Rowena’s review of Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell.
Set over the course of one school year in 1986, ELEANOR AND PARK is the story of two star-crossed misfits – smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try. When Eleanor meets Park, you’ll remember your own first love – and just how hard it pulled you under.
I’ve been meaning to read a Rainbow Rowell for a while now because I’ve been hearing a lot of good things about this author. Of all of the stuff that I’ve been hearing, it was Eleanor and Park that I was most interested in reading.
This book is about first love between misfits and even though the beginning was slow, I was glad that I stuck with the story because I ended up liking it.
Eleanor is dirt poor and her mother is with an abusive boyfriend who kicked her out of their house once before for standing up to him. Now she’s back with her family and her life consists of walking on egg shells and keeping her head down while she’s at home. At school, her outrageous outfits and smart mouth keeps her name on people’s mouths (and not in a good way) and when she starts riding the bus to school, she finds herself sitting next to the quiet Asian kid named Park.
Park keeps his head down at school because while he’s not popular, the bullies and popular kids leave him alone, probably because they grew up with him but he doesn’t really know why. When he lets the new girl sit next to him, he wasn’t expecting to develop feelings for her because 1) she’s unpopular and awkward and 2) he’s kind of embarrassed at the attention she causes with her outrageous outfits and fuck you attitude. But she quickly becomes his favorite person and this story follows them as they try to make an impossible relationship work.
What I found most interesting about this book was how authentic and real the story felt. Each emotion, each issue that Park and Eleanor had to work through felt like it was happening to me. I could totally see that happening in real life and I thought she captured the thoughts and feelings of a teenager really well. Teenagers are passionate and they’re strong. Some are bullheaded and think they know everything. Some have attitudes to hide their insecurities. Some bury their heads in the sands to survive each day and Rainbow Rowell captured these feelings with Eleanor and Park.
Their relationship felt like a whirlwind teenage relationship and I was caught up in all of it. My heart hurt for Eleanor with everything she dealt with at home and then at school. My heart hurt with Park as he struggled to be strong in his feelings for Eleanor, even though he stumbled over and over again. This is exactly how I think teenagers deal with their problems.
This wasn’t an easy story to read but it was good. It was a solid story and I enjoyed it.
Grade: 3.5 out of 5
This book is available from St. Martin’s Griffin. You can purchase it here or here in e-format.
Leave a Reply