Forever Obsession: Review: Eleanor

ISBN: 1101903511
Pages: 384
Source: Blogging for Books

Publication Date: January 12, 2016
Initial Reaction:

Eleanor and Esmerelda are identical twins with a secret language all their own, inseparable until a terrible accident claims Esme’s life. Eleanor’s family is left in tatters: her mother retreats inward, seeking comfort in bottles; her father reluctantly abandons ship. Eleanor is forced to grow up more quickly than a child should, and becomes the target of her mother’s growing rage.

Years pass, and Eleanor’s painful reality begins to unravel in strange ways. The first time it happens, she walks through a school doorway, and finds herself in a cornfield, beneath wide blue skies. When she stumbles back into her own world, time has flown by without her. Again and again, against her will, she falls out of her world and into other, stranger ones, leaving behind empty rooms and worried loved ones.

One fateful day, Eleanor leaps from a cliff and is torn from her world altogether. She meets a mysterious stranger, Mea, who reveals to Eleanor the weight of her family’s loss. To save her broken parents, and rescue herself, Eleanor must learn how deep the well of her mother’s grief and her father’s heartbreak truly goes. Esmerelda’s death was not the only tragic loss in her family’s fragmented history, and unless Eleanor can master her strange new abilities, it may not be the last.

Hello everyone! Today I've got my review for Eleanor by Jason Gurley. I also have a video review for this book so I you want to see me freak out and wave my hands around like a mad person you can watch it HERE.

Just a note before I get started, I'm going to use the phrase "I can't even" so many times throughout this novel because it's the primary thing that is flying through my brain right now. First of all, this was so incredibly amazing (1) and I can't even (1) deal with all the emotions that are flying through my brain. After reading this book, I was left completely and utterly speechless because it was just so amazing (2) . I didn't pinpoint the genre of this book until I went on Goodreads and discovered that it was marked as being Magical Realism and now I just want to go find more books in that genre because I'm honestly hooked.

“Reality is a terrific drug.”

The story deals with the heavier details of life including the loss of a family member, severe depression, and most importantly grief. All the characters deal with their grief in different ways and each one has been through so much crap in their lives that it's amazing to see them still walking around. I loved the delve into the character's dream world because that was the place where you got to see how they were truly coping with their loss. I absolutely loved the POV of the Keeper and the portrayal of her world and the revelation of her character was just so amazing (3) that I can't even (2) comprehend how the author came up with that idea.

“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.”

Each character is so uniquely created and quirky in their own way which makes them so interesting to read. Eleanor has so many layers and her undying desire to care and save her family is honest something that is really amazing (4). As for Mea, I had a guess as to who she was and while I was reading, I was torn between liking her and hating her. As her identity is not revealed until the latter half of the book, I was left half pulling my hair out each time she tried to reach out to Eleanor because her actions turned Eleanor into this doll that Mea could just throw around. I loved her description of her environment as a little fishbowl and the revelation of where she actually is was just so shocking. While I guess to who Mea was, the identity of the greater being outside aka Enah caught me completely by surprise.

This entire book is so difficult to review because so many things to happen and everything I want to say contains some amount of spoilers. Basically, Eleanor is a determined girl who wants to save her family and her family has a long history of having horrible things happen to them. The importance of family and healing is such a powerful message and the story does a great job in presenting that to the readers.

"I can't even" count: 2

"Amazing" count: 4