🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 5 Glowing Stars

My letter “E” book for 2022 just blew my head off my shoulders.

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine has been out for a few years and I heard good things about it so I added it to my list. Holy WOW! What a book!

I came into this expecting typical chick lit about a woman finding empowerment and maybe love. It was that, but it was SO not that. I can’t begin to get into the layers of complexity or the masterful way her backstory unraveled without writing a book of my own about it. Just – guys – you need to read this.

The supporting characters were rich, fully fleshed out in all their quirks and flaws, and utterly intriguing. Eleanor is a protagonist who will have you rolling your eyes at her lack of social skills (with very good reason), openly guffawing at her foibles and confusion over social norms, and wanting to pull her in close so you can hug her and cry. What a rollercoaster of a book.

On a side note, not enough is written about the profoundly lonely, and this book nails its every wretched nuance. Trigger warning: discussions of physical and verbal abuse and childhood trauma, but even with that, the book is often hilarious and ends on a solid, fist-pumping hopeful new trajectory for Eleanor.

This was such an amazing book. I can’t stop thinking about it. If you choose audiobook, the narrator, Cathleen McCarron, is hugely talented and does the work proud.