I first heard about Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman when it seemed like everyone around me was reading it. It was one of those books that kept popping up on Instagram, in conversations, and on every “best of” list I came across. And honestly? I understand why.
Eleanor Oliphant is a deeply peculiar woman. She has a strict routine, very few social skills, and a past she has carefully locked away. She works in a small office in Glasgow, eats the same things every week, and has not had a single friend in years. Reading about her at first felt almost uncomfortable – she is so precise, so rigid, so alone. And yet I could not stop reading.
What Gail Honeyman does brilliantly is reveal Eleanor to us very slowly. We piece her together bit by bit, and as we do, something shifts. The quirks that first seemed cold become heartbreaking. Her routines are armour. Her bluntness is the result of wounds she does not know how to talk about. By the middle of the book I was rooting for her so completely that I had to remind myself she was fictional.
There is also a lovely warmth in this novel that I did not expect. A small act of kindness – a stranger helped in the street – sets off a chain of events that slowly, gently, begins to change Eleanor’s life. It reminded me that we never really know what one moment of human connection can do for a person.
I will not say too much about the ending, except that I cried. Properly cried, sitting on my sofa with a cup of tea that had gone completely cold.
Who should read it: Anyone who has ever felt like they do not quite fit in. Anyone who loves a character study. Anyone who wants to cry in a good way. Basically: everyone.
★★★★★
