Eleanor & Park by
Rainbow RowellMy rating:
5 of 5 stars“He tried to remember how this happened – how she went from someone he’d never met to the only one who mattered.”
― Rainbow Rowell, Eleanor & Park
Let me preface this post by saying the first scene has tons of swearing. It takes place in the back of a bus full of teenagers. (Duh! There's going to be swearing.) But please, please, please don't stop reading. Trust me -- the entire book isn't full of swear words!!I almost instantly liked both main characters - Eleanor and Park. Told in their alternating perspective, I enjoyed hearing both sides of their stories and seeing their relationship develop from ambivalence (bordering on disdain), to acceptance, to like and ultimately to first love.I loved the humor, the emotional rollercoaster the novel takes the reader on and how authentically teen the story was. So authentic, I never felt like I was "reading a book" because the characters were so relatable and three-dimensional. Even the secondary characters. (I swear Park's mom stole every scene she was in.)Overwhelmingly, the story captured the Eleanors and the Parks I knew from high school. It's a timeless story, that although set in 1986, the theme will resonate with today's teenage reader and fans of young adult literature.It's a heartwarming, gut wrenching story of need and want and how sometimes life royally sucks, but it's also about how love can help you overcome anything.
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