Eleanor & Park in The Reader's Lounge

Dec 20, 2013 Glass rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: romance, girl-power, realistic-fiction, tanja-zemira-miss-glass-book-club

"I want everyone to meet you. You're my favorite person of all time."

Yes, I want everyone to meet this beautiful book. Everyone! After I finished reading Fangirl, I had to get my hands on all books written by Rainbow Rowell. I've started Eleanor and Park the very next morning. If you'd ask me which one of this two I like more, I wouldn't know what to tell you. Both of them have that special something, fairy dust all of our favorite books sprinkle all around them.

description

This novel is completely d

"I want everyone to meet you. You're my favorite person of all time."

Yes, I want everyone to meet this beautiful book. Everyone! After I finished reading Fangirl, I had to get my hands on all books written by Rainbow Rowell. I've started Eleanor and Park the very next morning. If you'd ask me which one of this two I like more, I wouldn't know what to tell you. Both of them have that special something, fairy dust all of our favorite books sprinkle all around them.

description

This novel is completely different from Fangirl. That is a good thing in my world. I don't like authors who are constantly writing books with similar characters and story. If you had read one, it's as if you read them all. Rainbow Rowell is not one of those authors (I'm reading Attachments currently and it is whole other category, I'm even wondering if it's written by the same person).

I absolutely adore setting of Eleanor & Park - everything happens in 1986. - and don't even let me start with the music: The Smiths, Joy Division, U2... Walkmens! Yes, I used to have one of those. Making mixtapes was a big deal and it took a lot of time. I still have few tapes somewhere in the apartment.

But the most captivating part of this story are main characters, Eleanor - overweight and awkward new girl, and Park - part Korean and part Irish boy with great music taste.

“What are the chances you’d ever meet someone like that? he wondered. Someone you could love forever, someone who would forever love you back? And what did you do when that person was born half a world away? The math seemed impossible.”

This is not a story about a boy and a girl who fall in love at a first sight. This is not a story about fat girl who fights a social stereotypes in her school and in the end changes the way everyone thinks about her. But also, Eleanor & Park is not another story about bulling. Not completely. Main focus is somewhere else and it is so honest and real. Eleanor has some issues with the way she looks but she still knows what she wants, who she is and she doesn't try to fit in. She just is. Park is fighting with his identity - being Korean is what defines him where ever he goes, but he doesn't even know what does it mean to be Korean. Along with family problems, great music and epic make out sessions, this novel will keep you on the edge until the very end. I really hope that Rainbow Rowell won't get into the all too familiar trap of writing sequels. This story should stay just the way it is and she should write new stories.

Eleanor & Park goes just after Fangirl on the list of my favorites. Thank you, Rainbow, for giving us your stories.
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Aug 27, 2015 Tratchka rated it liked it

This review was originally posted on my blog: Yellow, Green, and Read All Over

https://ygreadallover.wordpress.com/2...

Eleanor is the new girl in school. And she’s weird….really weird. She’s got the wrong clothes, the wrong hair, the wrong shape, and the other kids at school never let her forget it….except Park. Park is a Half-Asian kid in 1986 Nebraska….for anyone else, that would instantly make them a target. Luckily for Park, he grew up in the same neighborhood, with the same kids his entire l This review was originally posted on my blog: Yellow, Green, and Read All Over

https://ygreadallover.wordpress.com/2...

Eleanor is the new girl in school. And she’s weird….really weird. She’s got the wrong clothes, the wrong hair, the wrong shape, and the other kids at school never let her forget it….except Park. Park is a Half-Asian kid in 1986 Nebraska….for anyone else, that would instantly make them a target. Luckily for Park, he grew up in the same neighborhood, with the same kids his entire life, and has learned to fly below the radar to avoid being harassed…until Eleanor. When Eleanor boards the bus on her first day of school, she’s instantly made aware of how much her life is about to suck. As she goes from open seat to open seat, not a single student on the bus will let her sit next to them. Except of course, Park, but he’s not happy about it; not happy at all. What starts out as a mild tolerance peppered with annoyance and resentment slowly becomes more. First, they bond over comic books, then music, and next thing they know, Eleanor and Park can’t get enough of each other. But, like all tragic romances, life gets in the way and Eleanor and Park risk losing not only each other, but the versions of themselves they have become through their relationship.

I really wanted to love this book. For God’s sake, I’m Eleanor! I always had the wrong EVERYTHING growing up. Clothes, hair, shape, mannerisms, you name it, I was, and still am, just plain weird. That being said, this book was not the life-altering, feels-in-your-face masterpiece I was hoping for. The character and relationship progression was a little off for me. I understand that everything moves at warp-speed in high school, and I can appreciate that Rainbow Rowell knows that too. As adults, we tend to forget what being an adolescent feels like, and like me, she definitely remembers. However, even when compared to the lightning-fast progression at which high-school relationships tend to move, this was FAST. I’m not sure what time-period this book was supposed to span, but in reading it, I fell like it couldn’t have been more than a couple months at the most. I just felt like there was a lot of aspects of the relationship between Eleanor and Park that felt disjointed. Because of that, I was not able to completely dive into the story and the “feels” like I normally would. I am the queen of curling up in a ball and crying ugly at books. I do it a lot! Unfortunately, I didn’t do that with this one, although I’m sure that was the intent.

Also, there were some really important aspects of this novel that I felt could have been explored more. It was almost as though the toughest topics and subjects were skimmed, but not explored in order to save the reader from having to think too much beyond the romance. This book touches on racial relations in the 1980's, which, from what I understand, haven't changed much in that part of the country, bullying, poverty, and child abuse. Yes, they were mentioned in the book, some more than others, and I can appreciate the fact that they were even there, but if you are going to introduce something like that into a novel, especially a YA novel, I think it’s necessary to make sure you explore it fully and give the topic its due diligence. A lot of teenagers who have and will read this novel are dealing with the same issues, and this could have been a great resource to let them know that they’re not alone.

Like I said, I really wanted to love this novel. Given the hype it’s gotten, I wanted it to be everything I hoped for and more, and for it to be something that I carry with me for the rest of eternity. While I wouldn’t run through the streets screaming “YOU MUST READ THIS BOOK!” I don’t for a second regret picking it up. It definitely had its good points. I really enjoyed the back and forth perspective the book was written in. The novel goes from Eleanor’s perspective, to Park’s perspective and I think this is a great way to show the reader how each character is feeling, as opposed to using an omniscient narrator. I will admit, narrating the book this way definitely added to the cheese factor, but in a totally awesome way. I don’t know if I liked this book because of or in spite of the cheese. I mean, the novel is sweet. Not like a piece of candy sweet, but like a piece of candy, wrapped in sugar, and put in a bathtub full of syrup sweet.

"Holding Eleanor’s hand was like holding a butterfly. Or a heartbeat. Like holding something complete, and completely alive."

Seriously?! How can you not just adore that? I found myself reading and going “AWWWWWW” more than once, much to the chagrin of my husband and whomever else was around me at the time.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a quick and easy read. It took me exactly one day to get through. Also, anyone who has forgotten what it feels like to be a teenager in love, or is struggling with understanding their own teenager might really enjoy giving this one a go.

……Side note: I was definitely listening to The Smiths the entire time I was writing this review. Read the book. You’ll understand why. ...more

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Aug 28, 2013 Pili rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I had heard so many good things about this book from other bloggers but since I'm usually wary of contemporaries I was a bit reluctant. Then came the author's Fangirl and after even more gushing from my reference bloggers, I gave it a chance and absolutely loved it! After that it was a question time that I read Eleanor and Park, but my timing was given by the news that an association of parents from a school district in US wanted to ban it. Cue my shock (and indignation) face of "does that reall I had heard so many good things about this book from other bloggers but since I'm usually wary of contemporaries I was a bit reluctant. Then came the author's Fangirl and after even more gushing from my reference bloggers, I gave it a chance and absolutely loved it! After that it was a question time that I read Eleanor and Park, but my timing was given by the news that an association of parents from a school district in US wanted to ban it. Cue my shock (and indignation) face of "does that really STILL happen in a democratic country??" Because I wouldn't have been surprised to hear of any book being banned in a country with a teocracy in charge, or a dictatorship, since those aren't big on thinking for yourself but in the so-called "land of the free"? Colour me shocked! (and again indignant!).

Then Tea Time from Epic Reads & Harper Teen talked about the issue and Banned Books Week, and I knew I would read Eleanor and Park for that week and would support the author and the freedom to read whatever you want!

And boy, am I glad that I did! This is a brilliant book! It's a tough book to read, full of real life issues. It's raw, it's real and it's full of what's ugly out there, yes. But it is also treated in a very realistic way with loads of hope. And does show us that there's always light in dark places. The biggest message I get from Eleanor & Park is that one, hope.

Hope that we can find someone that will make us smile even in unlikely situations, hope that friends can be found even when you are trying to keep everyone at a distance, hope that love can happen even to those who don't believe they deserve it. Hope that good things can happen even when you had given up on hope itself.

Eleanor and Park is a story about two kids that fall in love, with their very different backgrounds and their own different stories. It's a story with gritty and dark corners cause life is not all rainbows and fluffly unicorns, so it's raw and real and so are the characters, flawed, real, with issues, damaged and growing.

The characters feel real, the story feels real, the pacing, the progression, the issues, the ending... everything feels real, like this might be a story that has actually happened to someone and we get their story through the very expert hands of Rainbow Rowell.

I know now that I will read everything that she writes, because this book is a very much deserving 5 stars for me! ...more

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Nov 19, 2015 Rawan rated it it was amazing

I really did fly through this book! It was so good. It was liek a little escape from the world. I kind of related to the characters, but not really. I JUST REALLY WANT A PARK!

This was also one of the very first Rainbow Rowell books I've read. ...more

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