A Bunch of Short Reviews: Fiction!

Operation Catch Up On Book Reviews, which started with nonfiction last week, continues this week with a bunch of the fiction I’ve read and loved so far this year. These are also all great books by women, which shouldn’t really be surprising — I checked my stats, and so far 80 percent of the books I’ve read this year have been written by women. I’m really happy about that and don’t plan to change anything soon.

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

Eleanor Oliphant lives a very structured life. She works in accounting, has few friends (and even fewer social skills), and spends weekends alone drinking vodka and eating frozen pizzas. She’s fine, really, until a chance meeting with the IT guy at her office and an elderly man on the street sets her on a path towards being something other than just fine. I finished this book over Memorial Day weekend, and then proceeded to gush about it on Instagram:

You guys, this book. It was like a big warm hug for my soul. Not sappy, not trying too hard, not pandering in any way. Just sweet and sad and hopeful and lovely. I just can’t even. Book hangover, commence. 💖

In addition to all of that, I also thought this one was really, really smart. Eleanor is clearly an unreliable narrator, though it’s not hard to read between the lines and understand that something is wrong. Then Honeyman doles out the details that make Eleanor’s story with perfect pacing, I couldn’t put this book down.

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

Pachinko is an epic family story, starting in 1900 when Sunja, the only daughter of a Korean fisherman, is seduced by a wealthy stranger. When she becomes pregnant, he offers to make Sunja his mistress… but she refuses. Instead, she marries a minister who has been staying with her family, then goes with him to Japan. This sets off the events of the rest of the story, which follows Sunja and her family to nearly present-day Japan. This was such a fascinating book, with a number of strong, stubborn, complicated women who suffered and struggled to make lives for themselves and their family. The chapters jump ahead in time, so it’s more of a series of vignettes than a strong narrative, but I loved it anyway. 

Circe by Madeline Miller

I’m going to jump on the bandwagon and say that I really loved this book. Circe is a retelling/reimagining of the story of Circe, the witch of Greek mythology perhaps best known for holding up Odysseus and his crew as they made their way home in The Odyssey. This story gives a life, complete with love and family and betrayal, to this character. Madeline Miller’s Circe is funny, clever, hard-working, and full of dreams for herself that she has to make happen using her own power and smarts. I loved Greek myths as a kid, so getting to revisit some of my favorite stories from this new angle was a total delight.

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

I think this book is an almost perfect example of how books from diverse authors can make even familiar stories new again. The plot of Children of Blood and Bone is pretty straightforward, but the characters and West African-inspired locations and imagery take this one to the next level. The political commentary is sharp but not distracting, and the ending opens the world up in a way that made me excited for the second book in the trilogy. One review said the book is Black Lives Matters meets Avatar: The Last Airbender, which is perfect and smart and probably why I loved it so much. I can’t wait to see what comes next.