Eleanor & Park | Review

Author: Rainbow Rowell
Genre: YA Contemporary
Pages: 325
Publisher: Orion
Released: 1 February 2013

     Eleanor is the new girl in town, and with her chaotic family life her mismatched clothes and unruly red hair, she couldn't stick out more if she tired.
     Park is the boy at the back of the bus. Black T-shirts, headphones, head in a book - he thinks he's made himself invisible. But not to Eleanor... never to Eleanor. 
     Slowly, steadily, through late-night conversations and an ever-growing stack of mix tapes, Eleanor and Park fall for each other.      They fall in love the way you do the first time, when you're young, and you feel as if you have nothing and everything to lose.

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I am totally in love with Rainbow Rowell and her books. This is the second book of hers that I've read, and it was just as good as the first [Fangirl]! Rowell just seems to know how to write about first love and teen romance - it's totally believable and seems so perfect (even when it's completely complicated like in Eleanor & Park).

Eleanor & Park follows the romance of, you guessed it, Eleanor and Park, who grow to know and love each other as they ride the school bus everyday. However, Eleanor's life at home is far from happy and ordinary, with her step-father seemingly out to make her life hell. But this doesn't stop her from getting together with Park, who seems to be the only good thing in her life. However, nothing is perfect, and nothing seems to last forever.

Pros: The book pulled me in and kept me hooked! The changing perspectives was really interesting, and helped show their different personalities and feelings towards, and helped push the story along, because I desperately wanted to know what the other was thinking/doing. Just like in Fangirl, the romance in this book was wonderful and I could feel the characters falling in love in front of my, as if I was watching my two friends finally get their act together. The last quarter of the book, where a lot of drama goes down, was so intense and gripping.

Cons: As much as I loved the book and the ending, I felt like there were still a lot of loose strings and unanswered questions. Rowell has said that she left the ending up to the readers interpretation, but I still feel like there are some subplots that needed concluding. Other than that, I really enjoyed how it ended, and hope that it opens the way for a possible sequel down the track.

Overall, I highly recommend this book to anyone who want to relive falling in love for the first time. If you have previously read and enjoyed anything by Rainbow Rowell, you will definitely enjoy this book.