The Helpline

By Katherine Collette

A charming, big-hearted debut novel in the vein of Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine and The Rosie Project about an oddball heroine named Germaine Johnson who is great with numbers but not so great with people.

Germaine Johnson doesn’t need a lot of friends. She has her work and her Sudoku puzzles. Until, that is, an incident at the insurance company she works for leaves her jobless—and she realizes that there are very few job openings for recently laid-off senior mathematicians with no people skills.

With some luck (read: bad luck) Germaine manages to secure a position at city hall answering calls on the Senior Citizens Helpline. But it turns out that the mayor herself has something else in mind for Germaine: a secret project involving the troublemakers at the senior citizens’ center and their feud with the neighbouring golf club—which happens to be run by the rakish yet disgraced national Sudoku champion, Don Thomas.

Don and the mayor want the centre closed down and Germaine wants to help—because it makes sense economically, and because she’s succumbing to Don’s charms. But things get complicated when she starts getting to know the “troublemakers,” and they open her eyes to a life outside of numbers and boxes.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Release date: Jul 23, 2019
• ISBN: 9781982123048

Katherine Collette

Katherine Collette is a Melbourne-based writer and sewage engineer. She once worked at a senior citizens council and her experience there informed The Helpline, her debut novel.

Reviews for The Helpline

[shelleyraec · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Collette’s debut, The Helpline, is similar in vein to recent popular novels such as Simison’s ‘The Rosie Project’ and Honeyman’s ‘Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine’. Senior mathematician, Germaine, is a self proscribed expert in sodoku, the value of efficiency, and the immutability of numbers, but she is also uncomfortably socially inept, and awkwardly naive. Unceremoniously dismissed from her job of some fifteen years for reasons that she never quite articulates, Germaine finds herself working for the local council on the Senior Helpline, determined to prove her worth, and rebuild her career. Quickly singled out by the Mayor for a ‘special project’, Germaine is eager to please, especially when she learns that the project involves her childhood hero, former Sodoku champion, Alan Cosgrove aka Don Thomas. For Germaine, the need to resolve the Mayor’s standoff with the Senior Citizen’s Center, which happens to adjoin Don’s Golf Club, is a matter of responsibility and efficiency, until her equations are complicated by the unpredictable nature of the human factor.Though Germaine is not always a particularly likeable character, I did warm up to her. Her neuro-atypical traits are never specifically identified but her different perspective is clear. The slightly eccentric supporting characters are varied, from feisty senior citizen, Cecelia Brown, to biscuit hoarder, Eva, and the inevitable love interest, bare kneed IT guy, Jack.Generally, The Helpline was an enjoyable read. I liked the overall plot and it’s Australian setting, council going-on’s are actually a ripe setting for pathos, and humour.

[jypsylynn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Helpline is an entertaining read. How can you help others when you can't even help yourself? Germaine, the heroine, is fired from her job of 15 years (she's a math genius), and is abruptly tossed out into the real world. She is socially awkward and inept and just doesn't have people skills. How, then, to find a new job? But, find she does working in a senior center. It's a new complicated reality. She is witty and relatable, but she is also annoying sometimes. Germaine learns the ropes of office politics, personal interactions and questions her way of being in the world. Germaine becomes entangled in a situation that brings her issues to the forefront. Through all of this, she makes actual connections to other people, confronts herself about who she's been for so long and ultimately must choose who she wants to be, knowing she has the strength to leave some ways of living in the past. Thanks to NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

[twink_2 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The Helpline is Katherine Collette's debut novel.Germaine Johnson loves math and sudukos. She firmly believes that a formula can be found for everything in life. But such is not the case when an unfortunate happenstance at her insurance company job results in her being let go. But through a family connection she lands a job on a senior citizen's telephone helpline.Although it is never specified, it is apparent that Germaine is somewhere on a spectrum - Asperger's? A telephone hotline is probably not the best fit for someone with her interests. But an unscrupulous city official has recognized that Germaine's naivete and attraction to a male Suduko player can be exploited.And this is the part that saddened me. She has been taken advantage of more that once - the insurance company situation is particularly disheartening. But counterbalancing that are her new fellow employees at the council office. They are a quirky bunch, but for the most part good-hearted and accepting. They provide a needed balance to offset the nefarious mayor and counterparts. The seniors at the community center are also kind. And are also being taken advantage of.And yes, you can see where the book is going to go. Can Germaine see and participate in life beyond the narrow constraints she has set for herself? Find friends and a new place for herself? Do the seniors take back their center? And is the mayor thwarted?I liked the premise, but I must admit to having a harder time liking Germaine. I felt like I should be drawn to her as she's the lead character. But I wasn't. She is written with many hard edges and an inability to feel sympathy or empathy. This may be attributable to her 'condition', but I think I was expecting someone more like Don in The Rosie Project. Likable.There are some funny moments in The Helpline. (I enjoyed the workplace fight for the biscuits) But I didn't find so many that I agreed with the idea that this would be a charmingly funny debut.The ending provides a turn that I think it supposed to be humourous, but it fell flat for me and only solidified my inability to be on board with Germaine. Sadly, this book was just okay for me.

[froxgirl · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This Aussie version of Eleanor Oliphant is Perfectly Fine is much more fun. Germaine (hahaha name), a math and Sodoku savant, gets fired by her boss after many years as an insurance company actuary, when knowledge of their secret after-hours canoodling is revealed. With the grudging assistance of a nasty cousin (her vow-renewal ceremony is hilarious), she gets a job on a senior citizen help line in a small city hall office and ambitiously pursues a promotion from the mayor, who, in cahoots with a handsome Sodoku champion and former idol of Germaine's, tasks Germaine with closing down the popular senior center. The plot is somewhat predictable, but Germaine is a great character and we are lucky that the author is generous with the inner thoughts and workings of her unique persona. Kind of a hoot!

[shazjhb · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Not as good as other books with same issues