Books are made to let you escape the reality of life, which is, let's be honest, rather harsh. However, some books - many - are even harsher than your daily life, and that is what Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine is. But don't get me wrong, this novel was an amazing read, but instead of making the reader escape from a sometimes sad and harsh reality, it made him/her dive into an even harsher one.
Eleanor Oliphant believes to be happy with her life. Alone, no friends, an ok place to live in, a job to pay the bills, no love life, but well, that is fine for her. Until the day she realizes there is much more to it than what she's got. A series of events make her realize the lacks in her life, and even with the scars she carries from a traumatic and terrible past, she now wants better. Yet nothing is that easy, and this road to happiness will be chaotic. Because you can never leave the past behind.
This novel was more than a story, it was also an eye opening book about mental issues and traumatizes, a story showing us that the dream lives we see on Instagram and others social media, is not everyone's. Gail Honeyman, with her first novel achieves to write an amazing story, full of feelings. We go from laughter to tears, and we fall in love with every character of the book. But what I liked most about this novel was the realism of it, the fact that to read it was not to escape our day to day life, but to realize that everybody struggles in life, that sometimes their issues are much harder to overcome than what we have imagined, that life is not that easy for anybody. But Gail Honeyman goes further, and teach us a real life lesson: observe, and help if you can, and trust her, you can. Friendship is another very strong theme of this novel, and even if Eleanor has been unhappy and unlucky for years, her terrible past led her to amazing new friendships, taking her on a new road.
I won't say more, cause I might be tempted to tell you the story from A to Z, or worse, to copy the whole book here. Because to review this book, I'll just have to say that I did not want it to end.
xo
Amy
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