Title: Eleanor & ParkAuthor: Rainbow RowellEdition: hardcoverSeries: noneReleased Date: February 26th, 2013Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Goodreads / Amazon "Bono met his wife in high school," Park says.
"So did Jerry Lee Lewis," Eleanor answers.
"I’m not kidding," he says.
"You should be," she says, "we’re sixteen."
"What about Romeo and Juliet?"
"Shallow, confused, then dead."
''I love you," Park says.
"Wherefore art thou," Eleanor answers.
"I’m not kidding," he says.
"You should be."
Set over the course of one school year in 1986, ELEANOR AND PARK is the story of two star-crossed misfits – smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try. When Eleanor meets Park, you’ll remember your own first love – and just how hard it pulled you under.
This book was heart-wrenching in so many ways that it's just hard to describe. On my good friend's blog, Bailey talks about the book Before I Die which she describes as "There is no breathing while reading this book. You don't come up for air." I feel that's how it was when I read Eleanor & Park. There was no breathing. Every breath that I did take felt full of Park and his love for Eleanor.
These characters are flawed in so many ways, and that's what makes them so likable. Eleanor is a bigger girl with bright red hair. She dresses obnoxiously and only showers every so often. She has an abusive step-father and a mother that doesn't stand her ground. Her little siblings look up to her for protection - something she has trouble giving. Eleanor was a jumbled mess, but she was smart. She had witty remarks and always knew what to say and when to say it. She doesn't believe in love when you're a teenager, even though she experiences it throughout the novel. Towards the end, Eleanor just started to piss me off. Why? Because she did exactly what I would have done. She ran and she blocked off the part of the world that made her happy.
Then there's Park. An Asian boy with a father that's all about "being a man" and a mother that's all about making girls pretty. His younger brother is more of a man than he is, so Park has stop trying to please his father. He's friends with a lot of people, but not exactly part of the "popular" crowd. Park is the type of character that doesn't have a filter. When he wants to say something, he does it. When he wants to do something, he does it.
These two characters form in a way that you couldn't imagine. Park is accepting of Eleanor and loves her for her weirdness, hidden beauty, and everything else. Eleanor puts up a wall, but finally lets herself get familiar with Park. The scenes between these two characters are enjoyable, easy to read, and simply perfection.
Towards the end of this novel, my heart was being thrown every way. Park was finally being accepted by his father, but Eleanor's family situation was worsening. The last few chapters had me crying, laughing, and yearning for more. Leading up to the last few pages, I thought the ending was going to suck. It wasn't going how I wanted to, and the characters weren't doing what they were supposed to! But that last page had wrapped it up just enough to leave me satisfied.
If you're looking for a contemporary novel about love, growing up, or even abuse, check Eleanor & Park out. Don't be thrown off by the fact that it's set in 1986. It reads like a normal contemporary fiction about a girl who's bullied and a boy who wants to love her. I think Eleanor & Park will work for any teen reader.
