A Bookish Bee: Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell || Book Review

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

Publication Date: February 26, 2013
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Pages: 336
Format: Hardcover

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.

(This is an old review)

Do you know those books, that after you finish, you just sit there and cry because you were satisfied and dissatisfied with the ending? Yeah, this is one of those books. I was mad, absolutely mad at the ending but those are the best ones, right? The ones that you hate because they're realistic.

Finding your first love is something we all can't wait for, but losing them is something we fear. It's the unknown that gets to us, the not knowing when or for how long it'll last. For Park, he thought his love would be forever, for Eleanor, she knew it was only a matter of time.

This book tells a great story of two people falling in love for the first time. We get a sense of realism when we see that falling in love isn't as grandiose as people make it out to be. Especially if being together is almost forbidden.

At first, it took me a good two weeks to get to a quarter of the novel. But once I sat down and forced myself to read it, I finished the rest in one sitting. It was so heartbreaking and sad and just sexy. You understand what Eleanor goes through and then you feel for Park because he just wants to help her out of her horrible family situation. It was a sweet read, where, by the end of it, you realize you've been crying.

As a now, fledged out , college student, I can say that I've never experienced my first love, and sometimes I really don't care to find it, but thinking back to high school and reading these types of books make me realize what I could have missed out on. But this book took place in the 80s so I don't really think to hard about what I missed.

There isn't much I can say except that Rainbow Rowell knows how to write realistic young adult literature. With these books, you don't know what to expect because, even though they are fiction, there is this sense of realism and that realism is what kills you because you just wanted a happy ending.

And there sort of is a happy ending, where I did smile, but the plot twist is so messed up that it was hard to smile.

For those of you that want to fall in love all over again, this is a book I'd recommend reading. With elements of abuse, racial slurs, and foul-mouthed dialogue, this might not be for everyone, but it is an excellent read.