Community Reviews
This one has been on my to-read list since Feb2024 making it a candidate for my 2026 cleaning out the to-read closet challenge. It’s also one of GR’s 2026 Lasting Reads books because it was a nominee for best fiction back in 2017. I feel compelled to disclose that I’m probably going to be an outlier on this one (I would have never selected it as the best of anything). I struggled with this one throughout most of the story and wanted to DNF it several times. As a character-driven reader, unlikeable MC’s are almost always a deal breaker for me and quite often end up on my DNF list.
The book lays out the primary storyline, so I’m not going to regurgitate it here. The way that Eleanor was described, I expected that she might possibly be neurodivergent, with maybe OCD or Tourettes. No, it turns out she’s just plain rude, obnoxious, and incredibly judgmental and doesn’t give a rat’s @$$ about common courtesy. However, it’s not long before it’s revealed to the reader that something bad happened to Eleanor when she was young, although what happened isn’t revealed until the very end. It’s also revealed that Eleanor still communicates with “Mummy”, who is “in a bad place” and who is also an evil bitch and most likely battered and abused Eleanor. From the age of 10, Eleanor moved from one foster family to another. During college she lived with a man who also battered and abused her.
So, now she spends her life, mostly alone, except when she’s working and even then, she has no friends at work, until Raymond, an IT guy, makes an effort to get to know her, and initially, she’s even awful to him. What the book summary doesn’t mention is the secondary storyline that was pretty prevalent throughout most of the story. Eleanor has a sighting of a handsome, local musician and from that brief moment in time, is convinced that this is the perfect man for her to fall in love with. Good grief!
It’s deep in the second half that all the storylines blow up and like most PTSD sufferers, Eleanor crashes head on into the proverbial brick wall. It’s at this point that I actually start to care about what happens to Eleanor. Yes, I know, I said unlikeable MC’s are almost always a deal breaker for me. However, the last few chapters had me lightening up on Eleanor and cutting her some slack; she was just trying to survive the best way she knew how, which turned out to be not very well at all. She kind of redeemed herself with me when she adopted Glenn, a kitty that Raymond rescued when a bunch of kids tried to set her on fire.
The character development for Eleanor as well as Raymond was well done. The pacing was slow in so many sections, that had me moments away from DNFing it so many times. The storyline was ok and I’m really at a loss for how to describe the writing other than to say that I liked the ending. I’m looking at an overall rating of 3.1 (basically because of the ending) that I will be rounding down to a 3star review.
The book lays out the primary storyline, so I’m not going to regurgitate it here. The way that Eleanor was described, I expected that she might possibly be neurodivergent, with maybe OCD or Tourettes. No, it turns out she’s just plain rude, obnoxious, and incredibly judgmental and doesn’t give a rat’s @$$ about common courtesy. However, it’s not long before it’s revealed to the reader that something bad happened to Eleanor when she was young, although what happened isn’t revealed until the very end. It’s also revealed that Eleanor still communicates with “Mummy”, who is “in a bad place” and who is also an evil bitch and most likely battered and abused Eleanor. From the age of 10, Eleanor moved from one foster family to another. During college she lived with a man who also battered and abused her.
So, now she spends her life, mostly alone, except when she’s working and even then, she has no friends at work, until Raymond, an IT guy, makes an effort to get to know her, and initially, she’s even awful to him. What the book summary doesn’t mention is the secondary storyline that was pretty prevalent throughout most of the story. Eleanor has a sighting of a handsome, local musician and from that brief moment in time, is convinced that this is the perfect man for her to fall in love with. Good grief!
It’s deep in the second half that all the storylines blow up and like most PTSD sufferers, Eleanor crashes head on into the proverbial brick wall. It’s at this point that I actually start to care about what happens to Eleanor. Yes, I know, I said unlikeable MC’s are almost always a deal breaker for me. However, the last few chapters had me lightening up on Eleanor and cutting her some slack; she was just trying to survive the best way she knew how, which turned out to be not very well at all. She kind of redeemed herself with me when she adopted Glenn, a kitty that Raymond rescued when a bunch of kids tried to set her on fire.
The character development for Eleanor as well as Raymond was well done. The pacing was slow in so many sections, that had me moments away from DNFing it so many times. The storyline was ok and I’m really at a loss for how to describe the writing other than to say that I liked the ending. I’m looking at an overall rating of 3.1 (basically because of the ending) that I will be rounding down to a 3star review.
