If it wasn’t chosen by my book club, I would have DNF’d it. This story is about Eleanor, who, according to the author, “scorns the conventions of polite society.’

Reasons to give it a try:

• Eleanor’s voice was frank, and her thoughts were succinct with a sprinkle of wit and humor. For example, “blond hair and large breasts are so clichéd, so obvious. Men like Raymond, pedestrian dullards, would always be distracted by women who looked like her, having neither the wit nor the sophistication to see beyond mammaries and peroxide.”

• The male protagonist was quiet, sensitive, and reliable. The effort to depict that there is more than one kind of alpha male is commendable. This book was all about contradicting stereotypes.

• The unvarnished portrayal of how some parents mess up their kids by manipulating their thoughts, opinions, prejudices, and their sheer outlook on life was laudable. To quote Eleanor, “It was Mummy’s voice that had done all the judging, and encouraged me to do so too. I was getting to quite like my own voice, my own thoughts. I wanted more of them. They made me feel good, calm even. They made me feel like ME.”

• This book demonstrates how having a dysfunctional family doesn’t have to define you and how one is stronger for surviving it.

Reasons why the book isn’t everyone’s cup of tea:

•  It’s apparent right from the beginning that the protagonist is a deeply disturbed woman. What made her this way is slowly revealed in the story in bits and pieces, leading to a grand, final reveal. The witty descriptions of her struggles have valiantly tried to be funny but don’t always succeed. But it did save the book from going further darker.

• Identifying with the protagonist because she is an introvert is okay. Empathizing with her is great. But living inside her head through the entire length of a book was depressing.

• A book must warm your heart or inform you of a new fact or describe the global and national impact of a social justice/injustice or stimulate your cerebral nerves or give you an adrenaline rush, or it must possess one or more inspiring characters, or at the least, it should entertain you. But this book resembled a bland, diet food without the nutrition part.

It goes to prove that not all the books that trend are necessarily your preferred flavor. I would always wonder if I missed some subtle, deeper undercurrent in the book, considering how some seemed to rave about it in my book club. Did you like the book? Enlighten me as to why by leaving a comment!!!