Book Review: Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

Eleanor & Park

by Rainbow Rowell

I found my copy of this book at a thrift store, and I was so excited! I had received this beautiful exclusive necklace in my OwlCrate box a few months before, which I adored!, and after finally finding and reading the book this necklace now has so much more meaning to me and I love it.

This was also my first Rainbow Rowell read. My best friend adores her books, so it was high time that I was finally introduced. :)

The story is about the unlikely romance between the big, red-headed, strange Eleanor, and small, quiet, Korean-American Park, and it is quite possibly my favourite love story of all time (well, for the moment, anyway). I try to steer clear of typical high school romance novels because they're usually just so cringe-worthy, and I just don't want to be reminded of that excruciating period of my life. This book, however, did a very good job of keeping the love story sweet and real.

Eleanor, who was living with friends of her mom's for the past year, moves back in with her mom & step-dad. She's the new girl, with a flaming red mane and questionable sense of style. She's an immediate magnet for the wrong kind of attention as she steps onto the school bus, and doesn't make matters any better by trying to find a seat. Park eventually concedes to let her sit with him because he feels bad for her and is frustrated by her weirdness. That's all it took. They continue sitting together, morning and afternoon, and eventually start reading his comic books together. Then talking about music. Then they start talking about other things, start seeing each other outside of school. It really is just the sweetest development. But, of course, all good things come to an end. In this case the end is Park helping Eleanor to run away, and possibly never seeing each other again. Although, the ending is kind of left to interpretation. Which is both fun and frustrating.

I adored both characters of Eleanor and Park. I was initially irritated by Park's parents, but really liked them in the end. Eleanor's family, however, I never really cared for. All in all, if you hadn't noticed, I loved this book. I would highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys Young Adult fiction, contemporary, stories about high school, and clean romance.