Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine is Much More Than Just Fine

Warning!: This is a spoiler review!!

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Gail Honeyman, I want to read every book you ever write. This book is a masterclass in character driven storytelling. The arcs are so complicated and beautiful. The writing is witty, so funny, and deals with darker moments so well. There wasn't a moment I wasn't entertained while reading this book.

Honeyman is such a great storyteller that at no point does Eleanor need to tell us how she is feeling, we just know from how imersive the reading experience is. Past experience has shown me that I am very picky with my first person POV books but this book used it absolutely perfectly. The narration is incredible.

All of the characters were so easy to care about. I loved Sammy and his family, Raymond's mom, and, especially, Raymond. Sammy and Raymond's mom were so immedietly loving to Eleanor, something she had never seen before, and these relationships were the beginnings of her arc in the book. Raymond is just the perfect friend for Eleanor. He is always there for her, yet he isn't perfect, which adds such a level of reality. All of the characters are flawed in beautifully human ways. I also loved how Eleanor and Raymond's relationship was left ambiguous and it wasn't clear if it would turn romantic or not. If the romance had been clear, it would feel a bit forced and wouldn't fit the story so much. A bit to that point, my favorite scene was the one right after Sammy's funeral when Eleanor and Raymond are hanging out at his apartment, getting drunk and watching a movie. That scene just felt so natural and like such an important moment in Eleanor's life and I felt lucky as a reader to witness it.

I loved how "real life" it felt. I can't describe it in any other way. It just felt like time was passing, things were happening, and these things weren't all perfect for the plot, just like in real life. I liked that even minor characters felt like full individuals who impacted the story and had complex lives of their own. And I loved how Eleanor's view of these people changed as she changes throughout the book.

My one complaint is I think the resolution could have had a bit more closure. The ending was approaching and yet we had just learned about Marianne and the twist with Mummy and there didn't feel like there was much closure with those topics. However, I do think that it was the perfect way to end it because it is exactly how Eleanor was feeling at that point of the story. She wasn't done with that part of her life, so the book didn't feel that way either.