Book Review: Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

Pages: 328

Genre: YA Realistic Fiction

Pub. Date: February 26, 2013

Source: Personal Copy

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Goodreads says, "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."

The year is 1986 and Eleanor and Park go to the same high school. Eleanor is a new student and is a bit strange. She has unruly red hair, she's overweight, has freckles, and dresses unconventionally.  Park is Korean, quiet, enjoys comics, music and is a wallflower.  Eleanor is looking for a seat on the school bus and is having a hard time finding one. Park decides to let her sit with him, just so the bus can finally pull away. Surprisingly for both of them a friendship and something more ensues.  They both feel out of place at times and although they are so very different, they can't deny their connection to each other.  Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell is a beautifully written story that captures high school life and the all-consuming first love that a person never forgets.

Eleanor is a character that really tugged on my heartstrings. Her mother is a complete loser and shacks up with losers. Her current man du jour is Richie who is seriously a degenerate and now Eleanor's step-father.  He drinks, he abuses her mother, and treats the children like dirt. Eleanor is forced to sleep in a room with all of her siblings, take baths in a room without a door and deal with Richie's interrogation on a daily basis.  Although she loves her siblings, she dreams of escaping. I mean who wouldn't?! And you would think her mother would do something about their situation, but no. She doesn't, which makes her just as bad. My heart felt soooo heavy reading about Eleanor's situation and I just wanted her to be happy, which is where Park comes in.

Park lives in a beautiful home with two doting parents and one brother. His home life is the compete opposite of Eleanor.  He sort of feels like a misfit as well, but is more socially accepted than Eleanor. Although he knows that Eleanor is sort of weird and gets bullied at school, he likes her and their friendship blossoms as they read comics together on the way to school.  I adored the character of Park in Eleanor & Park. What a good guy! He stands up for Eleanor when she is bullied at school, he sees who she really is behind the weird clothes and extra pounds and is a true friend to her. I couldn't get enough of Park.

Rowell's writing is supurb in Eleanor & Park. There is something about it that I really loved, but I can't quite put my finger on it. I think it's her realistic dialogue and her ability to make me laugh out loud in one moment and then cry the next.  At times, her style reminded me of John Green's for the simple fact that I wanted to re-read certain lines over and over because they were just that beautiful and poignant. Here are a few of my favorite lines:

• “Eleanor was right. She never looked nice. She looked like art, and art wasn't supposed to look nice; it was supposed to make you feel something.” 
• “Holding Eleanor's hand was like holding a butterfly. Or a heartbeat. Like holding something complete, and completely alive.” 
• "Or maybe, he thought now, he just didn't recognize all those other girls. The way a computer drive will spit out a disk if it doesn't recognize the formatting.  When he touched Eleanor's hand, he recognized her. He knew.” 

Simply put, Eleanor and Park's relationship is awesome. Rowell really captures what that first relationship is like. It was beautiful, it was heart-wrenching, it was real and I loved it! With that said, I highly recommend Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell, especially if you are a fan of contemporary fiction.  I plan on reading more of Rowell's novels in the future.