What do you think?
Rate this book
Eleanor
1985. The death of Eleanor's twin sister tears her family apart. Her father blames her mother for the accident. When Eleanor's mother looks at her, she sees only the daughter she lost. Their wounded family crumbles under the weight of their shared grief.
1993. Eleanor is fourteen years old when it happens for the first time... when she walks through an ordinary door at school and finds herself in another world. It happens again and again, but it's only a curiosity until that day at the cliffs. The day when Eleanor dives... and something rips her out of time itself.
And on the other side, someone is waiting for her.
1993. Eleanor is fourteen years old when it happens for the first time... when she walks through an ordinary door at school and finds herself in another world. It happens again and again, but it's only a curiosity until that day at the cliffs. The day when Eleanor dives... and something rips her out of time itself.
And on the other side, someone is waiting for her.
450 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 27, 2014
About the author
Jason Gurley
42 books413 followersJason Gurley is the author of Awake in the World (Roaring Brook, 2019) and Eleanor (Crown, 2016), and co-author of The Edge of Sleep (St. Martin's, 2023). His short fiction appears in the anthologies Loosed Upon the World (Saga, 2015) and Help Fund My Robot Army!!! (2014). He lives and writes in Scappoose, Oregon. More at www.jasongurley.com.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 670 reviews
October 2, 2018
Sometimes there are beautiful books that become famous and resonate in the hearts of millions.
“Most souls wait for a very long time. In the end, the peace they seek is usually within themselves, not within the confines of the world they left.”
Sometimes, there are undeserving books that become popular.
“This is how the darkness is. It knows nothing else. It fills crevices, pushing into the finest, narrowest corners, ascribing no meaning to the events that it carries, but birthing and then swallowing them again as they expire.”
But sometimes there are beautiful, ethereal books that deserve so much more love and deserve to be discovered by so many more people.
“Her mother will die, but it will not be because death has found her mother. It will be because her mother dared death to come visit.”
Eleanor is one of those books that never really took off as much as it have. I first discovered the book working at the bookstore - I was dusting a shelf when my eyes caught sight of a breathtaking hardcover that seemed to take me to a far off place before I even opened the first page.
This book begins at a coastal house. A melancholy woman named Eleanor sits in a reading corner her husband built for her to look at sea. She ignores her daughter, ignores her husband. She looks out on the sea on a stormy night and remembers herself in her prime - an excellent swimmer who would have made it to the Olympics had she not fallen pregnant.
“And it is miserable to think that this is what adulthood is like: two people, cowering behind their grief, lashing out at each other like injured animals.”
Every Sunday she goes out to swim in the ocean. One Sunday, when she discovers she is pregnant again, she swims into the ocean and never comes back.
“There are so many demons. Agnes tips the bottle back and her eyes flutter closed, and she swallows, and swallows again, and the burn of it tells her it will be okay, that everything will be just fine, because the burn is always followed by the dark, and the dark is followed by— Peace. Or something very much like it. She drinks, and eventually her grip loosens on the bottle, and she slips into that dark where Esmerelda, where Eleanor, where nobody else is permitted.”
I can't really emphasise how underrated this near modern classic is. It's an extraordinarily written piece of art with unforgettable world-building, characters and plots resulting in the creation of an almost new kind of urban fantasy genre.
“A well of beauty tucked away inside the girl, masked by drawn expressions and tired shoulders. She carries unseen weights.”
Courtesy of Jen's mini reviews.
“Most souls wait for a very long time. In the end, the peace they seek is usually within themselves, not within the confines of the world they left.”
Sometimes, there are undeserving books that become popular.
“This is how the darkness is. It knows nothing else. It fills crevices, pushing into the finest, narrowest corners, ascribing no meaning to the events that it carries, but birthing and then swallowing them again as they expire.”
But sometimes there are beautiful, ethereal books that deserve so much more love and deserve to be discovered by so many more people.
“Her mother will die, but it will not be because death has found her mother. It will be because her mother dared death to come visit.”
Eleanor is one of those books that never really took off as much as it have. I first discovered the book working at the bookstore - I was dusting a shelf when my eyes caught sight of a breathtaking hardcover that seemed to take me to a far off place before I even opened the first page.
This book begins at a coastal house. A melancholy woman named Eleanor sits in a reading corner her husband built for her to look at sea. She ignores her daughter, ignores her husband. She looks out on the sea on a stormy night and remembers herself in her prime - an excellent swimmer who would have made it to the Olympics had she not fallen pregnant.
“And it is miserable to think that this is what adulthood is like: two people, cowering behind their grief, lashing out at each other like injured animals.”
Every Sunday she goes out to swim in the ocean. One Sunday, when she discovers she is pregnant again, she swims into the ocean and never comes back.
“There are so many demons. Agnes tips the bottle back and her eyes flutter closed, and she swallows, and swallows again, and the burn of it tells her it will be okay, that everything will be just fine, because the burn is always followed by the dark, and the dark is followed by— Peace. Or something very much like it. She drinks, and eventually her grip loosens on the bottle, and she slips into that dark where Esmerelda, where Eleanor, where nobody else is permitted.”
I can't really emphasise how underrated this near modern classic is. It's an extraordinarily written piece of art with unforgettable world-building, characters and plots resulting in the creation of an almost new kind of urban fantasy genre.
“A well of beauty tucked away inside the girl, masked by drawn expressions and tired shoulders. She carries unseen weights.”
Courtesy of Jen's mini reviews.
February 17, 2016
MY BLOG: Melissa Martin's Reading List
This book started out so deep and sad. I could feel each person's depression and grief. It was real and it was hard.
The story goes goes through different times. The years jump ahead to each person in the family and it all comes back around in the end.
We start out with Eleanor, she has a husband named Hob and a little girl named Agnes. Eleanor fights depression and other things because she was swimming her way into the Olympics but she got pregnant and never got back to it. She swims in the ocean every day, no matter what. Hob goes a long with her to make sure she is okay. I love the way the author writes us into the world of what the person is thinking.
-->EXCERPT<---
She sits in the breakfast nook and watches the rain. It falls with purpose, as if it has a consciousness, as if it intends to eradicate the earth, layer by layer. The front lawn is hard to make out in the downpour, but Eleanor can already see that the topsoil has been churned into mud. Her flowers bend sideways, petals yanked off by the storm. By afternoon only the thorny rose stems will remain.
Eleanor finds out she is pregnant again and this takes her depression even lower. Then one day she disappears, the last she is seen.. is at the ocean.
Then we jump ahead a few years to where Agnes is a grown woman with a husband named Paul and twin little girls named Eleanor and Esmerelda.
The sad thing is, when the story is told through Agnes eyes she seems to have inherited some of her mother's mental illness. This gets even worse throughout the book because of the accident that takes Esmerelda's life. <---- that's not a spoiler, it's in the blurb.
The even sadder thing is, as low as Agnes sinks, nothing is worse then blaming your other daughter for the death of the other. :-(
Eleanor is now a teenager trying to take care of her mother, even though she doesn't appreciate it. Her father Paul left them, but he's still in Eleanor's life. He wants her to live with him but she won't leave her mom. Eleanor has a sweet aunt Gerry and a best friend Jack.
One day while Eleanor is at school, something strange happens to her.
--->EXCERPT<---
Back in the world, Jack sees her disappear. He drops his carton of milk, bewildered; it pumps like a vein, then dribbles onto the table.
She's just gone.
This is the beginning of a series of events where Eleanor starts going into these dream like places. This is where we all fall down the rabbit hole. This is where she meets the evil keeper, sweet Mea, another evil thing, and the ocean. This is where we find the rift in time.
The rest of the story is trying to figure out who everyone is and what is happening. Family members are now seeing Eleanor just disappearing, why is she doing this, where exactly is she going. I have to say it's pretty freaking cool. Once you find out all of the places, reasons, and what is going on, it's just a really awesome concept of a book, at least to me.
I was not going into this book expecting anything like this, it was a total surprise. I read the blurb, yes, but I just thought.. you know, I don't know what I thought but it wasn't this. Once you start crawling your way out of the rabbit hole and figuring things out, it's just amazing.
I loved the cover of this book as well, something about the closed eyes with tears coming down and the water below, it all just goes with the whole book.
Reset
*I would like to thank Blogging for Books for a free print copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.*
This book started out so deep and sad. I could feel each person's depression and grief. It was real and it was hard.
The story goes goes through different times. The years jump ahead to each person in the family and it all comes back around in the end.
We start out with Eleanor, she has a husband named Hob and a little girl named Agnes. Eleanor fights depression and other things because she was swimming her way into the Olympics but she got pregnant and never got back to it. She swims in the ocean every day, no matter what. Hob goes a long with her to make sure she is okay. I love the way the author writes us into the world of what the person is thinking.
-->EXCERPT<---
She sits in the breakfast nook and watches the rain. It falls with purpose, as if it has a consciousness, as if it intends to eradicate the earth, layer by layer. The front lawn is hard to make out in the downpour, but Eleanor can already see that the topsoil has been churned into mud. Her flowers bend sideways, petals yanked off by the storm. By afternoon only the thorny rose stems will remain.
Eleanor finds out she is pregnant again and this takes her depression even lower. Then one day she disappears, the last she is seen.. is at the ocean.
Then we jump ahead a few years to where Agnes is a grown woman with a husband named Paul and twin little girls named Eleanor and Esmerelda.
The sad thing is, when the story is told through Agnes eyes she seems to have inherited some of her mother's mental illness. This gets even worse throughout the book because of the accident that takes Esmerelda's life. <---- that's not a spoiler, it's in the blurb.
The even sadder thing is, as low as Agnes sinks, nothing is worse then blaming your other daughter for the death of the other. :-(
Eleanor is now a teenager trying to take care of her mother, even though she doesn't appreciate it. Her father Paul left them, but he's still in Eleanor's life. He wants her to live with him but she won't leave her mom. Eleanor has a sweet aunt Gerry and a best friend Jack.
One day while Eleanor is at school, something strange happens to her.
--->EXCERPT<---
Back in the world, Jack sees her disappear. He drops his carton of milk, bewildered; it pumps like a vein, then dribbles onto the table.
She's just gone.
This is the beginning of a series of events where Eleanor starts going into these dream like places. This is where we all fall down the rabbit hole. This is where she meets the evil keeper, sweet Mea, another evil thing, and the ocean. This is where we find the rift in time.
The rest of the story is trying to figure out who everyone is and what is happening. Family members are now seeing Eleanor just disappearing, why is she doing this, where exactly is she going. I have to say it's pretty freaking cool. Once you find out all of the places, reasons, and what is going on, it's just a really awesome concept of a book, at least to me.
I was not going into this book expecting anything like this, it was a total surprise. I read the blurb, yes, but I just thought.. you know, I don't know what I thought but it wasn't this. Once you start crawling your way out of the rabbit hole and figuring things out, it's just amazing.
I loved the cover of this book as well, something about the closed eyes with tears coming down and the water below, it all just goes with the whole book.
Reset
*I would like to thank Blogging for Books for a free print copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.*
October 13, 2018
Simply, stunningly magical!
You know how some writers can just take you immediately into their stories, writing so descriptively that you are almost magically transported and immersed in their world? How some writers can create characters so strong and with such depth that you feel as though they simply must exist in the real world? Jason Gurley is one of those kinds of authors. This is the second book of his I've read and I'm just amazed by the way he writes, the level of clarity and depth, the way he describes scenes and characters and their emotions.
Eleanor centers around a young girl who, after the tragic death of her twin sister, the alienation of her father, and the partial loss of her mother to alcohol, finds herself suddenly and confusingly disappearing from this world and entering into others. With some writers this could be a bit confusing, the way we are shifting from this world, to a dream world, to another dimension where time flows back and forth, and yet the way Gurley writes, it is not confusing at all. He flawlessly melds these worlds and Eleanor's transitions through them, creating a story that is both deep and symbolic, not to mention utterly magical. It is not just Eleanor's story though, but the story of her parents, her grandmother who disappeared into the ocean long ago, her dead twin. In the dream world we meet the Keeper. In the other dimension we meet Mea and Efeh. All these characters and places swirl around and around, until finally, beautifully and perfectly, they merge. It is difficult to write much about the plot without giving away anything so I will not say anymore of it. I give it 4.5 stars, knocking off a half point because at times I felt there was a little too much description; however! -- this might only be that I've been anxious and had I read it any other time, I would have relished it all. I don't want to say it was too much if it was only my mood sometimes making it seem a little slow-moving.
If you enjoy novels with a twist and those leaning toward the fantastical, or if you just enjoy good books with strong characters written by amazing writers, you should read Eleanor.
"Imagine that time is a river, and you are a bird. A bird is not bound to follow the river."
March 3, 2016
The fantastical elements of this novel don't really start until around page 80, but really they are what make it special. Up until then, it was more of a novel of a family and the loss of a child, something I felt I had read, but then it morphs and shifts into a much more engaging story of the afterlife and twin connections, grief and healing, and the power of dreams.
The writing of these other worlds, other presences, is descriptive and beautiful. The real world is logically sad and difficult for Eleanor.
Set in the dreary northwest, specifically the Oregon coast, I was surprised at the amount of ocean swimming the characters did. I grew up in Oregon an hour from the ocean and we were told NEVER to swim in it, the dangerous rip tides/currents being ever-present. Also the water is freezing cold all of the time. So I kept being pulled out of the novel to wonder if there are people out there swimming along the Oregon coast - but surely they aren't rowing out from the shore - the waves are pretty dramatic. The author lives in Oregon now; what does he know that I do not? I just can't reconcile it. Surely the coast is not so different from 15 years ago. This is just a little complaint from a longtime Oregonian.
This is the novel that The Lovely Bones wished it was. Not exactly the same premise but the story as a whole seems better connected and more realistic despite the fantastical elements.
I was provided this book through Blogging for Books, who got it from the publisher. As such the review will end up on my blog as well, but possibly in a more fleshed-out form, once I get my act together.
The writing of these other worlds, other presences, is descriptive and beautiful. The real world is logically sad and difficult for Eleanor.
Set in the dreary northwest, specifically the Oregon coast, I was surprised at the amount of ocean swimming the characters did. I grew up in Oregon an hour from the ocean and we were told NEVER to swim in it, the dangerous rip tides/currents being ever-present. Also the water is freezing cold all of the time. So I kept being pulled out of the novel to wonder if there are people out there swimming along the Oregon coast - but surely they aren't rowing out from the shore - the waves are pretty dramatic. The author lives in Oregon now; what does he know that I do not? I just can't reconcile it. Surely the coast is not so different from 15 years ago. This is just a little complaint from a longtime Oregonian.
This is the novel that The Lovely Bones wished it was. Not exactly the same premise but the story as a whole seems better connected and more realistic despite the fantastical elements.
I was provided this book through Blogging for Books, who got it from the publisher. As such the review will end up on my blog as well, but possibly in a more fleshed-out form, once I get my act together.
February 2, 2016
I have had a very contentious relationship with this book over the past two days. One minute I loved it and the next minute I wanted to throw it across the room. Love, throw, repeat.
I found the characterization to be superb and that is a very important element to me. Gurley managed to put me right there inside Eleanor's heart and mind. She’s brave and strong and living a life that no child should ever have to, and at the same time she’s this vulnerable young girl at the mercy of something far beyond her understanding.
I think this book was intended be about healing and starting over and family coming together and all those lovely ideas. For me it just… missed the mark. I had a real problem with the fantastical nature of it all. At some point in the second half of the book it takes over the story almost completely. I’ve read and enjoyed other fantasy fiction but this just didn’t come together for me and I still don’t quite “get it.” Maybe it’s my need to categorize and pinpoint causes for each event that prevented me from going with the flow. I’d venture to say that a lot of readers won’t have this problem and will enjoy the book immensely.
All in all, a mostly enjoyable and pretty heartrending read with a good dose of redemption just when I needed it. I can’t say I loved it but I can say that I was unable to put it down for very long.
I found the characterization to be superb and that is a very important element to me. Gurley managed to put me right there inside Eleanor's heart and mind. She’s brave and strong and living a life that no child should ever have to, and at the same time she’s this vulnerable young girl at the mercy of something far beyond her understanding.
I think this book was intended be about healing and starting over and family coming together and all those lovely ideas. For me it just… missed the mark. I had a real problem with the fantastical nature of it all. At some point in the second half of the book it takes over the story almost completely. I’ve read and enjoyed other fantasy fiction but this just didn’t come together for me and I still don’t quite “get it.” Maybe it’s my need to categorize and pinpoint causes for each event that prevented me from going with the flow. I’d venture to say that a lot of readers won’t have this problem and will enjoy the book immensely.
All in all, a mostly enjoyable and pretty heartrending read with a good dose of redemption just when I needed it. I can’t say I loved it but I can say that I was unable to put it down for very long.
April 29, 2015
Easily among the best books I'll read this year, if not #1. This is one of those books that will stick with me for a long time to come, and it'll be difficult to move on to something else.
This is the story of a young lady, Eleanor, that lived through the tragedy of the death of her twin several years earlier, her parents' reactions and how they fell into their own worlds of mourning and loss, and the impact it has on Eleanor. A magical story of loss, recovery, and ultimately, love regained.
Highly recommended!
This is the story of a young lady, Eleanor, that lived through the tragedy of the death of her twin several years earlier, her parents' reactions and how they fell into their own worlds of mourning and loss, and the impact it has on Eleanor. A magical story of loss, recovery, and ultimately, love regained.
Highly recommended!
November 24, 2021
This review can also be found at https://carolesrandomlife.com/
I thought that this book was really well done. It was an emotional read that broke my heart more than once. I felt so much for Eleanor and her family and believe that nobody should have to go through the things that they do in this story. I really liked the way that this book dealt with pain, grief, depression and didn’t shy away from showing the ugly side of these emotions. I found this to be a very touching story.
The book opens with Eleanor. Eleanor is married to a man that she loves and has a little girl. She doesn’t seem completely happy though but she finds that it helps to swim so she takes to the ocean on a daily basis. Eleanor’s little girl, Agnes, grows up to be the mother of twin girls named Eleanor and Esmerelda. On the way to pick up the girls’ father, the family gets into a terrible wreck and Esmerelda doesn’t survive. Eleanor’s mother deals with the loss with a bottle and essentially stops mothering her remaining child. Her father ends up leaving when the marriage falls apart but remains an active part of Eleanor’s life.
I liked the way that magical realism is worked into the story. Eleanor is thrust into these alternate and sometimes dream worlds where time moves very differently. She had no control of where or went she is pulled into these alternate dimensions and she struggles with how to explain everything to those in her life. The characters we meet in the alternate dimension do play an important role and I liked how everything came together in the end.
Cassandra Campbell does a wonderful job with the narration of this novel. I liked all of the different voices that she used for the characters in this story. I thought that she added a lot of emotion into her reading and was able to take this book to the next level. I believe that her narration added to my overall enjoyment of the book.
I would recommend this book to others. I found this to be a very well-written novel that deals with some horrible situations. I wouldn’t hesitate to read more of this author’s work in the future.
I received a digital review copy of this book from Crown Publishing via NetGalley and purchased a copy of the audiobook.
I thought that this book was really well done. It was an emotional read that broke my heart more than once. I felt so much for Eleanor and her family and believe that nobody should have to go through the things that they do in this story. I really liked the way that this book dealt with pain, grief, depression and didn’t shy away from showing the ugly side of these emotions. I found this to be a very touching story.
The book opens with Eleanor. Eleanor is married to a man that she loves and has a little girl. She doesn’t seem completely happy though but she finds that it helps to swim so she takes to the ocean on a daily basis. Eleanor’s little girl, Agnes, grows up to be the mother of twin girls named Eleanor and Esmerelda. On the way to pick up the girls’ father, the family gets into a terrible wreck and Esmerelda doesn’t survive. Eleanor’s mother deals with the loss with a bottle and essentially stops mothering her remaining child. Her father ends up leaving when the marriage falls apart but remains an active part of Eleanor’s life.
I liked the way that magical realism is worked into the story. Eleanor is thrust into these alternate and sometimes dream worlds where time moves very differently. She had no control of where or went she is pulled into these alternate dimensions and she struggles with how to explain everything to those in her life. The characters we meet in the alternate dimension do play an important role and I liked how everything came together in the end.
Cassandra Campbell does a wonderful job with the narration of this novel. I liked all of the different voices that she used for the characters in this story. I thought that she added a lot of emotion into her reading and was able to take this book to the next level. I believe that her narration added to my overall enjoyment of the book.
I would recommend this book to others. I found this to be a very well-written novel that deals with some horrible situations. I wouldn’t hesitate to read more of this author’s work in the future.
I received a digital review copy of this book from Crown Publishing via NetGalley and purchased a copy of the audiobook.
February 18, 2017
“Shortness of breath?” the doctor had asked her. “Muscle tension? Mental distraction?”
She looked down at her hands and nodded. Yes, to each of those things. Hearing them described so simply should have robbed them of their power, she thought; they were only words. But instead, she felt as if she should defend them. No, she would say. It’s so much more. They’re so much bigger than just those words.
Eleanor is the story of two women with the same name, related but a generation apart.
Eleanor, the first, is a young wife and mother of one, and she’s just found out she’s pregnant.
Pregnant.She’s not happy, she feels anxious, unsettled, trapped, and she longs for the open water.
Again.
Sometimes Eleanor swore her life was being written by someone else’s hand. Certainly it wasn’t Eleanor’s. Maybe Hob’s. Maybe Agnes’s, even – she’d asked not six weeks earlier for a little brother or sister.
“And we can call her Patricia,” Agnes had pronounced. “Or Patrick!”
She’s grateful that preparations for the new baby seem to have distracted Hob and Agnes. She worries that those terrible, guilty thoughts are readable on her face. Her attacks come all the time now, but she finds quiet, dark places – such as the closet floor, behind Hob’s hanging shirts and sweaters – and cries there, where nobody can see her.Then, one day she goes for a swim in the ocean and doesn’t come back.
The rest of this review can be found HERE!
_______________________________________________
After reading:
Review to come, when I can piece my thoughts together.
More speculative than I was expecting, but probably not speculative enough for big spec-fic readers.
Very much a literary spec-fic story.
Beautifully written, well rounded in terms of story, but some questions left unanswered.
March 21, 2016
This was such a wonderful novel, mystical and heart-wrenching - a really pleasant surprise.
This story is told through the eyes of three generations of women. Firstly we see Eleanor as she struggles with married life and the knowledge of another child on the way. We then skip ahead in time to Agnes, the daughter of Eleanor as she fights depression with alcohol after the death of one of her own children. And lastly we follow Agnes's remaining daughter (also named Eleanor) as she tries to live without her sister and the knowledge that her mother is slowly drinking herself to death. The main bulk of this novel is told from the perspective of young Eleanor, she is somehow skipping from reality into the dreams of her family members - how is this happening? Who is controlling her life and what does she have to do to fix everything?
The pacing of this book was fantastic, I found the short chapters and engaging plot line really dragged me in to the magic of this novel. I don't know if I can even fully express the wonder of what is held in these pages - I would recommend that if you have any interest you should definitely pick it up!
I know I shall definitely be seeking out some more work from Jason Gurley as I really connected with his beautiful writing style. Recommendations welcome!
This story is told through the eyes of three generations of women. Firstly we see Eleanor as she struggles with married life and the knowledge of another child on the way. We then skip ahead in time to Agnes, the daughter of Eleanor as she fights depression with alcohol after the death of one of her own children. And lastly we follow Agnes's remaining daughter (also named Eleanor) as she tries to live without her sister and the knowledge that her mother is slowly drinking herself to death. The main bulk of this novel is told from the perspective of young Eleanor, she is somehow skipping from reality into the dreams of her family members - how is this happening? Who is controlling her life and what does she have to do to fix everything?
The pacing of this book was fantastic, I found the short chapters and engaging plot line really dragged me in to the magic of this novel. I don't know if I can even fully express the wonder of what is held in these pages - I would recommend that if you have any interest you should definitely pick it up!
I know I shall definitely be seeking out some more work from Jason Gurley as I really connected with his beautiful writing style. Recommendations welcome!
November 12, 2016
Love the cover!
No spoilers here....This book starts out sad and emotional after terrible tragedies befall the family. Then it starts to get a little confusing as not all of the information you need to know is revealed right away. As the story progresses, it does unfold through the main characters and jumps back and forth in time.
This novel is not particularly gripping but surreal, complex and well written. It is like nothing I've ever read but did remind me a bit of the movie What Dreams May Come. If you are looking to read something that is interesting and quite different, I highly recommend this one. Great job Jason Gurly!
No spoilers here....This book starts out sad and emotional after terrible tragedies befall the family. Then it starts to get a little confusing as not all of the information you need to know is revealed right away. As the story progresses, it does unfold through the main characters and jumps back and forth in time.
This novel is not particularly gripping but surreal, complex and well written. It is like nothing I've ever read but did remind me a bit of the movie What Dreams May Come. If you are looking to read something that is interesting and quite different, I highly recommend this one. Great job Jason Gurly!
August 20, 2014
Eleanor is a tough book to rate on a star level. The writing is eloquent and emotionally staggering. His world is profoundly imaginative and the scope of the story quite impressive to see unfold. The story begins with a wife and mother who is depressed about how her dream of becoming an Olympic swimmer had to die when she became a mother. This struggle between personal dreams and family hit me personally, and is one of many instances where I applaud Mr. Gurley for his ability to evoke emotional investment and reaction through his characters.
A lot happens in this book which should not be spoiled in a review. However, it's hard to reflect on my experience without mentioning that I had to put the book down for a bit. Part of that was some really depressing events. Bad things should happen to your characters in order to create investment and tension, but these were hard to read through and made me question if I wanted to pick up a book that made me so sad. I kept going, but as the book blends into magical realism, I didn't have enough of an idea or excitement for where the story was going. Around p260 though, the story really picked up and I read the rest in a couple days. Again, without spoiling the end, I'll just say I left this experience very impressed with Mr. Gurley's ability to craft a story. He has an incredible imagination, his characters are profound, and his writing puts him in the upper tier of storytellers.
A lot happens in this book which should not be spoiled in a review. However, it's hard to reflect on my experience without mentioning that I had to put the book down for a bit. Part of that was some really depressing events. Bad things should happen to your characters in order to create investment and tension, but these were hard to read through and made me question if I wanted to pick up a book that made me so sad. I kept going, but as the book blends into magical realism, I didn't have enough of an idea or excitement for where the story was going. Around p260 though, the story really picked up and I read the rest in a couple days. Again, without spoiling the end, I'll just say I left this experience very impressed with Mr. Gurley's ability to craft a story. He has an incredible imagination, his characters are profound, and his writing puts him in the upper tier of storytellers.
October 2, 2018
Actual Rating: 3.75/5
This book is really hard to rate because it had beautiful imagery and writing but the plot was kind of bizarre and hard to follow sometimes. All I knew about this book going into it was that it was about grief. It started off like a normal contemporary fiction book but quickly had a genre twist and became a sort of sci-fi/fantasy literary fiction mix. I don’t know how much I like the mixing of these genres in this book, but I liked the concept.
This book is really hard to rate because it had beautiful imagery and writing but the plot was kind of bizarre and hard to follow sometimes. All I knew about this book going into it was that it was about grief. It started off like a normal contemporary fiction book but quickly had a genre twist and became a sort of sci-fi/fantasy literary fiction mix. I don’t know how much I like the mixing of these genres in this book, but I liked the concept.
January 1, 2016
This is a really well thought-out and fascinating literary novel touching on complex subjects including, but not limited to, post-traumatic stress syndrome, depression, alcoholism, and grief. It's a story you'll think about for days after you finish with an ending that can be interpreted in many different ways.
February 7, 2016
Adored this. I'm due to review for the blog tour so will copy that here then. But this was wonderful. Different and wonderful.
March 21, 2016
Jason Gurley's writing is excellent, but this book only halfway worked for me. I loved the parts about Eleanor and her family's history, and all the ways that their individual suffering intertwined and manifested throughout the generations. Unfortunately, too much of the book instead focused on the Rift and the dream worlds, which I found tedious. While the details of the alternate worlds clicked into predictable place near the end, nearly four hundred pages is much too long to spend dragging through them with no explanation. The characters are in the dark, the reader is in the dark, and while it's interesting enough, it all moves too slowly to be truly compelling. I felt like the realness of the characters wasn't reflected in the alternate worlds Gurley created. The worlds were beautifully described, but those passages felt shallow, vague, repetitive, and unnecessarily long. Add what I consider a cop-out ending, and on the whole the good parts of this novel didn't outweigh the bad.
February 4, 2017
I liked the first 70 or so pages of this story of grief suffered by three successive generations of a family. The grief was well-written, and it was easy to see how decisions made in one generation could affect the following generations.
Then the author brought in the fantastical elements, and I was okay with that, even enjoyed them at first. But by page 180 all I could think was, I get the point! I understand part of the puzzle of the fantastic stuff!
The story moves back and forth between characters, and occasionally through time periods in the real world, while also alternating between the real world and the fantasy elements. The real world elements I liked far more than the fantastical. The author showed how Eleanor the grandmother's disappearance deeply affected Agnes, her daughter, who, in turn, is devastated upon the death of one of her twin daughters, Esmerelda. The author made it clear how decisions can have long term effects, causing damage and anger and and loneliness and further grief.
It was the fantasy aspects of the story that actually had me impatient. I started skimming the story from page 200 onwards, reading very little of the fantasy sections, preferring to read how granddaughter Eleanor (named for her disappeared grandmother) was coping with the breakdown of her family. I actually think the author could have chopped 100 pages or so from the narrative and still told a compelling family story with fantastical elements.
Then the author brought in the fantastical elements, and I was okay with that, even enjoyed them at first. But by page 180 all I could think was, I get the point! I understand part of the puzzle of the fantastic stuff!
The story moves back and forth between characters, and occasionally through time periods in the real world, while also alternating between the real world and the fantasy elements. The real world elements I liked far more than the fantastical. The author showed how Eleanor the grandmother's disappearance deeply affected Agnes, her daughter, who, in turn, is devastated upon the death of one of her twin daughters, Esmerelda. The author made it clear how decisions can have long term effects, causing damage and anger and and loneliness and further grief.
It was the fantasy aspects of the story that actually had me impatient. I started skimming the story from page 200 onwards, reading very little of the fantasy sections, preferring to read how granddaughter Eleanor (named for her disappeared grandmother) was coping with the breakdown of her family. I actually think the author could have chopped 100 pages or so from the narrative and still told a compelling family story with fantastical elements.
August 24, 2014
I liked the premises (of course. It's my name, I had a twin in utero, my family's pretty messed up... etc), but meh
Very bleak setting, bickering, PTSD, absence of any kind of thought on oneself, life, family... Absence of joy, caring, love. Ok.
Then it gets worse. The accident scene is foreshadowed to an inch of its life.
Then a kid who buys way too much into Karpman's triangle (victim, savior, persecutor scenario) punishes one parent while masochistically supporting the other one who symbolically and repeatedly attempts to kill her. Everyone wallows, and a great number of people die before their time. She gets sucked into alternative reality portals by a strange presence (wonder who that could be?) and ends up in the hospital over and over. And over. And over. So the kid getting pummeled to death emotionally, physically, psychically - all because an ancestor decided to swim into the sea rather than be stuck in a family life she wasn't prepared for.
But all can be made well, following a few bizarre rules, so the foremother un-kills herself. Kiss it, make it pretty with a bow on top.
Meh.
Way too much suffering, for all the wrong reasons. Have a kid, though, you'll feel better (eye-roll and groans)
Very bleak setting, bickering, PTSD, absence of any kind of thought on oneself, life, family... Absence of joy, caring, love. Ok.
Then it gets worse. The accident scene is foreshadowed to an inch of its life.
Then a kid who buys way too much into Karpman's triangle (victim, savior, persecutor scenario) punishes one parent while masochistically supporting the other one who symbolically and repeatedly attempts to kill her. Everyone wallows, and a great number of people die before their time. She gets sucked into alternative reality portals by a strange presence (wonder who that could be?) and ends up in the hospital over and over. And over. And over. So the kid getting pummeled to death emotionally, physically, psychically - all because an ancestor decided to swim into the sea rather than be stuck in a family life she wasn't prepared for.
But all can be made well, following a few bizarre rules, so the foremother un-kills herself. Kiss it, make it pretty with a bow on top.
Meh.
Way too much suffering, for all the wrong reasons. Have a kid, though, you'll feel better (eye-roll and groans)
April 6, 2016
I'm going to have a nearly impossible time reviewing this one. This book defies genre to give a heartbreaking look at the effects of grief through generations. The writing was beautiful - able to be both ethereal and harsh. It's definitely one I'll continue to think about for some time after finishing.
February 23, 2016
Time is a river, and it flows in a circle.
A beautifully written and heartbreaking novel about a family ripped apart by grief. It also deals with the complicated relationships between mothers and daughters. I enjoyed many parts of this story, but by the end, this magical realism tale got a little too fantastic for me.
Esmerelda’s death split their family as finely as an atom, and the resulting detonation blinded them all.
1985: Six-year-old Eleanor's family is destroyed when her twin sister Esmerelda dies in a tragic car accident. Eleanor is forced to grow up quickly and bear the burden of her parents' grief. Her father leaves the family home and she is left to take care of her alcoholic mother who can't bear to look at her. When Eleanor is 14, she begins disappearing from the world and reappearing in places she does not recognize. While she is away, hours, days, and sometimes even years pass. One day Eleanor dives off a cliff and discovers that someone from another realm has been desperate to make contact with her.
(Mea) She is a witness to history, in a sense, observing the membrane’s captured memories like films trapped in amber. Mea has watched so many of these memories that she has ceased to think of them as real events that once occurred in some other realm. A bird who falls from its nest and starves while its mother stares down at it; a planet that forms from the dust of a long-dead star and flowers in the deepest, quietest night, then one day withers away, unnoticed by the universe; a mountain that grows out of deep seismic unrest and rises powerfully into a violet sky and is then immobilized by ice. Each of them beautiful and tragic, each of them far removed from Mea’s home in the darkness.
Eleanor is shelved in the adult section of my library, but I think it would appeal to young adult readers as well. This story has many fantasy elements, including time manipulation and multiple dimensions. We spend some time in the real world, but we also visit mysterious places. Gurley's evocative prose fully transports you to these strange lands that aren't constrained by the conventional rules of Earth. Atmospherically, it reminded me of Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane. It also made me think of The Love that Split the World, What Dreams May Come, the bookshelf scene in Interstellar and Inception. I originally thought that the fantasy elements were going to be a psychological manifestation of grief, but they are major plot elements.
(Eleanor) She’s too old for these sorts of excursions with her father…one—but Eleanor doesn’t care too much. She knows why she craves these moments. She was robbed of a true childhood, and now, as a teenager, she leaps at every opportunity to regress, even a little. She is her own psychiatrist.
The story alternates between several perspectives. There are actually two Eleanors in this novel. It begins in 1962 with the first Eleanor, Agnes's mother and the main Eleanor's grandmother. She is depressed and is wistful for her life before she became a wife and mother. The bulk of book centers around her granddaughter and namesake. Young Eleanor desperately misses her sister and longs for someone to comfort her. Her parents inability to deal with their grief has caused her to grow up too fast. Agnes is Eleanor's mother. When we first meet her, she is overwhelmed with motherhood. After Esmerelda's death, grief consumes her. Paul is Eleanor's father. He was closer with Eleanor than Esmerelda and he carries some guilt for that and for the circumstances surrounding Esmerelda's death. Mea is a mysterious, formless being who becomes fixated on Eleanor. The Keeper lives alone in a desolate valley. She occasionally sees two strange beasts migrating through her territory. The Keeper's chapters seem the most removed from Eleanor's world, but they tie in eventually.
(Agnes) All isn’t lost; I still have Eleanor—but thinking of Eleanor means seeing Eleanor’s smiling green eyes, paired so cleanly with her red hair…and then she can only see Esmerelda’s hair, shreds of it caught in the broken windshield, blood streaked on metal and vinyl, the smell of exhaust and burned rubber, the coppery charge of blood. In these moments, Eleanor becomes a monster.
The novel takes place in Oregon and the author builds the setting well. There is a lot of stormy Northwestern weather. The pages are practically drenched and the images in my mind had a gray tint to them. Gurley also builds a strong sense of dread in the beginning. You know what is coming and you can see all the little actions that contributed to it, but you are powerless to stop it. There are so many moving scenes in this book. One of the most poignant moments was when Eleanor and her father stumble upon a video of Esmerelda performing.
(The Keeper) This forest has burned and regrown twice since the keeper has lived in the valley. The earth here has never forgotten its pain. It cradles the heat of its own death, always just beneath the surface, as though releasing the memory would be to forget it forever, to risk succumbing again. But forests burn. They always return. The keeper’s valley is an open wound, doomed to scratch itself until it bleeds and bleeds.
The first three-fifths of the book feel slow because Eleanor is a passive participant and there is no hint of what is going on, so it begins to feel repetitive. The beautiful writing and imagery kept me interested enough to continue reading. During the last 40%, the pace really picks up and you start to get a few answers. Fantasy does require some suspension of disbelief and I was really enjoying traveling between the different worlds and Mea's desperation to connect with Eleanor. I was willing to accept the unexplained specialness that allowed Eleanor travel to curious places. However, once a fourth character is introduced into the rift, I was completely lost. I could follow the story, but I had no clue why anything was happening or why this new character was so self-assured and powerful. Also: Eleanor's story was really tragic and I could accept that she had a best friend that experienced similar issues, but the aunt's story tipped it over the edge into "too much" territory.
(Eleanor) For a moment, Eleanor resents her mother, but this is nothing new. There have been many such moments during the past seven years. There will be many more. This is what it is like when a child must raise herself and her parent.
I think the end was supposed to feel hopeful, but it didn't feel that way to me.
(Eleanor) And it is miserable to think that this is what adulthood is like: two people, cowering behind their grief, lashing out at each other like injured animals.
It was beautifully written and I LOVE the imaginative settings, but it required more blind acceptance of unexplained phenomena than I had to give.
(If you are interested in the "time is a circle" concept, I can recommend the movie Predestination with Ethan Hawke. It hurt my head in a good way! Also Life After Life by Kate Atkinson. It can get tedious, but I talk about it ALL THE TIME.)
Note: Eleanor means "bright, shining one" and Efah means "darkness."
May 5, 2016
FULL REVIEW ON MY BLOG, TOTAL INABILITY TO CONNECT
Authors get asked to do a lot of blurbs, especially once they're on bigger publishers. However, some authors give blurbs that I take very seriously, especially if they follow up by repeatedly praising a book - Hugh Howey is one of those guys for me, and he has bestowed the quality of Jason Gurley's work for some time. While I am very crappy at it, I do my best to support local guys as well, and Gurley is a Portland guy like myself, and I have had him on my to-read for a while. On my to-read, but not actually read, and I was never quite sure why, other than I just didn't quite get to it. With a to-read list like mine, and a slow reading schedule, the best way to get read by me is to be available on audio, and Gurley finally was as of a couple months ago - rejoice!
Eleanor is what I've noticed recently called "magical realism" - a story in an otherwise normal, (usually) modern earth, but with some magical elements. Seemingly differentiated from 'urban fantasy' by the focus - less on first person magical character, more on mundane people with magical abilities, or in a slightly-magical world. I've read a lot in this "genre" of late - This Census-Taker by China Mieville, and A Darker Shade of Magic by VE Schwab being the most obvious. However, Eleanor trumps those - and how.
Eleanor begins as the tale of a young mother, a depressed mother of young Agnes, who has watch her dreams fail due to her family/relationship choices, and lives in a constant state of resentment. Until, one day, she disappears. The story then switches to that of Agnes and her two twin daughters, one of whom named after aforementioned young mother, Eleanor. Another depressed mother, living in resentment, until a tragic accident takes the life of one of her daughters. We then shift into the main POV character, that of the remaining daughter of Agnes, Eleanor.
We watch as Eleanor 2.0 copes with her father, Paul, having left Agnes and Eleanor, largely caused by Agnes' spiral into nothingness, drinking her life away and doing little else other than lashing out at those around her, and feeling sorry for herself. Meanwhile, her young and emotionally damaged daughter is forced to single-handedly care for herself, while coping with harsh migraines and mental distress, as well as the lack of real parenting. However, one day, Eleanor is at school, and as she enters a doorway, she feels an electric crackling sensation, and is suddenly no longer in her school, but rather an entire place entirely.
We follow Eleanor as she, as well as her best friend Jack, her father, her mother, and her aunt, try to figure out why Eleanor suddenly disappears, reappearing (sometimes forcefully) in different places, over varying time delays. We also explore the people behind these disappearances, their motivations, their struggles, and eventually, their identity. It is hard to describe much more without giving away spoilers, at least without giving away more spoilers than I already have.
I am not quite sure what I expected going into Eleanor - I had honestly heard very little about the novel, aside from "it's really good". I wasn't aware of the setting or characters, and I certainly was not prepared for what it was: a gut-wrenching, tear-jerking story of a family in peril, numerous tragedies, and a young girl forced to cope with all of this without much help from around her, aside from essentially one single person.
However, this, as well as almost every other aspect of the novel, is brilliantly and skillfully handled by Gurley. Eleanor feels as close to a real, tangible girl in her age bracket as I could possibly imagine, especially being written by someone who was not a preteen girl (I assume?). Considering the number of tragic events, the family trauma, the degeneration mentally of many characters, it was integral to the success of this novel for this grief to be written well, to have the characters address situations in a manner that is both realistic, but also does not limit the story progress. Thankfully, Jason handles these situations brilliantly, and I frequently found myself feeling as though I'd been punched, sympathizing with the characters, rooting for them, grieving their losses, feeling their pains.
The novel builds and builds as it goes - it begins so bleak, so harsh, and so shockingly. You're introduced to characters, before they change drastically, or go away altogether. This is a book of loss, of handling loss, of addressing adversity. Everyone in the novel seems to go through serious and terrible events, and everyone is forced to cope, to manage their grief, to either move on and try to live, or spiral in self-destruction. Everyone handles things differently, everyone feels their pain differently. It was as close to perfect as I think I've read in that aspect - unique characters handle situations in unique and suitable ways.
Eleanor's growth is brilliant as well - her changes from being a young girl, to an overly-mature-for-her-age teenager, to a constantly traumatized adult who had no time to adapt to the years of her life she'd lost due to her 'blips' (for lack of a spoiler-free way of putting it). No change is as drastic as hers, but the other characters all evolve, all adapt to their situations in varying ways. This is the biggest strong point of the book to me, as my immersion was kept at a consistent level because the characters always felt realistic, and visceral, and engaging.
The creativity of the book varies, but I am not looking for groundbreaking changes all the time - I'm looking for great writing, great characters, and enough unique aspects to keep me interested. There's a portal aspect to this story, as well as a certain level of magical beings and/or powers, or at least unexplainable powers. I thought the escalation of the side-storyline was terrific, as we were led closer and closer to the climax and conclusion, as Eleanor figured out what was happening, explored it, and completed what she needed to.
My biggest complaint about the book was the odd gender discrepancy. I am one of the last people to complain about this kind of thing in books (really), but I could not help but notice in the novel that the male characters are, largely, featuring only minor flaws. Jack is a borderline Gary Stu - he is the best friend a person could have, always forgiving and protecting Eleanor, being there for her at all times, altruistic in his actions and feelings, and despite being head over heels in love with Eleanor, he is patient with her even when she disappears. Paul, while struggling with losing a daughter and not getting much out of Eleanor, does his best, doesn't do anything outwardly negative, and swoops back in to care for Agnes later in the book.
Meanwhile, basically all of the female characters are heavily broken in one way or another. The original Eleanor is self-centered, whiny, and apathetic, essentially caring for her feelings only, caring about how upset she is, how the things that happen to her and the events in her life are unfair, until she throws it all voluntarily away, leaving everyone else behind to deal with things. Agnes herself takes up her mother's footsteps, having a major anger problem, reacting aggressively to Paul's business trips and work schedule, harboring animosity towards almost everyone, including, eventually, her own daughter, going as far as to blame her for her sister's death, when it was clearly Agnes' fault. Even our Eleanor is flawed, not only having massive headaches and health issues, but frequently snapping out at people, and while she was more perfect than any of the other females, she still had huge issues.
Again, I normally would not even notice a thing like this, but the fact I did means it was a bit of a glaring dichotomy. Maybe there was an intent there by Gurley that I missed, some message or metaphor, but if there was, I missed it, and it just felt like the females were all inherently largely flawed, while the males were much less so. Despite that, it did not really distract me from the story much, and I felt the female characters were well written, including their flaws.
Overall, I was blown away by the book. I invested emotionally into it significantly more than I have with almost any recent novel I can think of. I felt for the characters, I was anxious for them, and I was hooked - always wanting to know what happened next, how things would turn out. I blasted through the book in only a few days, and I just couldn't get enough of it. If this is the kind of quality I can expect from Jason Gurley, then I absolutely agree with Hugh Howey's assessment - he's excellent.
Rating: 4.5 / 5
Authors get asked to do a lot of blurbs, especially once they're on bigger publishers. However, some authors give blurbs that I take very seriously, especially if they follow up by repeatedly praising a book - Hugh Howey is one of those guys for me, and he has bestowed the quality of Jason Gurley's work for some time. While I am very crappy at it, I do my best to support local guys as well, and Gurley is a Portland guy like myself, and I have had him on my to-read for a while. On my to-read, but not actually read, and I was never quite sure why, other than I just didn't quite get to it. With a to-read list like mine, and a slow reading schedule, the best way to get read by me is to be available on audio, and Gurley finally was as of a couple months ago - rejoice!
Eleanor is what I've noticed recently called "magical realism" - a story in an otherwise normal, (usually) modern earth, but with some magical elements. Seemingly differentiated from 'urban fantasy' by the focus - less on first person magical character, more on mundane people with magical abilities, or in a slightly-magical world. I've read a lot in this "genre" of late - This Census-Taker by China Mieville, and A Darker Shade of Magic by VE Schwab being the most obvious. However, Eleanor trumps those - and how.
Eleanor begins as the tale of a young mother, a depressed mother of young Agnes, who has watch her dreams fail due to her family/relationship choices, and lives in a constant state of resentment. Until, one day, she disappears. The story then switches to that of Agnes and her two twin daughters, one of whom named after aforementioned young mother, Eleanor. Another depressed mother, living in resentment, until a tragic accident takes the life of one of her daughters. We then shift into the main POV character, that of the remaining daughter of Agnes, Eleanor.
We watch as Eleanor 2.0 copes with her father, Paul, having left Agnes and Eleanor, largely caused by Agnes' spiral into nothingness, drinking her life away and doing little else other than lashing out at those around her, and feeling sorry for herself. Meanwhile, her young and emotionally damaged daughter is forced to single-handedly care for herself, while coping with harsh migraines and mental distress, as well as the lack of real parenting. However, one day, Eleanor is at school, and as she enters a doorway, she feels an electric crackling sensation, and is suddenly no longer in her school, but rather an entire place entirely.
We follow Eleanor as she, as well as her best friend Jack, her father, her mother, and her aunt, try to figure out why Eleanor suddenly disappears, reappearing (sometimes forcefully) in different places, over varying time delays. We also explore the people behind these disappearances, their motivations, their struggles, and eventually, their identity. It is hard to describe much more without giving away spoilers, at least without giving away more spoilers than I already have.
I am not quite sure what I expected going into Eleanor - I had honestly heard very little about the novel, aside from "it's really good". I wasn't aware of the setting or characters, and I certainly was not prepared for what it was: a gut-wrenching, tear-jerking story of a family in peril, numerous tragedies, and a young girl forced to cope with all of this without much help from around her, aside from essentially one single person.
However, this, as well as almost every other aspect of the novel, is brilliantly and skillfully handled by Gurley. Eleanor feels as close to a real, tangible girl in her age bracket as I could possibly imagine, especially being written by someone who was not a preteen girl (I assume?). Considering the number of tragic events, the family trauma, the degeneration mentally of many characters, it was integral to the success of this novel for this grief to be written well, to have the characters address situations in a manner that is both realistic, but also does not limit the story progress. Thankfully, Jason handles these situations brilliantly, and I frequently found myself feeling as though I'd been punched, sympathizing with the characters, rooting for them, grieving their losses, feeling their pains.
The novel builds and builds as it goes - it begins so bleak, so harsh, and so shockingly. You're introduced to characters, before they change drastically, or go away altogether. This is a book of loss, of handling loss, of addressing adversity. Everyone in the novel seems to go through serious and terrible events, and everyone is forced to cope, to manage their grief, to either move on and try to live, or spiral in self-destruction. Everyone handles things differently, everyone feels their pain differently. It was as close to perfect as I think I've read in that aspect - unique characters handle situations in unique and suitable ways.
Eleanor's growth is brilliant as well - her changes from being a young girl, to an overly-mature-for-her-age teenager, to a constantly traumatized adult who had no time to adapt to the years of her life she'd lost due to her 'blips' (for lack of a spoiler-free way of putting it). No change is as drastic as hers, but the other characters all evolve, all adapt to their situations in varying ways. This is the biggest strong point of the book to me, as my immersion was kept at a consistent level because the characters always felt realistic, and visceral, and engaging.
The creativity of the book varies, but I am not looking for groundbreaking changes all the time - I'm looking for great writing, great characters, and enough unique aspects to keep me interested. There's a portal aspect to this story, as well as a certain level of magical beings and/or powers, or at least unexplainable powers. I thought the escalation of the side-storyline was terrific, as we were led closer and closer to the climax and conclusion, as Eleanor figured out what was happening, explored it, and completed what she needed to.
My biggest complaint about the book was the odd gender discrepancy. I am one of the last people to complain about this kind of thing in books (really), but I could not help but notice in the novel that the male characters are, largely, featuring only minor flaws. Jack is a borderline Gary Stu - he is the best friend a person could have, always forgiving and protecting Eleanor, being there for her at all times, altruistic in his actions and feelings, and despite being head over heels in love with Eleanor, he is patient with her even when she disappears. Paul, while struggling with losing a daughter and not getting much out of Eleanor, does his best, doesn't do anything outwardly negative, and swoops back in to care for Agnes later in the book.
Meanwhile, basically all of the female characters are heavily broken in one way or another. The original Eleanor is self-centered, whiny, and apathetic, essentially caring for her feelings only, caring about how upset she is, how the things that happen to her and the events in her life are unfair, until she throws it all voluntarily away, leaving everyone else behind to deal with things. Agnes herself takes up her mother's footsteps, having a major anger problem, reacting aggressively to Paul's business trips and work schedule, harboring animosity towards almost everyone, including, eventually, her own daughter, going as far as to blame her for her sister's death, when it was clearly Agnes' fault. Even our Eleanor is flawed, not only having massive headaches and health issues, but frequently snapping out at people, and while she was more perfect than any of the other females, she still had huge issues.
Again, I normally would not even notice a thing like this, but the fact I did means it was a bit of a glaring dichotomy. Maybe there was an intent there by Gurley that I missed, some message or metaphor, but if there was, I missed it, and it just felt like the females were all inherently largely flawed, while the males were much less so. Despite that, it did not really distract me from the story much, and I felt the female characters were well written, including their flaws.
Overall, I was blown away by the book. I invested emotionally into it significantly more than I have with almost any recent novel I can think of. I felt for the characters, I was anxious for them, and I was hooked - always wanting to know what happened next, how things would turn out. I blasted through the book in only a few days, and I just couldn't get enough of it. If this is the kind of quality I can expect from Jason Gurley, then I absolutely agree with Hugh Howey's assessment - he's excellent.
Rating: 4.5 / 5
August 30, 2018
Rating: 4 stars
"Time is a river, and it flows in a circle"
It took me quite some time to review this book, as I felt so conflicted about it. I absolutely loved the first half and was sure it would be a 5-star read, but the second half took some turns I didn’t agree with. I think it was around page 150 that I stopped to ponder whether I was still reading the same novel or not…
It difficult to explain without giving away some key story elements, but the novel seems to switch genre, style and maybe even target-audience halfway throughout. In order to properly review it, I will have to spoil this “genretwist”, so if you would like to read this book and go into it blind, consider this your spoilerwarning . I won’t talk about storyline-spoilers: just the genre.
The first half reads like a literary fiction family drama, spanning three generations of women in the same family. To be completely fair; I was under the impression that the novel would be just that.
The story starts off with the storyline of grandma Eleanor (the one that I maybe found the most interesting), who takes an extremely drastic decision that affects the two generations that follow. We shortly follow mother Agnes, only to cut to granddaughter Eleanor, who remains our protagonist for the rest of the story.
It is later in the second Eleanor’s storyline where the story completely switches gears. A secondary “alternate dimension” fantasy storyline is introduced, and slowly takes over. With this change in tone and genre, the entirety of the book also started to read more like YA, than adult fiction.
Neither of which is better of worse than the other. Moreover; genre-bending stories can be some of the most original and best stories out there. It is however a big risk to take, for several reasons.
The first being: the risk of alienating your audience. For example: I picked this up expecting literary fiction based on the synopsis and the first half. Finding out that a heavy part of the plot will contain fantasy/magical realism aspects was a big surprise to me. Luckily I like both those genres, so it wasn’t a problem for me. Imagine though, I hated fantasy. I would have felt incredibly cheated after reading over 100 pages of something great, only to find out that it goes into a direction (or even genre) I disliked…
Again, this is not per definition bad. It is a risk; you are not giving your readers what it says on the tin.
The second risk is that you have to be able to pull off both genres equally well. This is where Eleanor lost that fifth star. Although I love fantasy and magical realism elements, I didn’t feel like they were well integrated in this story. There is a big gap in skill in Jason Gurleys writing: he is a great literary fiction author, but an okay fantasy author. If this book had only been the former, and skipped on the fantasy-elements, it could have been a 5 star-read.
A second minor gripe was the heavy handed foreshadowing that happens, pertaining to a particular reveal. I’m sure most readers catch on to this the first time it’s mentioned, yet the author keeps layering on “hints”, and the protagonist remains oblivious to the end, despite her being a smart girl otherwise.
That being said: I feel like I have only focused on the negative in this review, which does not do justice to my experience with this book. The first half was amazing, incredibly atmospheric and darkly tragic. That feeling does remains throughout the book, even though the fantasy elements sometimes took me out of it.
Jason Gurleys prose is beautiful, and I would love to read more from him.
Lastly, like I mentioned: genre-benders can be hit or miss. For me, the genre-bending aspect here was a bit of a miss, but for someone else, this might be a huge hit. Do give it a try if you are interested! Even for the first half, it was worth my time.
"Time is a river, and it flows in a circle"
It took me quite some time to review this book, as I felt so conflicted about it. I absolutely loved the first half and was sure it would be a 5-star read, but the second half took some turns I didn’t agree with. I think it was around page 150 that I stopped to ponder whether I was still reading the same novel or not…
It difficult to explain without giving away some key story elements, but the novel seems to switch genre, style and maybe even target-audience halfway throughout. In order to properly review it, I will have to spoil this “genretwist”, so if you would like to read this book and go into it blind, consider this your spoilerwarning . I won’t talk about storyline-spoilers: just the genre.
The first half reads like a literary fiction family drama, spanning three generations of women in the same family. To be completely fair; I was under the impression that the novel would be just that.
The story starts off with the storyline of grandma Eleanor (the one that I maybe found the most interesting), who takes an extremely drastic decision that affects the two generations that follow. We shortly follow mother Agnes, only to cut to granddaughter Eleanor, who remains our protagonist for the rest of the story.
It is later in the second Eleanor’s storyline where the story completely switches gears. A secondary “alternate dimension” fantasy storyline is introduced, and slowly takes over. With this change in tone and genre, the entirety of the book also started to read more like YA, than adult fiction.
Neither of which is better of worse than the other. Moreover; genre-bending stories can be some of the most original and best stories out there. It is however a big risk to take, for several reasons.
The first being: the risk of alienating your audience. For example: I picked this up expecting literary fiction based on the synopsis and the first half. Finding out that a heavy part of the plot will contain fantasy/magical realism aspects was a big surprise to me. Luckily I like both those genres, so it wasn’t a problem for me. Imagine though, I hated fantasy. I would have felt incredibly cheated after reading over 100 pages of something great, only to find out that it goes into a direction (or even genre) I disliked…
Again, this is not per definition bad. It is a risk; you are not giving your readers what it says on the tin.
The second risk is that you have to be able to pull off both genres equally well. This is where Eleanor lost that fifth star. Although I love fantasy and magical realism elements, I didn’t feel like they were well integrated in this story. There is a big gap in skill in Jason Gurleys writing: he is a great literary fiction author, but an okay fantasy author. If this book had only been the former, and skipped on the fantasy-elements, it could have been a 5 star-read.
A second minor gripe was the heavy handed foreshadowing that happens, pertaining to a particular reveal. I’m sure most readers catch on to this the first time it’s mentioned, yet the author keeps layering on “hints”, and the protagonist remains oblivious to the end, despite her being a smart girl otherwise.
That being said: I feel like I have only focused on the negative in this review, which does not do justice to my experience with this book. The first half was amazing, incredibly atmospheric and darkly tragic. That feeling does remains throughout the book, even though the fantasy elements sometimes took me out of it.
Jason Gurleys prose is beautiful, and I would love to read more from him.
Lastly, like I mentioned: genre-benders can be hit or miss. For me, the genre-bending aspect here was a bit of a miss, but for someone else, this might be a huge hit. Do give it a try if you are interested! Even for the first half, it was worth my time.
March 3, 2016
I had to put this book down when I first started it. Was it because it was bad? No, no not at all. It is because I had read so many emotionally hard hitting books in a row that I couldn't do another one. It would have just messed with me too badly.
I did pick it up after reading something else much less serious. And it was a good call. By doing that I was able to fully enjoy this book for what it is - a book that is going to hit you hard in your emotional gut.
This book is kind of hard to explain. It is mostly about Eleanor. Eleanor lost her twin sister Esmeralda in a very tragic car accident when they were about 6 years old. The loss of Esme destroyed Eleanor's family. Her mom became her an alcoholic who resented Eleanor for being the twin that lived and her dad left.
Weird stuff starts happening to Eleanor. She walks through doorways and ends up in strange places. She disappears for varying spans of time - a day, a couple of days, years...
However, this book really isn't all about Eleanor. It is also about her family. I would love to be able to get into that a bit more, but I think that would lead to spoilers, and I don't want to do that to you.
When you read this, you need to be ready to have a lot of feelings. There are some really intense scenes that are going to hit you very hard. You will not have trouble imagining them, and they are not going to be pretty. There are also a lot of hard topics touched on in this story - abuse, alcoholism, death, etc. Jason Gurley does not hold back.
Eleanor is a fictional story, but it is also magical realism. That being said, you need to be ready for some weird. The weird won't necessarily make much sense in the beginning, but stick with it! You will be so happy you did. It will all make sense eventually. Also be ready for it to leave you thinking hard and long once you are done. I am still pondering over bits and pieces of this story days after finishing it.
Also, some people like to classify this as a young adult novel. While this book does have a teenager as its main character, I wouldn't classify it as that personally. At best, this would be for older, mature teens with the way that it is told and the subject matter. And for those wondering, while there really isn't much in the way of sexual content, there is some swearing and nudity.
This is a beautiful, gut wrenching read. I don't recommend reading it after a string of other hard hitting emotional reads. It may just cause you to unravel completely.
My Rating
4.5 Stars
This review is based on a copy provided by Blogging for Books in exchange for a fair and honest review.
Find more of my reviews here:
http://readingwithcupcakes.blogspot.com/
December 18, 2015
Identical twins, Eleanor and Esmerelda, are torn apart, one taken from the world we know and one left to pick up the pieces. Their family is torn apart with grief. But that grief may have started in their family long before this tragedy. This is a deep look at the healing of a damaged family in what has to be one of the most unique ways I’ve ever read. It will open your eyes to the possibility of realities other than we are aware of.
This is a fantasy with quite a unique take on the theories of space and time, as well as a literary novel about the effects of tragedy on those left behind. The book is very readable and is easy to follow. The author has a very natural way of writing and the book just flows along. Parts of this book are profoundly beautiful, especially the dream scenes, and the author has a truly wonderful imagination. I cared about the characters and felt part of their lives. Very entertaining story. Fans of Neil Gaimon will gobble this book right up.
I won this book on LibraryThing and have given an honest review.
This is a fantasy with quite a unique take on the theories of space and time, as well as a literary novel about the effects of tragedy on those left behind. The book is very readable and is easy to follow. The author has a very natural way of writing and the book just flows along. Parts of this book are profoundly beautiful, especially the dream scenes, and the author has a truly wonderful imagination. I cared about the characters and felt part of their lives. Very entertaining story. Fans of Neil Gaimon will gobble this book right up.
I won this book on LibraryThing and have given an honest review.
April 6, 2017
Eleanor is powerful and emotionally raw. Jason Gurley delivers a story that is both heartbreaking and thought provoking all at once. This one is full of deep symbolism and imagery, and will take you on a journey of sadness and anger, entwined in a fantasy world.
The Plot: Eleanor begins in the year 1962 centered around Eleanor, her husband Hob, and her daughter Agnes. We witness, what we know in this day and age, to be depression in Eleanor. In 1963 Eleanor goes for a swim in the ocean, never to return. The story jumps to her daughter, Agnes, and her husband Paul and twins Esmerelda and Eleanor. It is during this time we witness another tragedy and lose Esmerelda. Another story jump takes us 8 years in to the future, and it is here where we witness the heartbreaking after effects of Esmerelda's death. Eleanor, now 14, is the center of the story, left to deal with her mother's depression and alcoholism, when she begins disappearing and reappearing in strange worlds uncontrollably. It is these strange "in-between places" that may just help put her family back together.
I don't know that I have ever been so emotionally affected by a book before Eleanor. Eleanor brings to light issues of depression, postpartum depression, and alcoholism. From the beginning, we can see that the Eleanor of 1963 is suffering from depression."Her attacks come all the time now, but she finds quiet, dark places- such as the closet floor, behind Hob's hanging shirts and sweaters- and cries there, where nobody can see her." (Gurley, 21). It is obvious that it is not well understood at that time, but Gurley did such an exquisite job of conveying it in the first chapter of the story that I understood why Eleanor felt she only had one option.
Later we see how this time period and this act has left a lasting impression on Agnes. I could feel the emotional scarring she had from losing her mother at such a young age. Things didn't feel quite right between her and her children because of this. It is because of her childhood and the depression already present in Agnes that she resorts to alcoholism after the tragic accident.
Reading the scene where we lose Esmerelda was probably the hardest thing I have EVER had to read! I felt the loss alongside Agnes and Eleanor. I understood why the depression and emotional scarring later in the story would result from the accident. I also understood why Agnes grew to resent Eleanor afterward (though I hated Agnes for feeling that way).
Years after the accident, Gurley shows us the immense strain left on the family. Paul has moved out, Eleanor feels lost and alone, and Agnes has turned in to a 24/7 alcoholic. Paul still loves his daughter, but there is a strain between them because Eleanor feels responsible for taking care of her mother. "I'm the only thing keeping her from drinking until she's dead." (Gurley 163). Agnes is passed out about 90% of the time and, when she is awake, she spews anger and hatred toward Eleanor. She blames her for the accident and nothing convinces her to stop drinking. "Her mother takes only a few days to return to her habits, the fright of Eleanor's disappearance not a powerful enough catalyst to disrupt the routine." (Gurley, 122).
There is so much symbolism in this book representing the struggles of depression and the feeling of helplessness. It's not just a "sci-fi" novel. Eleanor brings light to tragedy and emotional imbalances that are sometimes beyond our control. We see this played out when Eleanor enters the dreams of her parents from the "in-between". We feel this when we are shown how Agnes suffered from postpartum depression. "She feels as if they are unevenly matched: he is ecstatic to be a father and cannot understand why Agnes is not similarly excited." (Gurley 316). And we see this through the eyes of a 14 year old who is not only living with all this tragedy and going through normal teenage hormones and changes, but also going through something so bizarre and supernatural, that only the memories of the past can help her through.
You will not make it through this one with dry eyes. Jason Gurley has written something exquisitely and emotionally powerful with Eleanor. I have a heavy heart after reading this one, and, though, I did not discuss the "sci-fi" aspect of the book much, I feel that it was fantastically written and gives the book the necessary symbolic imagery and coping mechanisms needed to fully comprehend the complexity of the heartbreaking struggles that not only live and breathe in this book, but also exist throughout the real world.
Thank you to Blogging For Books for providing this free copy in exchange for my honest review.
The Plot: Eleanor begins in the year 1962 centered around Eleanor, her husband Hob, and her daughter Agnes. We witness, what we know in this day and age, to be depression in Eleanor. In 1963 Eleanor goes for a swim in the ocean, never to return. The story jumps to her daughter, Agnes, and her husband Paul and twins Esmerelda and Eleanor. It is during this time we witness another tragedy and lose Esmerelda. Another story jump takes us 8 years in to the future, and it is here where we witness the heartbreaking after effects of Esmerelda's death. Eleanor, now 14, is the center of the story, left to deal with her mother's depression and alcoholism, when she begins disappearing and reappearing in strange worlds uncontrollably. It is these strange "in-between places" that may just help put her family back together.
I don't know that I have ever been so emotionally affected by a book before Eleanor. Eleanor brings to light issues of depression, postpartum depression, and alcoholism. From the beginning, we can see that the Eleanor of 1963 is suffering from depression."Her attacks come all the time now, but she finds quiet, dark places- such as the closet floor, behind Hob's hanging shirts and sweaters- and cries there, where nobody can see her." (Gurley, 21). It is obvious that it is not well understood at that time, but Gurley did such an exquisite job of conveying it in the first chapter of the story that I understood why Eleanor felt she only had one option.
Later we see how this time period and this act has left a lasting impression on Agnes. I could feel the emotional scarring she had from losing her mother at such a young age. Things didn't feel quite right between her and her children because of this. It is because of her childhood and the depression already present in Agnes that she resorts to alcoholism after the tragic accident.
Reading the scene where we lose Esmerelda was probably the hardest thing I have EVER had to read! I felt the loss alongside Agnes and Eleanor. I understood why the depression and emotional scarring later in the story would result from the accident. I also understood why Agnes grew to resent Eleanor afterward (though I hated Agnes for feeling that way).
Years after the accident, Gurley shows us the immense strain left on the family. Paul has moved out, Eleanor feels lost and alone, and Agnes has turned in to a 24/7 alcoholic. Paul still loves his daughter, but there is a strain between them because Eleanor feels responsible for taking care of her mother. "I'm the only thing keeping her from drinking until she's dead." (Gurley 163). Agnes is passed out about 90% of the time and, when she is awake, she spews anger and hatred toward Eleanor. She blames her for the accident and nothing convinces her to stop drinking. "Her mother takes only a few days to return to her habits, the fright of Eleanor's disappearance not a powerful enough catalyst to disrupt the routine." (Gurley, 122).
There is so much symbolism in this book representing the struggles of depression and the feeling of helplessness. It's not just a "sci-fi" novel. Eleanor brings light to tragedy and emotional imbalances that are sometimes beyond our control. We see this played out when Eleanor enters the dreams of her parents from the "in-between". We feel this when we are shown how Agnes suffered from postpartum depression. "She feels as if they are unevenly matched: he is ecstatic to be a father and cannot understand why Agnes is not similarly excited." (Gurley 316). And we see this through the eyes of a 14 year old who is not only living with all this tragedy and going through normal teenage hormones and changes, but also going through something so bizarre and supernatural, that only the memories of the past can help her through.
You will not make it through this one with dry eyes. Jason Gurley has written something exquisitely and emotionally powerful with Eleanor. I have a heavy heart after reading this one, and, though, I did not discuss the "sci-fi" aspect of the book much, I feel that it was fantastically written and gives the book the necessary symbolic imagery and coping mechanisms needed to fully comprehend the complexity of the heartbreaking struggles that not only live and breathe in this book, but also exist throughout the real world.
Thank you to Blogging For Books for providing this free copy in exchange for my honest review.
July 20, 2014
This is one of those books that it's easier to review by writing about what it is not, than what it is.
It's not Neil Gaiman (but it's almost that good), it's not typically YA (despite the teenage protagonists), it's not easily categorised (it's somewhere between metaphysics, magic and uhh, time travel, along with a really vivid depiction of a family failing to deal with grief and completely falling apart).
And it is very, very, very good.
If I had access to physical copies of this book, I would probably be that annoying friend going around pressing it into everyone's hands going "you HAVE to read this".
Be warned, for the first four or five chapters, I thought the blurb was for an entirely different book heh. It's not. Bear with it.
Oh yes, there's some magic stuff too. And dreams walking and time travel and dinosaurs and love and loss and grief and pain and redemption, all wrapped up in one hell of a read.
Longer but no less gushing review @ Booklikes
March 5, 2016
I didn’t really know what to expect when I first picked up Eleanorby Jason Gurley: it was listed as Adult Literary Fiction, yet had sci-fi and fantastical elements. I wasn’t very confident that these genres could mix well together.
But they do.
Eleanor was simply beautifully crafted: the writing, the characters, and especially the themes. It was an excellent, honest portrayal of grief, motherhood, mental illness, and the power of second chances. The concept was also very well-done and extremely unique.
This novel would be perfect for fans of Neil Gaiman, and I highly recommend it!
**I received this book from Blogging For Books in exchange for an honest review.**
But they do.
Eleanor was simply beautifully crafted: the writing, the characters, and especially the themes. It was an excellent, honest portrayal of grief, motherhood, mental illness, and the power of second chances. The concept was also very well-done and extremely unique.
This novel would be perfect for fans of Neil Gaiman, and I highly recommend it!
**I received this book from Blogging For Books in exchange for an honest review.**
October 28, 2015
Gurley's new novel combines family tragedy with magical realism to create a beautiful and haunting page turner of a story.
Eleanor loses her twin sister in a horrible accident that leaves her family in tatters. Left to take care of herself and her grief stricken mother strange things start happening to Eleanor that she can't understand or explain. These events will cause a ripple effect for generations of her family. It is an engrossing fantastical novel about grief and the choices we make and the effects of those choices in generations to come.
Eleanor loses her twin sister in a horrible accident that leaves her family in tatters. Left to take care of herself and her grief stricken mother strange things start happening to Eleanor that she can't understand or explain. These events will cause a ripple effect for generations of her family. It is an engrossing fantastical novel about grief and the choices we make and the effects of those choices in generations to come.
January 31, 2021
The only reason I purchased this book was because we share a name. Through reading I was pleasantly surprised by the characters and storylines that unfolded.
March 18, 2017
This is an excellent book about how one event can change everything. It took me a while because I kept hitting sad parts and I had to put it down. It is also fantasy and some of the settings are inside dreams. It's about how Agnes' mother disappeared when she was a small child and how everything spiraled out of control from that point forward. How do you help someone that has never been happy? Someone that has been sad since before you were ever born? I don't want to give anything away. You'll just have to read it and find out for yourself what a great and creative story this is.
February 14, 2017
„Eleanor“ erzählt die Geschichte einer Familie über drei Generationen hinweg und besticht vor allem durch fantastische, fast schon magische Elemente. Während die ersten 80 Seiten noch sehr real sind und es vor allem um Trauer, Depression und Wut der Protagonistinnen geht, flechtet der Autor von dort an magische Elemente in die Geschichte, was eigentlich ja genau mein Ding ist. Trotzdem hatte ich einige Schwierigkeiten, das Buch für mich richtig einzuordnen und ich habe lange darüber nachgedacht, ob und was mir daran gefallen hat.
Komischerweise mochte ich „Eleanor“ mehr wegen seiner realen Probleme und Szenen und weniger wegen der Traumwelten, die Jason Gurley parallel dazu erschaffen und in die Geschichte integriert hat. Vieles wurde durch sie zwar klarer und letztendlich spiegelten sie nur das Seelenleben der Figuren wider, aber dennoch nahmen sie mir einen zu großen Raum ein und ich hätte mir gewünscht, dass mehr Probleme auf realer Ebene gelöst worden wären. Denn Probleme gab es wirklich genug. Die Geschichte beginnt bei Eleanor, einer jungen Mutter, die mit Mann und Tochter lebt und deren Traum es eigentlich nur ist, zu schwimmen. Als sie erfährt, dass sie abermals schwanger ist, fährt sie an eine Bucht, steigt ins Wasser und verschwindet – eine Leiche wurde allerdings nie gefunden. Ihre Tochter Agnes verfolgen wir einige Jahre später. Sie hat inzwischen Zwillinge – Eleanor und Esmeralda – doch als Esmeralda im Alter von 6 Jahren bei einem tragischen Unfall stirbt, erlöschen auch ihre letzten Lebensgeister und sie vegetiert nur noch vor sich hin, gibt ihrer überlebenden Tochter Eleanor die Schuld an dem Ganzen. Erst dann geht die Geschichte so richtig los – im Mittelpunkt steht die 14jährige Eleanor, die sich einsamer kaum fühlen könnte und der urplötzlich seltsame Dinge widerfahren, die sie komplett aus dem Leben reißen und in die Traumwelten ihrer Mitmenschen katapultieren.
Bemerkenswert war definitiv das schnelle Tempo der Geschichte, auch wenn die letzten hundert Seiten sich etwas gezogen haben. Es gibt kurze Kapitel, die aus unterschiedlichen Perspektiven erzählt werden. Obwohl der Klappentext schon einiges verrät, war die Geschichte doch ganz anders, als ich es erwartet hatte und entwickelte sich in eine Richtung, die mich teilweise sogar überraschte. Nicht alles war logisch oder komplett nachvollziehbar, aber beim Lesen störte es mich überhaupt nicht, weil ich einfach nur wissen wollte, wie es ausgeht, ob die Protagonisten irgendwie ihren Frieden finden, die Trauer überwinden, wieder zueinander finden.
Jason Gurleys Schreibstil war für mich ehrlich gesagt nichts besonderes – weder besonders schlecht, noch überraschend gut, aber dennoch fesselnd. Ich war besonders beeindruckt von seinen Ideen der Traumwelten und wie er sie so zu Papier gebracht hat, dass man sie auch direkt vor Augen hatte und sie buchstäblich fühlte. Düstere wie auch fröhliche Landschaften wurden eingefangen und alles hatte eine so pulsierende und lebendige Dynamik. Dafür empfand ich die Beschreibung und Entwicklung der Figuren aber nicht als besonders gelungen. Ich kann es nur schwer in Worte fassen, aber ich glaube, das steht auch im Zusammenhang damit, was ich bereits anfangs erwähnte: Viele der Konflikte lösten sich in den Traumwelten und nicht in der Realität und genau solche Aussprachen hätte ich mir einfach für die Charaktere gewünscht.
„Eleanor“ behandelt generationsübergreifende Konflikte, Trauer, Wut und Hass auf eine sehr behutsame und magische Art und Weise, was dieses Buch zu etwas ganz besonderem macht. Jason Gurley hat eine erstaunliche Vorstellungskraft und hat damit eine ganz spezielle Geschichte erschaffen, bei der besonders das Ende auch Platz für eigene Interpretationen lässt und zum Nachdenken anregt. 3.5/5
Komischerweise mochte ich „Eleanor“ mehr wegen seiner realen Probleme und Szenen und weniger wegen der Traumwelten, die Jason Gurley parallel dazu erschaffen und in die Geschichte integriert hat. Vieles wurde durch sie zwar klarer und letztendlich spiegelten sie nur das Seelenleben der Figuren wider, aber dennoch nahmen sie mir einen zu großen Raum ein und ich hätte mir gewünscht, dass mehr Probleme auf realer Ebene gelöst worden wären. Denn Probleme gab es wirklich genug. Die Geschichte beginnt bei Eleanor, einer jungen Mutter, die mit Mann und Tochter lebt und deren Traum es eigentlich nur ist, zu schwimmen. Als sie erfährt, dass sie abermals schwanger ist, fährt sie an eine Bucht, steigt ins Wasser und verschwindet – eine Leiche wurde allerdings nie gefunden. Ihre Tochter Agnes verfolgen wir einige Jahre später. Sie hat inzwischen Zwillinge – Eleanor und Esmeralda – doch als Esmeralda im Alter von 6 Jahren bei einem tragischen Unfall stirbt, erlöschen auch ihre letzten Lebensgeister und sie vegetiert nur noch vor sich hin, gibt ihrer überlebenden Tochter Eleanor die Schuld an dem Ganzen. Erst dann geht die Geschichte so richtig los – im Mittelpunkt steht die 14jährige Eleanor, die sich einsamer kaum fühlen könnte und der urplötzlich seltsame Dinge widerfahren, die sie komplett aus dem Leben reißen und in die Traumwelten ihrer Mitmenschen katapultieren.
Bemerkenswert war definitiv das schnelle Tempo der Geschichte, auch wenn die letzten hundert Seiten sich etwas gezogen haben. Es gibt kurze Kapitel, die aus unterschiedlichen Perspektiven erzählt werden. Obwohl der Klappentext schon einiges verrät, war die Geschichte doch ganz anders, als ich es erwartet hatte und entwickelte sich in eine Richtung, die mich teilweise sogar überraschte. Nicht alles war logisch oder komplett nachvollziehbar, aber beim Lesen störte es mich überhaupt nicht, weil ich einfach nur wissen wollte, wie es ausgeht, ob die Protagonisten irgendwie ihren Frieden finden, die Trauer überwinden, wieder zueinander finden.
Jason Gurleys Schreibstil war für mich ehrlich gesagt nichts besonderes – weder besonders schlecht, noch überraschend gut, aber dennoch fesselnd. Ich war besonders beeindruckt von seinen Ideen der Traumwelten und wie er sie so zu Papier gebracht hat, dass man sie auch direkt vor Augen hatte und sie buchstäblich fühlte. Düstere wie auch fröhliche Landschaften wurden eingefangen und alles hatte eine so pulsierende und lebendige Dynamik. Dafür empfand ich die Beschreibung und Entwicklung der Figuren aber nicht als besonders gelungen. Ich kann es nur schwer in Worte fassen, aber ich glaube, das steht auch im Zusammenhang damit, was ich bereits anfangs erwähnte: Viele der Konflikte lösten sich in den Traumwelten und nicht in der Realität und genau solche Aussprachen hätte ich mir einfach für die Charaktere gewünscht.
„Eleanor“ behandelt generationsübergreifende Konflikte, Trauer, Wut und Hass auf eine sehr behutsame und magische Art und Weise, was dieses Buch zu etwas ganz besonderem macht. Jason Gurley hat eine erstaunliche Vorstellungskraft und hat damit eine ganz spezielle Geschichte erschaffen, bei der besonders das Ende auch Platz für eigene Interpretationen lässt und zum Nachdenken anregt. 3.5/5
Displaying 1 - 30 of 670 reviews