Eleanor & Park, by Rainbow Rowell

Hey all! 
Yesterday I finished reading Eleanor and Park, by Rainbow Rowell! 

(I also finished a re-read of Illuminae, and loved it again so much! Re-reading it a second time made it even better! If you want to see my original review, click here! I cannot wait for book 2!! )

"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. "

Oh my gosh I think I found my new favorite Rainbow Rowell book! This was amazing! 

I went into reading Eleanor & Park knowing that a lot of people like it for a bunch of different reasons - I was told that it had an amazing ending, that the story was relatable, etc. I think that everyone who reads this will or has experienced it differently. 

Eleanor & Park is about two highschool misfits who find comfort and love in each other. It is set in 1986, so there’s kind of retro vibe to it - full of mixtapes and music. Eleanor is a girl who has bright red hair and is heavier than most other girls at school. This makes her quite uncomfortable at times, and she is often bullied by people at her school. She has a unique, quirky personality that Park likes. 

Park wasn’t popular or unpopular at school - as a kid he had earned some kind of immunity from being bullied, because he used to hang out with the popular kids. He’s a guy who constantly listens to music, reads comics, and wears band shirts. He and Eleanor meet on the bus on the way to school, and slowly start becoming friends. 

Both Eleanor and Park (I just can’t say Park and Eleanor... it sounds too wierd o.o) have very different living situations. Park’s mom is a Korean hair stylist, and his dad is a nice guy I guess. They have a somewhat normal family life. However, Eleanor’s family is a different story. Her dad practically abandoned her and her mom, who got re-married to a complete jerk (that’s being nice... he’s awful!). She has five (half)-siblings, all who are slightly strange. Her step-dad beats her mom on a regular basis, and takes the family money to go drinking and gambling. Eleanor finds a kind of refuge in Park’s family after a while. 

I really appreciate how Rainbow Rowell presented these kind of family problems. I’m super fortunate that there are no such problems in my family at all, but I still feel like she managed to make the situations as realistic as possible. 

Oh my goodness I usually don’t like insta-love, but danggg these two were just too adorable to not like! They both depended on each other for a reason or another, and helped each other. Just too cute! 

And the ending surprised me more than I thought it would! It’s hard to describe without any spoilers, but it was quite terrifying. And then it was really sad. Rainbow Rowell seems to have a knack for making beautiful stories and having them just... stop. 


Anyway, I have to go already! But I’m giving this lovely contemporary a 4.5/5 feathers! 

Have you read Eleanor and Park? What did you think? Let me know! 
Have a great day!!