Book Review: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine (Gail Honeyman)

"Eleanor Oliphant leads a simple life.

She wears the same clothes to work every day, eats the same meal deal for lunch every day and buys the same two bottles of vodka to drink every weekend. 

Eleanor Oliphant is happy. Nothing is missing from her carefully timetabled life. Except, sometimes, everything.

One simple act of kindness is about to shatter the walls Eleanor has built around herself. Now she must learn to navigate the world everyone else seems to take for granted - while searching for the courage to face the dark corners she's avoided all her life." 

This book caught my eye when browsing in my local bookshop; there was just something about the white cover and the title that I found intriguing. By the title, I assumed it would be a typical mental health type teenager-y story, but I was pleasantly surprised. 

Everything about main character Eleanor Oliphant is perfectly just-so, and the way the book is written is suits the story and character so well. I didn't find this to be a sad novel, it was punctuated by funny parts, and heartwarming parts that just seemed to make the more negative parts a little more bearable. 

I must say that it took me a little while to get into this book, as it sometimes does when my head is stuck in another story, but once I reached a certain point (I won't give any spoilers!), I found it impossible to put down - I loved it that much! 

It's almost written in the same style as The Perks of Being a Wallflower or The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, but with a much more grown-up feel to it (of course due to the age of the character). 

As you can (sort of) see from the sticker on the cover of my book, this novel was included in the BBC Radio 2 Book Club, and you can click here to download a free chapter to see if this is for you!

So anyway, this book was quite different to any other I've read, due to themes and the way of writing, the 'voice' of the character as it were. I did enjoy it, and would totally recommend it to my friends!