Eleanor Oliphant leads a simple life, she wears the same clothes and eats the same food every day and drinks two bottles of vodka every weekend.
She is happy, there is nothing missing from her ordered world.
Until a chance meeting and an act of kindness force Eleanor to reassess her life. In doing so she must face the darkest memories she’s been avoiding.
Can Eleanor learn to live, instead of just survive?
I requested this book from NetGalley as it has been receiving a lot of attention on social media. I was anticipating an excellent, blow you away read, but what I got was far from that.
Unlike other ‘low scoring’ reviews I have seen, I didn’t have a problem with Eleanor. It seems a lot of readers found her to be an unlikable character, for me that wasn’t really the case, she didn’t bother me either way. In fact, I didn’t become attached or empathise with any of the characters in this story, which would have been bearable had there been a story.
Unfortunately, there was just no plot. It was just a plod along story where nothing really happened, I saw it through to the end in the hopes of a final twist or shock but there was nothing.
For a debut novel, the writing itself was admirable, when not overly padded out with Eleanor’s rambling thoughts, but all in all, this is an average and unengaging read.
** Thank you to HarperCollins UK, via NetGalley, for this ARC **