#Review: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine - Gail Honeyman

Rating: 

4.5/5 Book Emojis

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Format(s) Used-

-International Edition

Paperback

Publisher - HarperCollins

Pages - 386

Note: I received a free copy for an honest review from the publisher (HarperCollins India).

Review:

"I do exist, don't I? It often feels as if I'm not here, that I'm a figment of my own imagination. There are days when I feel so lightly connected to the earth that the threads that tether me to the planet are gossamer thin, spun sugar."

 Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine is the story about the girl in the title who, based on my psychological analysis, is dissociated from her thoughts and is completely oblivious to social norms. She leads a decently simple life in her early 30's. She likes to be reserved and not bothered by unnecessary rituals of socializing. 

However, on one particular day, an act of kindness alongside a simple IT guy, Raymond, is about to shatter the walls Eleanor has built around herself.

Eleanor seems to be doing just fine but she has a lot of darkness and bottled emotions inside of her. Through the book , we observe them surfacing and her dealing with them. 

The writing is absolutely stunning and quotable. The words Honeyman weaves to depict the lives of Eleanor and Raymond are indeed note-worthy. It is quote remarkable and splendid that this is the author's debut. 

There were, although just a couple, loopholes in the story and Eleanor's behaviour for which I have deducted half a star. But that doesn't change the fact that it was a pleasurable cozy read for me this winter. 

CONCLUSION: I would definitely re read this book someday and totally recommend everyone to give this book a shot. Totes made me fall in love with reading all over again!

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#Review: Down and Across: Arvin Ahmadi

Rating: 

3/5 Book Emojis

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Format(s) Used-

-International Edition

Paperback

Publisher - Viking Books (Penguin)

Pages - 330

Review:

"I couldn't resist imagining my life as one of those coming-age-movies-and Fiora as the quirky, two-dimensional female character, written in solely to help me discover my full potential. The idea was nice. It smoothed over a good fifteen minutes of bumpy road time."

Down and Across is a YA/Coming-of-Age book about Saaket "Scott" Ferdowsi who never seems to have a hold on his life. The realisation of his care-free and commitment-phobic attitude leads him to a journey to find the true meaning of 'grit' in present-day Washington DC. Along the way, he makes friends with characters like Fiora and Trent and they help him on his runaway business while his parents spend time with his grandparent in Iran.

This is one of the books that make you wonder why you picked it up in the first place. I was enjoying the beginning of the book but by the time I was halfway done, I almost gave up. Arvin makes a good attempt at righting YA as his debut but doesn't quite do justice with the genre. The concept of the book wasn't exceptional and neither was the storyline but somehow you manage to finish the book with nothing great left in your heart

I really hoped this book would make me adore crossword puzzles and everything to do with it. However, I'm still the same old person who just read through only to know how the main character finds himself.

CONCLUSION: If you find yourself in a reading slump and are looking for a light read, this might just do the job fairly well.

#Review: Turtles All the Way Down - John Green

Rating: 

5/5 Book Emojis!

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 Format(s) Used-

-Hardcover

Publisher - Penguin Random House

Pages - 286

-Audiobook

Publisher - PRH Audio

Length - 7 hours 12 minutes

Review:

"One of the challenges with pain - physical or psychic- is that we can really only approach it through metaphor. It can't be represented the way a table or a body can. In some ways, pain is the opposite of language."

Turtles All the Way Down is an exceptional book narrated by Aza Holmes, a teen girl who struggles with OCD while finding the whereabouts of the missing billionaire Russel Pickett in return for a cash reward of $100,000. It revolves around the important issue of mental-illness that is not talked about, enough, due to the stigma. 

I can't stress enough on how much I loved this book. This is definitely one of my most favorite books of all time without a doubt. The writing style is absolutely perfect and really different. Surely, John has written this better than all of his other books. Turtles... is the best book I've read in years and I am so very grateful to the author for writing this brilliant story. I laughed, cried and felt emotions that I didn't even know I existed!

As a reader, I could absolutely feel the kind of pain and agony Aza was in, thanks to the talent that John Green holds. Every sentence in this story is so quotable and immensely poetic that I am still in awe to realize that this is written in the very same century as me. Characters like Aza's best friend Aza, the billionaire's son Davis etc are really well-written. More than just a book, this felt like a classic theatrical performance. Not once in the story did I feel like I was even slightly bored. Instead, with every chapter, I just praised the flow of language.

 

]Sentences like "And as I sat beneath fluorescent cylinders spewing aggressively artificial light, I thought about how we all believed to be the hero of some personal epic. when in fact we were basically identical organisms colonizing a vast and windowless room that smelled of Lysol and lard" made me sigh with affection and amazement. 

There's nothing that could've been better in this masterpiece. I just hope that I come across more books written at least a fraction like this.

CONCLUSION: I want this book to get so much recognition and awards that it truly deserves. The six years spent in writing this were worth every second. I definitely recommend this to any person who can read and can appreciate quality literature.