Eleanor and Park, A Review

Eleanor And Park
By: Rainbow Rowell
My Rating: 3/5 It was good, but not great

I had very high hopes coming into this one because I had just come off my high of reading Fangirl.  Not saying this book was bad, it definitely had some great things going on for it.  I loved the 80's references she threw into the book.  Example, all the talk about music he was introducing her to and also the different comic books they would read.  It just left me feeling kinda blah.

Eleanor has moved back in with her mother and step-father in Omaha, with all of her younger siblings.  She walks onto the bus as "the new girl" drawing all of the unwanted attention from her soon to be classmates.  Eleanor's fire red hair and her body shape are both working against her.  She's not doing herself any favors with her unique style of dress, crazy even for the eighties.  I do admire Eleanor for being herself and for how quirky she was because I honestly can't say the same about myself while I was in high school.

Park isn't exactly popular, but he gets along with the popular kids so that means they tend to leave him alone.  He is half Korean, which stands out more in a primarily white school he is in. His life is the complete opposite of Eleanor's, he has one other sibling, loving parents, and a nice house.  The first day he sees Eleanor on the bus he feels embarrassed for her.  Not a soul would move over and let her sit with them for fear of being made fun of.  Begrudgingly, Park looks at Eleanor and tells her to sit down with him.

The story follows the two as they live very different lives, and how they slowly go from bus friends, to being in love.  Eleanor eventually opens up her world to Park after she tries to hide everything from him.  Most of this story felt very real to me.  I could see the two sitting by each other on the bus, her reading the different comics he would bring every day, then eventually listening to music together.  First love is a hard thing to get across with out it sounding too Romeo and Juliet.  Rainbow Rowell did a pretty good job with it. 

Stephanie