Review- Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

Eleanor & Park on Goodreads

Read Sarika's review of Fangirl

 BOOK SUMMARY:

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.

Release date: February 26th 2013

Published by: St. Martin's Press

Page numbers: 328

REVIEW: 

2017 has been a Rainbow Rowell year for me. I read Fangirl and fell in love with it. It was honestly one of the most comforting books I've ever read and has easily made its way to my list of top five books read this year. Since I loved the book and had a copy of Eleanor & Park lying around, I thought I'd give it a go, as well.

Now compared to Fangirl, Eleanor & Park wasn't all that great. The book started out as being really adorable and very funny in some places, but as I moved ahead, and saw that the pace wasn't picking up fast enough- with descriptions going on and on- I found it to be slightly slow. It just felt like something was really lacking in the book.

When it comes to the characters, I really liked both Eleanor and Park. Being outsiders and different, they were both extremely relatable. I loved how their families were poles apart, and played an important role in the book, which is something I really appreciate about Young Adult novels. I did have some problems with Eleanor's family- not because it was bad, but because in spite of knowing they were bad, no one was doing anything about it.

Rainbow Rowell writes so well that even some tedious descriptions seemed magnificent because of the flow of words. Her YA characters are honestly so raw and relatable that it's hard not to like them. She is a superfine Young Adult writer of our time, and in spite of some problems I had with Eleanor & Park, I sure am looking forward to more books from her.

I'm not saying that Eleanor & Park was bad. It was the contrary, actually. It was a great book. Had I read it before Fangirl, I probably would have liked it more, but I didn't, so it faded slightly in comparison. Nonetheless, I would recommend this one to fans of YA as its a deep book, especially considering the fact that the story revolves around two sixteen year olds.

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