Reviews with content warning for Toxic relationship - Eleanor & Park

I thought the overall story was pretty good, but it was definitely missing some things. There were also little things that the author included that did not to be added in, and most of them had a very racist or fatphobic undertone.

alright i just read this again for school. wtf was that. im mortified. literally eleanor has to be the most dramatic human ever im sorry. its so frustrating hearing her talk. poor park.

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nana_7's review against another edition

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slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.25

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jadehusdanhicks's review against another edition

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dark emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

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mochi21's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This book has been on my list since middle school. Im sure I would have liked it better if I read it then. Or maybe if I had waited ten years, until I was far enough on the right side of high school to forget it's not actually the cliquey hell scape YA books like this one will have you believe. So, to avoid losing my eyes in the back of my head, I had to pretend this took place in an alternate universe. And as my school's resident weird-kidcore fashion enthusiast- chubby girl, you can trust me.

It was also hard to look over the micro tidbits of racism that were probably made to mimic how teenagers talk in real life, but just came off as bad stylistic choices. This book was put out in 2013, so everything I'm going to say has already been said by people more qualified to speak on it than I am. So I'm going to leave it at this : park being korean was done poorly. DeNice and Beebi are just bad stereotypes of black teenage girls. There is a way to do diversity - and this wasn't it. Feel free to google this issues for more info.

While under developed minority characters written by white people are hard to read, I did enjoy the story overall. I felt that Eleanor was a redeeming character. She's a guarded teenager learning to be vulnerable. Her character was done very well, in my opinion. The parts where the reader can hear her monologue on being fat were especially realistic. If Rowell would have stuck to writing what she knew for the whole book, we wouldn't have the issues outlined above and this book could have been five stars for me.

I loved the tenderness. The sweet foreshadowing when Park says that people keep reading Romeo and Juliet because they like being reminded of what it is to be young and in love. I loved the awkwardness. I thought the pacing was good. The ending surprised me and gave the whole story more depth.

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