of us, and it’s the focus on the seemingly small things that really stands out and makes this book memorable.

The driving force of the book is the friendship that forms between Eleanor and Raymond ‘from I.T.’ after helping an elderly man who collapses in the street. The bond between them, and the man and his family – after a chance occurrence and small good deed – is one that changes the course of Eleanor’s life. A life she had previously spent secluded in her flat, not talking to anyone at work, drinking vodka and being tormented by her ‘mummy’. From the moment she and Raymond intervene, she starts to witness the small benefits of human interaction.

‘I would never have suspected that small deeds could elicit such genuine, generous responses. I felt a little glow inside – not a blaze, more like a small, steady candle’

At the same time, Eleanor begins to fixate on a musician in a band – someone she imagines to be her perfect match, despite them never having exchanged words. ‘Mummy’ encourages this and pushes Eleanor into stalker-like tendencies to force the meeting and desired future relationship. With this in mind, Eleanor forces herself to conform to the standards of female beauty she sees around her – how a woman should dress for specific occasions, the right amount of make-up, the most complementary accessories, and the right haircut. Sadly, it is only when she goes through these motions, that her colleagues – people she’s worked with and been mocked by for many years – start to compliment her and pay attention.

‘I’d made my legs black, and my hair blonde, I’d lengthened and darkened my eyelashes, dusted a flush of pink onto my cheeks and painted my lips a shade of dark red which was rarely found in nature. I should, by rights, look less like a human woman than I’d ever done, and yet it seemed that this was the most acceptable, the most appropriate appearance that I’d ever made before the world. It was puzzling.’

She experiences being waxed and having her nails painted in scenes that are both hilarious and sad. The humour lends itself to how absurd each ritual can seem, as well as the financial burden of what it takes to be deemed presentable or beautiful as a woman. That pain, that cost and the awkward discomfort are things I’m sure many women will recognise.

Aside from the musician narrative, with Raymond’s help, Eleanor’s barriers begin to come down and it’s immensely rewarding watching her open herself up a little more with each successful interaction. As a reader you feel protective of her and yet recognise her vulnerability and share her fear.

In some of the darker moments, Honeyman writes mental health and trauma exquisitely. There are so many lines that stand out and make you feel for Eleanor and empathise with the enormity of what she must overcome. You feel flashes of how taxing everyday life can be for the lonely, for anyone who suffers from mental health issues or trauma, and how hard it can be to find the motivation to perform the ‘menial’ tasks – getting up, cooking, getting dressed, leaving the house.

‘I do not light up a room when I walk into it. No one longs to see me or to hear my voice. I do not feel sorry for myself, not in the least. These are simply statements of fact. I have been waiting for death all my life. I do not mean that I actively wish to die, just that I do not really want to be alive.’

‘I took one of my hands in the other, tried to imagine what it would feel like if it was another person’s hand holding mine.’

‘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.’

When you first start reading this book, you may think that Eleanor Oliphant is just another 'quirky' character type, but persevere because her story matters and is ultimately, in its own way, a life-affirming reading experience. I found it really hard to put this book down and looked forward to my commute to get back into it. For me, the musician narrative was perhaps the weakest part but I can see how it was necessary to bring together the strands of who Eleanor is. I would definitely recommend this to anyone - it deserves its plaudits and challenges you to inhabit the mind of someone who perhaps, like most of the people in her life do, you would normally overlook.

Some more favourite quotes:

'Some people, weak people, fear solitude. What they fail to understand is that there’s something very liberating about I; once you realise that you don’t need anyone, you can take care of yourself. You can’t protect other people, however hard you try. You try, and you fall and your word collapses around you, burns down to ashes.'
'The children seemed to have multiplied; and had gravitated towards one another in order to form a merry band of mischief makers. It was clear that the adults were all occupied with the party, so they could run and whoop and chase each other with unsupervised abandon I smiled at them, envied them slightly'
'Grief is the price we pay for love, so they say. The price is far too high.'
'Tiny slivers of life – they all added up and helped to feel that you, too, could be a fragment, a little piece of humanity who usefully filled a space, however minuscule. I was pondering this as I waited for the lights to change.'
'I was getting to quite like my own voice, my own thoughts. I wanted more of them. They made me feel good, calm even. They made me feel like me'
*Thank you to HarperCollins and Netgalley for the chance to read and review this book.

Wonderfully quirky and real! The reader gets captivated by Eleanor. She doesn't connect with society but you get the feeling that she really wants to. She has some odd thoughts and behaviors, but don't we all. Except Eleanor hasn't learn t to hide them. She has been plodding along with life and we begin to realise that boring and safe is a very conscious decision.

The writer skillfully peels back the layers of Eleanor and her life, a life that is anything but safe and boring. Unpredictable, fascinating and beautifully written! I was rooting for Eleanor the whole way through her journey to finding herself and a life worth living.

Loved this book, particularly the Glasgow setting. So many twists, many of which surprised me. It was easy to be in Eleanor's head and seeing things from her perspective was eye-opening. Fantastic novel.

This is my companies book of the year but not my sense of humour at all.
I have given up and I've just started chapter five.
I found the character annoying and not likeable at all.

Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine. She leads a very simple life. She wears the same clothes to work everyday, cooks the same meal in the evenings and is perfectly happy.

She goes to work five days a week and on a weekend she treats herself to a bottle of wine, 2 bottles of vodka and frozen pizza. She lives alone and doesn't have any social skills whatsoever which also makes it difficult for her to have friends. As such, her social life consists of one telephone call per week from her Mummy, which usually ends up with Eleanor being told off. Eleanor Oliphant is existing. She certainly is not living.

During the book and for reasons that I do not want to disclose, Eleanor decides that she needs a makeover. As you may expect, this doesn’t quite go the way that it was planned.
Whilst going through this, Eleanor becomes a little more confident but throughout it all, stays true to herself. She lacks any kind of tact whatsoever and really does just blurt out exactly what she is thinking.

Whilst at work, Eleanor’s PC stops working and she meets Raymond, a laid back, chilled out IT guy who comes to fix it for her. He finds Eleanor fascinating but Eleanor doesn’t even register Raymond.
After work one day, Eleanor and Raymond watch as a man falls on the street. They help the gentleman, Sammy and this is the start of Eleanor’s life taking a different turn.

There are many actually laugh out loud moments in this book but also sad and painful moments. There were times when I truly cringed for Eleanor. When I just wanted the ground to open up and swallow me so that I didn’t have to read anymore and feel the embarrassment and shame for Eleanor, for she never felt embarrassed or ashamed.

This is a very emotional read which takes you on a rollercoaster of feelings without being overly sentimental and I can certainly understand why many others who have read this have stated that Eleanor and her story will stay with them for a long, long time.

A brilliant debut novel. I was hooked from page one. The book deals with loneliness, depression, friendship and trauma. The heroine Eleanor Oliphant is utterly endearing although she lives a very ‘monotone’ existence. She has worked in the same office ever since she left university; she wears the same clothes to work each day , eats the same lunch each day and at the weekend she buys the same two bottles of vodka to last her until Monday. She seems happy with this micro- scheduled life, or is she? She has built a wall around herself until an act of kindness shatters that wall and now she has to learn to face her traumas, which she has always shined away from, while also learning how to navigate the world around her that everyone else takes for granted.

Please note, while I will try not to put spoilers in here, due to the nature of the story set up and the multiple twists, there might be references to story points which may become more relevant later on in the novel. I’ll try to point these out beforehand too!*

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine. She has a nice job, a nice flat and a nice routine in Glasgow. Except she isn’t fine, of course. Early on and just after we meet Eleanor, she reveals that her routine includes buying multiple bottles of vodka on a Friday evening and drinking them all over the weekend. This is at odds with her external demeanour -she wears sensible shoes and a jerkin, she prides herself on having a bus pass and certainly never partakes in any idle gossip chit chat.

This is precisely what is fascinating about the character. She is at once many layered and entirely believable. Her self perception is absolutely at zero – she doesn’t understand why people don’t like being told that they’re wrong, or that she can’t stand the vacuous discussion on the Christmas party. In a nutshell, she’s not very nice. One day her computer breaks and she calls the helpdesk, and someone comes to fix it. This brief encounter leads to a series of events where we get to see the real Eleanor, peeled away like all the layers of an onion.

We are introduced to her social worker, her mother, the man who owns the corner shop – all through her own eyes. With the benefit of being independent though, we can see that she is not completely fine and actually, the other people in her life know that too. Deep down, so does she.

*spoliers but not very specific ones* At times it is a hard read, and I would say that the author has done some research into PTSD and coping mechanisms for terrible events and disasters. It’s absolutely worth the time though – I really enjoyed getting to know not just Eleanor, but the rest of the people in that world too.
I am looking forward to seeing what Gail Honeyman writes next, and who she introduces to the world! Given that this novel won the 2018 Costa Debut Novel award, I think it’ll be a good one!

Thanks to Harper Collins for letting me read an advance copy through Netgalley – all opinions are my own, of course!

I loved this book. Such an engaging character, so many great insights into her life and the quirks of her personality. From her velcro highly practical shoes, to her waist length never been cut hair, you just know from the start that there is something in her background that has made her 'different'. As through the hand of fate she starts to build relationships and make changes to her life and appearance, you cannot help but want to find out more about her and will her to trust her instincts and trust the people most able to help her.
Would love to find out what happens to her next - but then that should always be the case after finishing a well written book.

I absolutely loved this book! Eleanor is such a great character and she really does grow on you. She made me both laugh and cry throughout this lovely story. There was one big twist at the end which I didn't see coming but it was genius. I also loved the character of Raymond, who helps Eleanore become better and stronger and more aware of the world and most definitely brings her out of her shell. She has been suffering for so long after a great trauma in her life and meeting Raymond definitely turns her life around. What an inspiring story, and one that I will re-read over and over again.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4 Stars

I wasn’t sure about his book at first, I’m not a fan of quirky character books written in the first person but after so many recommendations I took the plunge.

It took me the first quarter of the book to adapt to the writing style and I confess I was worried I’d give up on as that beginning part of the book is mainly focussed on Eleanor and what she does/thinks/says.

However once other characters are introduced and storylines develop the book really picks up and you become engrossed in the character’s lives.

By the half way point I couldn’t wait to whiz through it, I loved all the characters and desperately wanted a happy ending for Eleanor. I was disappointed when the book finished, I could have read more and more and I think this book has many sequels in it. Not to mention that it would make a brilliant movie...

Eleanor Oliphant is not only perfectly fine by me, she's a gem. Rarely do we encounter someone who is so completely themselves as well as hiding such painful secrets. She is charmingly eccentric with an offbeat sense of humour, whilst being stuck in a time warp and out of step with the social mores of her day.

There's a sense of her seeming togetherness, seen in her sterling capabilities in the job she has been in for years. There's also a sense of lingering sadness that has shaped who she is and how she reacts. Life hasn't been kind to Eleanor and she develops her own strategies to cope with a challenging childhood, devastating loss and a painful relationship with her mother.

These things are revealed in small increments, especially when she decides to take romantic matters into her own hands with harsh and humiliating consequences, following which she is cared for by Raymond, her work colleague and only close friend. He's a man who is obviously off her radar of acceptability to begin with but they continue getting to know one another and develop a mutually supportive friendship.

As events unfold, we learn more about Eleanor's past and how it has shaped her vulnerable present. She slowly unfurls in trust like a butterfly readying for flight, with a need to first face up to things, confront the past and rebuild her life again. I found myself rooting for her every step of the way. A beautiful, sensitively drawn and memorable book I highly recommend.

I was unsure about this book before I started reading it as it’s not my usual genre that I like but I am so glad I gave it a go . It had a good storyline with humorous bits in it and a not really sure where it was going theme. I would recommend it to anyone who likes a light hearted read with bits that make you chuckle. All in all a good solid read.