Why I'm readingI almost skipped over this -- it seemed like your typical tug-on-your-heartstrings mother-daughter story. Then halfway through the summary, suddenly... Scifi?
Where I got the book
Received this from LibraryThing's early reviewer program.
Expectations
The summary was strange. 99% of it reads like something from Lifetime or Oprah's book list, until I realized trite phrases like "Eleanor's painful reality begins to unravel" and "Eleanor is torn from her world" are happening literally.
So how was it?
Eleanor is the story of three generations of women... mostly making each other miserable. It spans forty years (1962-1996), with a plot that jumps between Eleanor, her daughter Agnes', her daughters Eleanor (junior) and Esmeralda, and -- ready for the Scifi? -- a mysterious rift dimension. Oh, and a series of husbands/fathers who don't really help the situation.
I've been calling this all Scifi, but it's not really Science Fiction. It has the freedom and imagination of Scifi, but there's no science involved; it's closer to mythology. I would probably call it Fantasy, but it has no relation to familiar High Fantasy exemplified by Tolkien.
Recommendation
Extremely similar to the video game Life is Strange -- love, tragedy, time travel, and relationships between women. Vaguely similar to Donnie Darko, except A) it's not super-pretentious, and B) I didn't hate it.
Feels
Deals with grief and pain between generations of women. The cosmology reminds me of Egyptian or Tolkien's mythology.
Favorites
I thought I'd hate the myriad of characters introduced, but it was satisfying once everything came together. The story didn't constantly need to ram its own mystery/suspense down the reader's throat.
Least favorites
I guess I like that it bounced around between characters/times, but it did that a little too much.
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