Eleanor Oliphant does not make a very good first impression. As I started reading this book I couldn't help but think what have I gotten myself into this time. This girl is a self-involved, hyper-critical, judgmental little...well you get the idea. She is a drab little nerd of a girl with no friends and no life that scoffs at the world as she believes it scoffs at her. I continued to read and discovered that Eleanor is a scarred woman...literally and figuratively. We all frequently make first impressions and critical judgments on the flimsiest of information. Sometimes these decisions are accurate and sometimes, probably more times, they are not. We all have met people that have displayed behaviors that have caused us to judge them and then to avoid them. In those cases, as in Eleanor's, there are reasons for their offensiveness. Our choice is to make the decision to get to know this person better and discover why they are as they are or to simply move on. In Eleanor's case somebody made the decision to make an effort to know her and then help her discover herself. Therein is the story of Eleanor Oliphant who is scarred by a very dark and traumatic childhood tragedy. She is a woman of 30 that has never known even the most basic of human experiences of kindness or affection and realizes on page 294 that being human is a two way street and that first impressions and judgments are some things that even she got wrong. Reading this very moving story is an act of sound judgment so don't let a first impression deter you from a special reading experience.

I loved this book. Completely different than I expected, but in a refreshing way. I hate reading reviews that give everything away, so as a heads up, there are no spoilers here.For whatever reason, even amidst all the rave reviews, I thought the book might be odd or boring; a whole book about a quirky woman, I thought how could this be so wonderful? However, it is so much more than that. It has in depth portrayal of a woman and her past and how she has come to be who she is. It details her struggles with a hurtful past, and as the story develops, so does our heroine. She begins to look at things in a new light, and grows into this beautiful strong and brave person. You want to applaud her in the end and give her a hug.This is an intelligent and beautifully written story, a definite page turner. I highly recommend.

I did come to like and sympathise with Eleanor and the other characters in the book; but I found it a bit of a fairy tale and I wasn't entirely convinced. The story of Eleanor's coming to grips with her traumatising past, and overcoming it, seemed a bit too pat and simplistic. It is well written, and I wouldn't say I didn't enjoy reading it, but it is not the type of book I would normally choose.

Good read/ great character, and you slowly begin to understand her. This could help someone who is slightly intolerant think about the assumptions that they make about others. It was enjoyable to read, even though you develop concern. The violence and sexual context is not gratuitous, just plainly described as having occurred, and it is definitely part of the story.

Eleanor Oliphant is one of the most interesting characters that I have read in a while. She is blunt. Very blunt. She lacks social skills and tends to spout off facts to people just having conversations. She likes her routine. Every Friday, stop and buy pizza and vodka. And every Wednesday, she talks to her mother. Those are never very good for Eleanor. Her mother is mean and angry and leaves her feeling less than. Something happened to Eleanor when she was a child. Something that left her with a scar on her face and moving from foster home to foster home. Does she remember it all or is it her coping mechanism? Things start to change in her life when her company’s IT guy, Raymond, and Eleanor help an old man who has passed out in the street. Family is the one thing that she has been missing.There is so much to Eleanor. In the beginning, I thought that I didn’t care too much for her but as time went on and she opened up, well, I fell in love with her. I would venture to say that she is on the autism spectrum. What a sad story she had lived and what a wonderful world opening up for her. Beautifully written and just a lovely story, you will fall in love with Eleanor too.