Review: Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

4/5 Stars

I don't even know how to begin describing my feelings towards this book. Firstly let me just say, yes, I know I am WAY behind by only just getting round to picking this book up but there has been A LOT of hype about it and I generally find that when reading a hugely popular book that everyone is raving about can often end me finding the book rather anti-climatic, wondering what made the book so fabulous that everyone feels the need to share their love of it. But in this case, I get it. I adored this book. 

I will admit it did take me a bit to get into but whether that was to do with the book itself or more just to do with not finding the time to read a good chunk at once I'm not sure. But once I did get into it, at around 80 pages in, I finished it in a couple of hours. 

Rainbow Rowell captures the essence of adolescence with such skill.Set in the 80's the book centers around the lives of two teenagers, Park - a half Korean boy with a relatively cushy lifestyle - and Eleanor - a slightly overweight girl who lives with her highly dysfunctional family- and deals with many issues that are integral in the lives of teenagers (and adults). Park starts off as a really cool guy, a little mean but you still get the feeling that hes a really nice person. At first I didn't think I would like Park but as the book continued I grew to love him, he's not as confident as he tries to come across and to be honest he is a bit of a nerd but then so am I so that's probably why I love him. 

Eleanor. Ahh Eleanor. I absolutely adore Eleanor. She's awkward, has frizzy hair and a bad dress sense. She appears to everyone else like she doesn't care what anybody thinks of her but in reality she just wants to be invisible, but what with bright red hair and the clothes she wears that's impossible. Eleanor is adorable. She's so unsure of herself, but still intelligent and caring and adventurous. The more I got into the book the more I identified with Eleanor. And the more I admired her cool and calm reactions to situations. 

I thought the two of them worked well together and brought out the best in each other. Their relationship progressed naturally as well which i thought was wonderful given the usual 'insta-love' in YA contemporary's. 

The book dealt with a lot of issues present in all teenagers lives. Parent's are such an integral part of teenage life - they are the reason you can do things, the reason you can't do things, the reason you have money, etc. This book had parents that were just as important, interesting, and developed as the main characters and I so appreciated that. I especially enjoyed Park's parents: they were so complex and confused about their son, but ultimately so supportive. I love that basically every character in this book was weird and quirky and individual. I could imagine so many imperfections in everybody, they felt so real. This book made me laugh, cry and even shout at it a few times, and that for me signifies a good book. 

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