A great young adult book about love and friendship. High school and adult readers will enjoy this book.

Nobody writes like Rainbow Rowell - she is such a phenomenal writer and this might be her best, but DANG it's depressing.

Less than halfway through the book, this is the post-it I wrote for it:
[picture of post-it in the book]
(If you can't read my writing, it says: I want to be at the receiving end of all their words.)

Because seriously. Everything Eleanor and Park say to each other are things I dream about having said to me one day. They are the cutest couple together, and I just want to squish them to me and hold them together forever.

I don't remember where I first heard of Eleanor & Park, but the moment I saw it up on NetGalley, I was on that request button so fast - and actual squealing happened when I was approved. And yes, I was at work, but that's ok! Totally worth it.

There's something that immediately draws you to both Eleanor and Park, even though the scene where they meet isn't necessarily a favourable one. It sheds light on what kind of life Eleanor is forced to endure, and it actually doesn't paint Park in the best picture. But still, there's something to both of them that immediately grabs your attention and refuses to let go for the entire duration.

There's a delicious type of anticipation throughout this entire novel. It's not that we're kept waiting, because the relationship isn't stilted or drawn out - in fact, it moves at a fairly regular, normal pace. But the words, the situations that both Eleanor and Park are forced to experience outside of each other; they make the time they are together feel that much more important and worthy of your attention.

I know I'm gushing about the romance here, and that's because I loved it so much - but there is a distinct darkness to this novel, too. Eleanor endures an emotional abuse that's absolutely terrible to read about - from her schoolmates as well as from her stepfather - and it isn't pretty to read about. There is especially one element that was just so adult and horrific that I wanted to weep for her and hold her and protect her. Not to discredit Park and what he goes through, too - while nothing as severe as Eleanor, he has his own problems to deal with, too. And of course, seeing the girl he's growing to love more than he thought possible go through these things can't be easy, either.

But that small line of darkness through the novel makes their relationship shine that much more, too. It's sweet and tender and beautiful and, once again, I just wish I had someone to love me as much as they do each other. It's brilliant to watch this first love grow, and just as heartbreaking when you see it struggle as all first relationships do. This relationship isn't all sunshine and rainbows, despite what I keep typing - there's ups and downs and difficulties and so many moments where I just wanted to yell "NO! YOU BELONG TOGETHER DON'T YOU SEE?!"

There's really no way for me to end this review. I loved this book, I loved this relationship, I loved these characters. They own a piece of my heart.

PS. While I'm a bit young to find a ton of nostalgia in 1986 (I was born in 1987!), I loved all the timely references and them trading tapes and walkmans and batteries back and forth. Kinda made me yearn for the simpler times!

5+ stars!

My Thoughts:

After reading the synopsis, I thought it was a cute idea. The fact that it was set in the eighties pretty much reeled me in as far as requesting it goes. And in the end, I am glad that I was selected to read and review it.

It started off very slow and boring to me that I almost wanted to give up. Then Eleanor and Park started talking to each other, to interact when it comes to music and comics. And it became something epic. The eighties aspect was totally cool, very unique and well drawn out. The way they are together was pretty astounding.

Their story felt so innocent, and yet it was very serious. There is a lot of family matters Eleanor faces, and they are not pretty. Park doesn’t really know how bad it is because Eleanor doesn’t talk about it. The reality of life was painful and when you discover the reason a the end, yikes. Just…yikes. The lengths Park goes to in protecting Eleanor is nothing short of amazing. You can tell that the two of them really and truly do care about each other.

Eleanor & Park was a touching and endearing read. There were moments I found myself a bit frustrated with the way the characters acted, especially Eleanor, but once I reached the end, it all made sense. Eleanor and Park made a truly matchless couple. I may go on and on about certain ones, but these two were iconic in their own way. Rainbow Rowell impressed me with this deep and incomparable story.

My Rating: Very Good

Couldn't download this so I can't really review it. Seems really interesting though, sounds like something I would check out.

If I could give this book more than five stars out of five I would. It broke me into itty bitty pieces. Never has an author captured so precisely what it is to fall in love for the first time. Recommended to absolutely everyone.

So last year, as you probably recall, I lost my crap over Fangirl. It was not my first Rainbow Rowell book, but it was the first time I fell good and hard. After uneven results with Attachments, I just sort of avoided Eleanor & Park when it came out, despite its ridiculously charming cover. Then Fangirl came along with it equally adorable cover and I gave Rowell a second chance. It went so unbelievably, fantabulously well that I purchased a copy of Eleanor & Park before I even finished Fangirl, just knowing that skipping it had been a huge mistake. Possibly a fatal one. But it has taken me this long to get around to it, so afraid was I that it wouldn't live up to Fangirl. This book is an entirely different beast, to be sure. But I read it through from cover to cover the other night completely unable to stop. It was one of those rare and beautiful situations in which the level of my feelings for a book is so high that I feel an obligation to see it through in one sitting. Like I owe the book that much. I will follow a book that good through the deep, dark hours of the night, wherever it leads. I regret nothing. I am bleary-eyed, but unregretfully so.

"That girl—all of them—hated Eleanor before they'd even laid eyes on her. Like they'd been hired to kill her in a past life."

All right. I'm going to just go ahead and break with tradition here, because the thing is I don't even want to summarize this book. I don't want to take anything away from the experience for you. And going through all the ins and outs of the story of Eleanor and Park, even the highlights, feels like cheating each individual reader out of discovering it for themselves. So I'm going to leave it at a few teasers, if you will, the facts that fell out of my mouth the morning after as I incoherently tried to tell my co-workers why they had to pick it up right now. So here they are. All the facts you need to know:

- It's set in 1986. In Omaha.
- It opens when Eleanor boards a school bus and no one will let her sit.
- Until Park lets her sit next to him.
- And they don't talk.
- At all.
- Until he realizes one day that she's reading his comic book over his shoulder.
- And he stops reading it during the day so that when they get back on the bus to go home, they're still in the same spot and Eleanor hasn't missed a thing.

I'm pretty sure that's all you need to know.

As far as what my experience reading the book was like? Quite simply, I laugh-cried my way through every page of Eleanor & Park. When I wasn't laughing or tearing up, I was quietly fixated, the air leaving my body in a whoosh multiple times as this depiction of first love (of so many firsts) had its way with me. It's been awhile since I spent the entirety of a book in such a heightened state. And I don't say that lightly. Rowell's words were always the right ones, and they so carefully sketched out and filled in her two leads that I was truly at their mercy. I worried going in that I wouldn't connect with one of them as well as the other. In a story told from alternate points of view, that can sometimes be a problem. I worried that Eleanor would be too . . . something, that Park wouldn't be . . . enough. I have silly worries sometimes, guys. But I admit I was utterly unprepared for how much I would love them both. I would read a book about just one of them, no questions asked. Just Eleanor stoically stumping her way through each day, snarking in English class, and taking terrifyingly quick baths. Just Park quietly passing at school, excelling at tae kwan do, and pretending his relationship with his dad isn't slowly killing him. I would read those books. But together? Put those stories together and I struggled to remember (or care) where I was. I was with them. Nothing else mattered.

***

He wanted to ask her not to be mad right now. Like, anytime but now. She could be mad at him for no reason all day tomorrow, if she wanted to.

"You really know how to make a girl feel special," Eleanor said.

"I've never pretended to know anything about girls," he answered.

"That's not what I heard," she said. "I heard you were allowed to have girl-zzz in your room . . . "

"They were there," he said, "but I didn't learn anything."

They both stopped on his porch. He took her bag from her and tried not to look nervous. Eleanor was looking down the walk, like she might bolt.

"I meant that you don't look any different than you usually look," he said softly, just in case his mom was standing on the other side of the door. "And you always look nice."

"I never look nice," she said. Like he was an idiot.

"I like the way you look," he said. It came out more like an argument than a compliment.

"That doesn't mean it's nice." She was whispering, too.

"Fine, then, you look like a hobo."

"A hobo?" Her eyes lit.

"Yeah, a gypsy hobo," he said. "You look like you just joined the cast of Godspell."

"I don't even know what that is."

"It's terrible."

She stepped closer to him. "I look like a hobo?"

"Worse," he said. "Like a sad hobo clown."

"And you like it?"

"I love it."

As soon as he said it, she broke into a smile. And when Eleanor smiled, something broke inside him.

Something always did.

***

Golden, right? The way they have a care for each other, while still striking out when striking out is called for, and without lessening any of the very real troubles they deal with on a daily basis. The way they're so far apart and so believably afraid of the ramifications of their relationship. The way his thumb brushes her palm. The way she is strong and solitary and memorizes his face. The whole thing was an irresistibly struck note for me, ringing and throbbing and beautiful.

"The first time he'd held her hand, it felt so good that it crowded out all the bad things. It felt better than anything had ever hurt."

And I'm just going to leave it at that quote. Because this book? This book feels better than anything ever hurt.

Absolutely loved this book. Had me ugly crying when I finished it last night. It felt really personal to me because Eleanor reminds me SO much of a dear friend of mine, who was my best friend in middle school in lived in a very similar situation(she looks a lot like Eleanor too).
Anyone who has ever been an outcast, and anyone who has ever had a first love should definitely read this book.

I am happy to report that this book has earned one of the best clichés: STOLE. MY. HEART. Or in Tumblr speak, there is just “so much feels.” I first saw this on Net Galley and nonchalantly requested for it and had it sitting quietly in my e-reader for quite a while. But that fantastic cover would not have any of it. It made me jump into the world of Eleanor & Park, where there the simplest joys of holding hands, the horror of parents (or stepparent), the uglies of high school bullying, the discovery of great things (like comic books and music), the purity of first love and the dangers of it exist. What a great book.

Amazing book. One of my favourites ever. I would reread this over and over, just for the beautiful writing but also the music recommendations.