This is another book that was not as simple as my predictions. The blurb discusses a woman who leads a simple, monotonous and empty 9-5 and compensates with a vodka fuelled weekend. From this, I assumed that this would be an ‘Animals’ esque, heavy drinking novel, with Lena Dunham style characterisation. I assumed that the protagonist would overcome her demons by finding something more meaningful in life (and in predictable fashion; a boyfriend to sew it all up nicely). A fraction of this assumption was correct, although it is more comparable to The Rosie Project than the sordid encounters of the beautiful people in Skins. However – charming Skins is not, and Eleanor Oliphant certainly does possess charm. In opposition of being drug and party fuelled, Eleanor’s life is charged only by loneliness, and Honeyman creates the interesting angle of what it is like to be young and lonely, something seldom explored. Essentially, Eleanor witnesses the fall of an elderly man, and her ass...