A review by catbag
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

3.0

accidentally stumbled on another book about abuse this year! woo! (says while staring blankly into the distance)
this book is definitely one of those that isn't for everyone and is VERY not for some people
it's about a woman figuring her shit out while refusing to figure her shit out, so she can't actually figure anything out. if that sounds frustrating, well
yeawh

“It occurs to me that there are many things in life that I’ve never considered doing, Raymond. I suppose I hadn’t realized that I had any control over them. That sounds ridiculous, I know,” I said.
- page 158

You wouldn’t understand, of course, but the bond between a mother and child, it’s . . . how best to describe it . . . unbreakable. The two of us are linked forever, you see—same blood in my veins that’s running through yours. You grew inside me, your teeth and your tongue and your cervix are all made from my cells, my genes. Who knows what little surprises I left growing inside there for you, which codes I set running? Breast cancer? Alzheimer’s? You’ll just have to wait and see. You were fermenting inside me for all those months, nice and cozy, Eleanor. However hard you try to walk away from that fact, you can’t, darling, you simply can’t. It isn’t possible to destroy a bond that strong.”
- page 32
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