I am surprised that I have yet to find someone who feels the same way I do about Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine. The countless posts on this subreddit about that book are all praising it, and I just don't see it.
I had picked it up a couple months ago, hoping that it would live up to its "bestseller" title, but couldn't get past the first few chapters. Still, I kept the book because I wanted to enjoy it. I felt (based on recommendations and "similar" characters/books) that Eleanor would be extremely relatable to me and wanted to connect with her. I ended up giving it another try purely because I had a couple train rides to be on and this was the thinnest book in my TBR stash.
The first 2/3rds of the book were absolutely painful. I would've given up if I had access to my bookshelf. I don't see how Eleanor can compare herself to Jane Eyre or (from reviews) Elizabeth Bennet in the slightest. Why does everyone believe she is one of the kindest, most pure of heart characters? She treats salespeople horribly, making a teenage boy almost cry and screaming at the wax-lady (which would've made me cry). She doesn't tip because of petty reasons and is extremely snobbish, holding herself higher than these people. And she's a hypocrite. She says she's the worst person ever, but then criticizes everyone around her. She believes everyone else is in the wrong for not acting in her rude demeanor. She gives me extreme "not-like-other-girls" vibes, where she'll be rude because being polite is too superficial for her. It's not funny to me at all, and I don't see why people find insulting others hilarious.
I was trying to figure out this for most of the book because there was this off-feeling about Eleanor's mother. However, I realized that it was because of how unbelievable she seemed. Not as in unbelievable as in how she abused her children, but in that she didn't seem like a real human at all. I found myself unable to suspend my disbelief many times throughout the story, mostly at her storyline. She just feels so one-dimensional, just like almost all the other characters.
I honestly do not understand why people love this book so much. Eleanor feels like a horrible representation of people with depression in my eyes, as she constantly acts in selfish, unlikeable ways.
I know this is a contemporary novel, but the prose is painfully boring and equivalent to that of a 5th grader.
Edit: okay so I misunderstood the ending about her mother, and I apologize for calling her fake. However, the rest of the characters feel unreal to me as well. They don’t feel believable, too one dimensional to be real.
by sadwatermeloon
28 Comments
Isn’t this a Reese read? I never like her picks, but a Booktuber I watch praised this book and we have similar taste. After reading this, I’m going to pass.
There was actually a discussion here very recently on this exact topic.
Eleanor wasn’t supposed to represent people with depression, though. She had cptsd, which caused her to emulate her horrible mother. I strongly disliked her at first, but as the story went on and I learned more about her, she grew on me. Raymond contributed to that a lot. Everyone needs a Raymond.
I didn’t like Eleanor Oliphant either, or at least what I read of it. Which was all of about three chapters. I found it unbearably cringy and even knowing that was what the author was going for I couldn’t continue on.
I completely agree with you!
I didn’t hate it, but it suffered from poor marketing, imho. It wasn’t funny, just deeply tragic. I do agree she was rude at first until she warmed up to Raymond and his mother. I think she didn’t know how to treat people after growing up with an abusive mother.
A truly horrible story
The book was average at best. That said, her character is not someone you will run into everyday. She has gone through severe trauma and has never received any help. She is not the girl next door, you will have to suspend that idea.
I’ve never seen a post here praising it but I have seen posts hating on it, lol. I thought it was fine. Like 3 stars I guess? 2.5? I didn’t have strong feelings for it either way.
But I do like that Eleanor isn’t a likable character because she had unacknowledged and untreated mental illness. I found her personal, distorted logic to be interesting because that’s so often what happens with mental illness. She has very strict rules that she follows that are totally illogical to everyone else. She lacks empathy because she is so consumed by her own mental illness that she misunderstands the people around her.
I think it helped that I recently watched Cunk on Earth and cast her in the role of Eleanor. I liked the prose and learned some new words. Got a big laugh when she said “oh I haven’t met him yet.” after describing her fantasy man.
It’s definitely a weird one for me to like. It was predictable but oddly suspenseful on what exactly would shake out and then when it wasn’t the more exciting options (mother gets out somehow, sister still alive somewhere) I was unusually ok with it when I’m normally disappointed that story was left on the table. There wasn’t even romance at the end which again should feel like a let down for what’s been set up but I closed the book satisfied. I just found her to be a believable weirdo so I enjoyed getting to know her.
maybe finishing the book could help clear some things up? 🤔
Eleanor is difficult to connect with at first, but the small clues keep piling up that all is not as she says it is. It was this slow revelation of more and more details of her history that ramped up the suspense for me, and the hope.. hope…!!! …that she could find peacefulness, love, belonging. Give it another chance when you’re feeling up to it. I listened to it on audio, and the Scots accents were completely engaging.
I liked it well enough until all her issues were laid at the feet of trauma, like people only have social difficulties because something happened to them. No, some people just have social difficulties.
I hate this book because it’s marketed as “incredibly funny” on the cover. There was nothing funny about this book to me. Had I gone into it expecting a trauma story – maybe I would have appreciated it.
I couldn’t finish it. I thought it was terrible and unrealistic.
I hated it. I didn’t understand why everyone liked it.
I totally agree with you. I listened to the audiobook and really has no idea why anyone would comment at all about the book. Very bland to me.
The audio book was very well narrated.
I’m barely 1/4 way through it and I don’t think I can continue. I finder her character just completely unlikeable regardless of her mental health issues and such
Yeah I am reading this first the first time right now and Eleanor is a horrible, insanely RUDE, hypocritical person. She’d be unbearable irl. It is very simply written, which is probably why it became so popular. But it’s an easy read that goes by quickly.
At least in Reddit, it’s okay to be honest about how you can have negative criticism, literary criticism for a book that you don’t appreciate. And you can give your reasons!
I found it rather unbearable too. Could not finish the book and found her to be extremely snobbish and hopeless. Yes it’s about mental health and it’s representation I understand but it just could have been better. Eleanor as a character is boring and cannot hold the story for really long. The objective was achieved but the means was so painfully slow and mildly infuriating.
I loathed that book.
God it feels so good to say that in public.
I read this a while ago. But my impression was she was socially awkward. I did not find her snobbish; she seemed very sheltered. I liked it and found it funny. Her social faux pas were absurd. I felt sorry for poor girl too.
I remember Nothing about the book hahah
I listened to the audiobook and loathed it.
I felt like I could feel her anxiety, and it seemed trite about mentally ill people, like a trope.
I have CPTSD. She resonates. Doesn’t mean I like her, but I do get her
I know somebody with childhood trauma who sort of acts like Eleanor. I found the book very relatable and ultimately uplifting.
I would like to add that I listened to the audio book, and I wonder if the narrator made her more endearing than if I’d read it. Eleanor sounds confused/anxious rather than rude.
I think the book was unexplainably lenghty. Though the storyline and plots were supposedly interesting, but I don’t see the conclusion to the book. I even started procrastinating the book because i couldn’t motivate myself to complete it. I started reading it because I read a lot of good reviews about it. And people recommended it as a thought provoking book, but I don’t see the point of that book anyways. Though the book is probably 300 pages long, but for a book like this, I see no point.