Even in your solitude, remember that you're not alone.

"Sometimes you simply needed someone kind to sit with you while you dealt with things." // Gail Honeyman.

Have you ever been afraid of change? I have. And so has Eleanor Oliphant. Bereft of any major human contact, she lives a timetabled life dotted with frozen pizza, vodka and some uncomfortable phone calls with her difficult mother.

Sounds pathetic?

Well, not to Eleanor.

She is very happy with this life of hers and looks down upon most activities humans indulge in as social beings. But when she saves an old man from dying, along with her bumbling colleague Raymond, she exposes her life to the subtle warmth of human connections, something she had always been deprived of. Despite facing painful experiences, Eleanor realizes that sometimes it’s not so bad to let your life take control of you and take you places.

For anyone who has a hard time dealing with the futile requirements of a strenuous social life, Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman acts as a cathartic cry on their behalf. Just like the title, we often believe ourselves to be completely fine when most of the times we aren’t. And with mental health issues coming to the foreground these days, I think more and more people need to read this book and realize how mental health can be so visible, yet conspicuous at the same time.

You may face a tough time opening your heart out to people and having faith in the goodness still left in the world after it has broken you again and again. But Eleanor’s journey inspires you in the weirdest ways imaginable and lends you the courage to fix your heart once again. It applauds the choices you make in life which make you who you are, but at the same time reminds you that even in your solitude, you’re not alone.