Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
Title: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine
Author: Gail Honeyman
Published: May 9, 2017
Rating: ⭑⭑⭑⭑
Trigger Warnings: Depression, suicide, substance abuse, self-harm, sexual assault
“If someone asks you how you are, you are meant to say FINE. You are not meant to say that you cried yourself to sleep last night because you hadn't spoken to another person for two consecutive days. FINE is what you say”
The Basics
Eleanor Oliphant, is, as it turns out, not completely fine. Not even a little bit. She is, in fact, not fine at all.
EOICF uniquely encapsulates one woman’s mental health journey. She overcomes barriers, faces trauma head-on, and the reader watches her evolve from a creature of habit into someone unafraid and reaffirmed.
“Sometimes you simply needed someone kind to sit with you while you dealt with things.”
This novel shares the grueling, tumultuous process of coming to terms with and conquering one’s trauma. There are many, many ways people can paint mental illness in fiction in a poor light (See my review for Supermarket). What made this story so amazing to me was not just how eloquently Honeyman breached the topic of repressed trauma, but that she also does so by way of such a lovable character. I love this story because Eleanor is not a weak character. She is strange, brutally honest, and hilarious often without realizing it. She is steadfast in her beliefs and opinions and does not feel shame about either. She is naive in a way that prompts the reader to care for her, to want her to feel okay. Eleanor’s blossoming friendship with a coworker also makes for the perfect character parking. In some ways I actually felt very similar to Eleanor’s new acquaintance Raymond; I felt on several occasions that he was acting and reacting the way I did when reading their interactions.
“Although it’s good to try new things and to keep an open mind, it’s also extremely important to stay true to who you really are.”
There were so many individual things that I felt were well-done in this novel. It felt like a story in several acts; that is, there were storylines and conflicts that persisted through the novel, but also smaller sub-plots that arose and resolved as well. Sort of like side-quests.
I appreciated that romance is not the main thematic takeaway here. Too often important stories are muddled by the prospect of a romantic partner “saving” a character from their mental health struggles, which to me is harmful and also unrealistic.
Eleanor is, also, of course, a type of unreliable narrator, but not in a way that makes you feel tricked. She is at once grown-up, mature, while also carrying many child-like mannerisms and thoughts, as is characteristic of trauma survivors. Eleanor is in the process of unearthing painful repressed memories, and by putting this story in the first-person inside of an omniscient view, we are experiencing only what Eleanor is experiencing at any given time. We are on the journey of healing her trauma with her.
To sum up…
This book is not just a lovable heroine highlight, it is also a meditation on trauma and its responses well into adult life. Eleanor makes us examine the way we feel about loneliness: are we comfortable being alone, or are we just used to it? It seems impossible to know the loneliness that Eleanor has known her entire life, but we all have a version of this feeling. When you start to examine Eleanor’s behaviors as trauma responses instead of personality quirks, so much of what she does makes so much sense.
I think this is a story about a lot of things, but it is most importantly a story about Eleanor. A character who could be anyone, who is trying to figure herself out, to make changes where everything has been the same for years. A character who is trying to be if not completely, but closer to, fine. Eleanor shows us that sometimes, no matter who we are, we all need a little bit of help.
Supermarket by Bobby Hall (a.k.a. Logic)
Title: Supermarket
Author: Bobby Hall
Published: March 6, 2019
Rating: ⭑
“As soon as they give a reason for why they can't do something, they're already defeated.”
Hooray! A rant review!
As a preface, if you are for some reason emotionally attached to this book, or if more negative reviews aren’t your speed, may I suggest you check out one of the reviews for a book I enjoyed more than this one. Which would be… pretty much everything else on the site. Let’s begin!
The plot of this story revolves around twenty-something Flynn who decides that in order to finish his novel about a supermarket, he must begin working at a grocery store. Flynn’s novel is truly his white whale; his girlfriend has recently broken up with him because he can never finish anything, so he has twenty years of angst riding on his book. Things get complicated for Flynn when he begins to uncover a series of mental health troubles that begin affecting both his work and personal life.
Hhhhhh.... (that’s a very long and defeated sigh). Woof. This book was so bad. This piece was a bummer because it reaffirmed for me the idea that once someone has success in any field, they can go and get a book published. And this book is a *best seller.* Because Logic wrote it. And if I had paid attention to the author I honestly would not have picked it up. I for the most part don’t hate Logic’s music, but he literally mentioned in his acknowledgements that he binge-read novels for a week “for the first time” in his life, and then decided he was going to write a book.
This has been said in other reviews, but it truly is written as if it was penned by a sophomore in high school. The grasp on voice is so slim, the concept of proper grammar so faint it is near-invisible. This is the manuscript your college boyfriend hands you halfway through his fall semester as a first-year creative writing student. Flynn screams unreliable narrator the entire time, and by the time you reach Hall’s “twists,” you had seen them coming from six miles away. There’s also a bunch of small asides where Hall is prideful about breaking the fourth wall, but they are so obnoxious to read.
Bummer fuel 2.0– I think this book has some bits of a really important story: the protagonist combats a slough of mental disorders throughout the book, a couple of them hugely underrepresented in popular media. Which is why it super blows that this book was written so poorly. Because of its NYT bestseller status, the picture of these mental illnesses is painted billboard-style big, and not very tastefully, to a giant audience. I think there’s an important story here somewhere, but I also think that it maybe should have been told by someone else.
It was irritating to read this because, yes, it is an important story and it is important for any author to have an outlet to convey their experiences, but it was written in such a juvenile manner. Success in one field should not guarantee success in another. The story of mental health is an important one to tell, but I can’t help but feel that these underrepresented illnesses could have been delivered a different way.
Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Title: Daisy Jones & The Six
Author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
Published: March 5, 2019
Rating: ⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑
Trigger Warnings: Addiction
“Love is forgiveness and patience and faith and every once in a while, it's a gut punch. That's why it's a dangerous thing, when you go loving the wrong person. When you love somebody who doesn't deserve it. You have to be with someone that deserves your faith and you have to be deserving of someone else's. It's sacred.”
The Basics
Daisy Jones & The Six is a fictitious biopic of a 70s rock band as they quickly ascend to stardom. When rising star Daisy Jones collides with Billy Dunne’s established rock band, their fame only skyrockets. But this is the one true account of the mystery behind the band’s breakup at the peak of their career.
Something Different
The narration style is incredibly interesting because the events are conveyed in an interview-style format. This means that each individual event is told through the eyes of each band member. This technique offers honesty, vulnerability, and comedy, as events can often be relayed differently from character to character. What someone remembers one way might be completely different from how another band member tells the story. This unusual format is executed so well here that I wasn’t even positive that it was fiction at first - I had to double-check that I was reading a made-up story.
The reader is also told at the beginning that this is the “only documented account” of the band’s history, so we are given the impression that the characters are recounting their version of things as they happened for the first time.
“I had absolutely no interest in being somebody else’s muse.
I am not a muse.
I am the somebody.
End of fucking story.”
Easy on the Ears
I listened to this one as an audiobook via Libby (If you’d like to know my thoughts on why audiobooks do indeed count as reading, click here) and I want to touch on a couple of things that are specific to this medium.
I recommend this book in general, but if you’re the type who listens to books, I definitely recommend the audiobook experience here. I am going to go ahead and deem this the best audiobook I’ve listened to, hands down. It’s theatrical and beautiful and amplifies the story so much. The full cast of characters was amazing and really made it feel like a true biopic.
The people cast to read this story didn’t at all sound like they were reading from a script or right off the page. There was intention behind the casting of this audio; the people sounded like true actors. Each person reading added depth and personality to their character. Drummer Warren has a gravely, abrasive voice, while Karen (on keys) is soft and sweet, with notes of a valley-girl inflection. Billy has a confident tenor, while Daisy offers a slow, easy alto. The full cast added so much to the reading experience that I would deem the audiobook version almost necessary!
One more thing that definitely added to the auditory experience: since this novel is about a rock band, several of the group’s tracks are discussed throughout the story. To supplement the audiobook, there is a song included at the very end that was composed just for this book. The song is titled “Honeycomb,” a soft love song that’s described in-depth through the novel. This was a cool bonus feature that further pushes me to recommended the audiobook.
To Wrap Up…
This is not only the tale of a rock band, but also of the interpersonal relationships that the bandmates develop with each other and with the important people in their lives. You get your doses of sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll, while also experiencing the emotional complexities that this group of people encountered in one of the most historic times for rock music.
The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes
Title: The Giver of Stars
Author: Jojo Moyes
Published: 2019
Rating: ⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑
“There is always a way out of a situation. Might be ugly. Might leave you feeling like the earth had gone and shifted under your feet. But there is always a way around.”
TLDR: This book was incredible. I was entranced with the writing and the story and I want to be best friends with Moyes's characters. I have read very few if any historical fiction pieces that I enjoyed as much as this one.
I was sold immediately at the promise of a story about the WPA Packhorse Librarians — women who rode great distances during the thirties to deliver books to remote locations among the Appalachian Mountains. But I did not anticipate how much I would love the writing that Moyes offers. Each character was a gift, and I think Moyes created the relationships, both those that were loving and those that were dueling, with such a talent that I never wanted to put the book down. Not only does this book capture a pivotal time for literacy in our country, but also details some really terrific action and love scenes.
One of my favorite aspects of this book was how well it captured the frustrations of being a woman in this time period. I loved the portrait of Alice slowly being painted as an independent woman, smashing all expectations of her and becoming her own person fulfilling her own desires. This, of course, was only made possible by the powerful women she was surrounded by, each giving the finger to societal expectations in their own way. This was an amazing snapshot for those that love historical fiction, but was also an empowering piece about women making their way in one of the most difficult time periods our country has seen.
As an aside, I super definitely recommend listening to the audiobook narrated by Julia Whelan. She was incredible- each character was gifted a distinct voice that made it feel like listening to a piece of theater.
Luster by Raven Leilani
Title: Luster
Author: Raven Leilani
Published: 2020
Rating: ⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑
“I look into the mirror and reassure myself that there are bigger things than the moment I am in.”
What a book. I’m not even sure where to begin with this one. I have been excited to read Luster since it came out last August. Although the mixed reviews on this novel truthfully made me a bit shaky on the front end, I am so glad they didn’t deter me from picking this book up. I adored this novel. The writing style was so unique and strange that I could not put it down. Edie is this complex, witty, dark-humored character that seems to evolve in character and yet stay stagnant in her mannerisms throughout the whole story. This novel is first-person, but Edie seems detached from her own life in a way that reads somewhere between first-person and third omniscient. The situation that Edie finds herself in, this bizarre romantic encounter with a man twenty years her senior in the midst of an open marriage, is only further complicated when Edie is evicted and begins to live with Eric and his wife Rebecca, as well as their adopted daughter.
Something that many of these reviews don’t note is how important a role Rebecca plays in Edie’s story. She, over the course of the novel, becomes in my opinion a much broader and more important character than Eric. She serves so many roles to Edie that she has been lacking in her young life, and I think her character shoulders more of the plot than many summaries let on.
A quick note…
Let me say: this isn’t a novel I’d recommend to anyone and everyone. I think the writing style could be dry for some, and there are a couple of tiny plot aspects that seem to slip between the cracks if you graze a sentence or two. There is some reading between the lines here. But I would really recommend this to anyone who wanted to venture outside their literary comfort zone; it was unlike anything I’ve read in the past. The complex topics of race and generational gaps are breached in a way that flows easily with the narrative.
The Hating Game by Sally Thorne
Title: The Hating Game
Author: Sally Thorne
Published: 2016
Rating: ★★★★★
“I suppose a nuclear bomb has one red button, and that doesn’t take long to press.”
The Hating Game follows Lucy Hutton, a small but mighty corporate assistant at a publishing house that has recently merged with a rival business. Rivalry actually runs very deep here; the co-CEOs despise each other and this feeling trickles down to the assistants, Lucy and her counterpart Joshua Templeman. They spend their days playing malevolent mind games with each other, seeing who can make whom more upset and rage-filled. While there is potent loathing on the surface of this relationship, what the reader comes to discover eventually (or, possibly, within the first chapter) is that there may not be so much hating going on here after all.
As an early disclaimer, I’m going to out myself as a newbie to the romance-novel world. Truthfully, this was never a genre I was particularly drawn to; I spent my younger reading years delving into macabre writing and since then have kept away from romance books for no reason other than I always had something else to read. But oh. My. God. This BOOK.
My new Booktube obsession, Noelle Gallagher, has recommended The Hating Game up and down in several of her videos (Check out her site here) and since I am now taking her word as gospel, this book was swiftly added to my TBR. This is my very first book review on my brand-new site, so I thought it only fitting that I kick it off with a five-star-earner. What an addictive, fantastic, sexy read. It had me yelling at the characters like I was in a theater for a horror movie. Don’t do that! Why are you doing that?? You’re being SO OBVIOUS.
There is a steadiness to Thorne’s story; a moderate tempo that never drags but always lets you think something is going to happen. You’ll feel that you’re reaching an apex, and then she makes you hold out for another chapter. This climb to our (figurative, and I suppose, literal) climax is part of what makes this book so difficult to put down. You’re always waiting for the other shoe. I was glad for the length being a bit longer than what I would have expected by my extremely lacking romance-novel knowledge, because I didn’t want it to end. I could read this book happily until I, too, get a desk job and spend my days hate-staring at a coworker.
Thorne’s novel is seamless in its writing; characters swim from one event to the next in such a way that you’ve torn through several chapters before you knew what hit you. Her characters are witty, and their clever back-and-forth quips are what we all wish for in a workplace conversation.
This book taught me something about the saccharine-sweet romance novel: I need more of them. Like, immediately. Long has it been since I’ve verbally berated the characters in a novel in a haze of frustration that they would not behave at my whim. This book was fully enveloping and much deserving of each one of Noelle Gallagher’s many, many recommendations.