Book Review – Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

By Vanessa Kay @blushinggeek

Genre: Young Adult Romance, Contemporary Romance
Pages: 328
Published: February 26, 2013 by St. Martin’s Press
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Sypnosis:

Two misfits.
One extraordinary love.

Eleanor… Red hair, wrong clothes. Standing behind him until he turns his head. Lying beside him until he wakes up. Making everyone else seem drabber and flatter and never good enough…Eleanor.

Park… He knows she’ll love a song before he plays it for her. He laughs at her jokes before she ever gets to the punch line. There’s a place on his chest, just below his throat, that makes her want to keep promises…Park.

Set over the course of one school year, this is the story of two star-crossed sixteen-year-olds – smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try.

Review:

Dang! I can’t believe I’ve waited this long to read this book. It’s simply amazing that all I want to do is smack myself for reading this story so late.

This book will bring us back to our childhood memories, those wonderful feeling of meeting your first love. Reading this book is like throwback Thursday. Those wonderful feeling of going back to those little piece of your childhood where you experienced feeling different kind of emotions that you don’t usually feel. The great feeling that makes you want to go to school just to see him/her. Nostalgic right?

Just by reading its first chapter, I can’t deny how refreshed I am. Well, that’s what Rainbow Rowell’s books usually do to me. What I also like about this book is that it doesn’t sounds boring to me. It just catches my attention and all I can think of is this book.

It’s also one refreshing read because unlike the previous book that I’ve read, this one is not that intense but it has this weird thing that makes me feel satisfied with its story. I haven’t read other books with the same plot or scenes so that’s really great. Also, I just love everything in this book. The story line, even the characters and the conflict, which I think was great too. All was portrayed so great and I don’t have anything to complains at all.

When I started reading this book, I didn’t expected anything. Actually, all I think about that time is that I want to read a book. So when I’ve reached those parts where the two of them are starting to like each other, I just can’t erase this weird grin in my face. This story is just simply sweet. I actually giggled a lot than what I’ve expected.

The characters were also great. The combination is just unique. Unlike other stories, this one isn’t too pushy and perfect. All the characters are just so easy to picture out. And the mean guys and girls that I thought will make Eleanor’s (main female read) life miserable turn out to be ok. And dang! I can’t help but imagine what Park looks like. I mean, the “green eye” thingy for a half Asian dude is too interesting in my part (haha, I know, I know, I just have this weird fetish with green or blue eyed human beings). Also, the characters in this story are just so few, so it’s really very easy to keep track of them. For a person like me who’s not really good with names, I am proud to say that I could actually recite all their names here. That good eh?

I also love that both the main characters have their own POVs in here. So yeah, you can actually know what each of them are feeling, and that’s really so great! I can’t say this story has a happy ending, I’m not even sure if what I think is written in those postcard are true, but I can sense it’s going to be the start of something new and different in their love story.

The conflict is surprisingly convincing. I wasn’t even felt irritated about it. Why is that? Well, maybe because it’s just too realistic to doubt it.

This story isn’t just about young love, but I also love how the author added humor in it and also includes about family. What else I could actually wish for eh?

This book is highly recommended, the 5 stars below sure is the evidence eh?

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars