Author: Rainbow Rowell
Genre: young adult, contemporary, romance
Published: February 26, 2013
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Purchase: Amazon
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 even 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 never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try.
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Hello to my first ever Rainbow Rowell read and review! A friend of mine didn't enjoy it, it might be too YA-ish for her. I blame her taste in books because I liked this. While there were several positive reviews on this one, I proceed with caution because of my friend.
Eleanor has an odd sense of fashion but it could just be her lack of money to buy clothes. She hates her stepfather but it could just be because of how he unreasonably treats her. Park is Korean but he doesn't know what it really means to him. He's a geek who tries to save himself from bullying by staying in the safe zone but does it really matter when Eleanor comes into life?
I wouldn't say I LOVE this book because I didn't love it. I liked it. I enjoyed it. I blame the romance. The romance is basically first love. Not exactly love at first sight because they did not immediately like each other. There was this awkwardness between them at first and I kind of like it. I like how Eleanor sneaks a read at Park's comics. I like how Park notices it and surreptitiously lets her read, turns the page when he think she's done, and opens the comic to the page where she (or both of them) left off. I like their uncertainty of each other.
Being the 'first love' kind of romance, there were a lot (as in A LOT) of times where they think about each other, miss each other, and just plain be so clingy about each other. It's like for Eleanor, Park is life and vice versa. It's really crazy! I do have to admit though, that there was a really smooth development toward their feelings for each other. And while it started off really shallow, I like how they slowly started getting to really know each other - how they started from talking about their recent reads and types of music to their personal life.
Eleanor and Park have an entirely different life. Park's life felt more like the really typical family - with a father and a mother who's there for them both nice and sweet yet also have their own strictness. Eleanor's life is a house that was truck by a hurricane. I hater both her stepfather and her mom. I hate how her stepfather is so unreasonable - that he hates her, that he doesn't seem to want them happy. I hate how her mother simply does everything their stepfather wants - yes, I do get why she follows him but really? Despite how treats her children? I like the focus on their family lives though. It shows that there's more to the story that just their romance (although of course that's the focus).
With all these things given, I had a vague idea how it will end. I know it will be a mixture of sadness and relief for me. And it was really that for me. I like how Rainbow Rowell smoothly delivered this heartbreaking ending that perhaps will be unforgettable for me. I like how everything just perfectly fall into place in the end. I like how that ending how painful it may seem made me smile.
OVERALL, Eleanor & Park is an smoothly written young adult romance. I like how everything felt just right and how all the events at the end perfectly fall into place. I like how it moved me (although not enough to make me cry or even tear up. There's nothing like that in here. More like me going 'awww' in the end). I like how their lives were perfectly laid down - how it was established.
Eleanor has an odd sense of fashion but it could just be her lack of money to buy clothes. She hates her stepfather but it could just be because of how he unreasonably treats her. Park is Korean but he doesn't know what it really means to him. He's a geek who tries to save himself from bullying by staying in the safe zone but does it really matter when Eleanor comes into life?
I wouldn't say I LOVE this book because I didn't love it. I liked it. I enjoyed it. I blame the romance. The romance is basically first love. Not exactly love at first sight because they did not immediately like each other. There was this awkwardness between them at first and I kind of like it. I like how Eleanor sneaks a read at Park's comics. I like how Park notices it and surreptitiously lets her read, turns the page when he think she's done, and opens the comic to the page where she (or both of them) left off. I like their uncertainty of each other.
"I don't think I even breathe when we're not together," she whispered. "Which means, when I see you on Monday morning, it's been like sixty hours since I've taken a breath. That's probably why I'm so crabby, and why I snap at you. All I do when we're apart is think about you, and all I do when we're together is panic. Because every second feels important. -p111
Being the 'first love' kind of romance, there were a lot (as in A LOT) of times where they think about each other, miss each other, and just plain be so clingy about each other. It's like for Eleanor, Park is life and vice versa. It's really crazy! I do have to admit though, that there was a really smooth development toward their feelings for each other. And while it started off really shallow, I like how they slowly started getting to really know each other - how they started from talking about their recent reads and types of music to their personal life.
Eleanor and Park have an entirely different life. Park's life felt more like the really typical family - with a father and a mother who's there for them both nice and sweet yet also have their own strictness. Eleanor's life is a house that was truck by a hurricane. I hater both her stepfather and her mom. I hate how her stepfather is so unreasonable - that he hates her, that he doesn't seem to want them happy. I hate how her mother simply does everything their stepfather wants - yes, I do get why she follows him but really? Despite how treats her children? I like the focus on their family lives though. It shows that there's more to the story that just their romance (although of course that's the focus).
With all these things given, I had a vague idea how it will end. I know it will be a mixture of sadness and relief for me. And it was really that for me. I like how Rainbow Rowell smoothly delivered this heartbreaking ending that perhaps will be unforgettable for me. I like how everything just perfectly fall into place in the end. I like how that ending how painful it may seem made me smile.
OVERALL, Eleanor & Park is an smoothly written young adult romance. I like how everything felt just right and how all the events at the end perfectly fall into place. I like how it moved me (although not enough to make me cry or even tear up. There's nothing like that in here. More like me going 'awww' in the end). I like how their lives were perfectly laid down - how it was established.
* * *
What I Like: (1) Eleanor and Park, (2) how awkwardly they started their relationship, (3) the diversity, (4) how it was smoothly written; how everything just fall into place, (5) that ending!!
What I Didn’t Like: (1) that ending!! (it was both good and bad for me.. it felt all right already but I also feel that I want more), (2) the first romance kind of thing - just not really my type. I mean that going-all-over-each-other and being so clingy is soooo not my book.
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