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A review by emgraceef
Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
3.0
Eleanor is the new girl in town.
Park is the boy at the back of the bus.
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 they do the first time, when you’re young, and you feel as though you have nothing and everything to lose.
Rainbow Rowell has yet again produced such an amazing storyline. With both a fantastic plot line and character development, I had to give this book 5 stars. Both character’s point of views were written simultaneously which really avoided a single, unreliable narrator. I believe this book does go slightly into abuse, especially with Eleanor’s family and Richie, however it’s only slight and nothing too ‘triggering’ occurs. That being said, I think Rowell has used both Protagonists’ families as a contrast. Eleanor comes from a dysfunctional home with four younger siblings, her mum and Richie, her abusive stepdad. Whereas Park lives with his younger brother, Josh and both of his parents, whom love each other. It is almost as if Rowell, at the start, wants us to believe that Park has the ‘perfect’ life.
For me, what really completed this book and brought it to a 5 star rating had to be Eleanor. At some points she did annoy me as a reader but she was not your stereotypical beautiful, tall, slim, model-type protagonist. She was just a chubby red-haired girl who was plastered in freckles. I loved how despite all of her imperfections and flaws, Park looked past all of that. Despite her mismatched clothes and awkward personality, Park still fell in love with her.
“She looked like art, and art wasn’t supposed to look nice; it was supposed to make you feel something.”
As for the ending of the book, Eleanor’s three words. I find it hard to believe after waiting this long, she wold write ‘I love you’. It doesn’t seem right. There are thousands of things she could have said. I miss you. Park, please stop. See you soon. I like to believe that whatever she wrote, whatever those three words were, they had a deeper meaning. A significance to something else in the book.I JUST WANT TO KNOW!
Park is the boy at the back of the bus.
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 they do the first time, when you’re young, and you feel as though you have nothing and everything to lose.
Rainbow Rowell has yet again produced such an amazing storyline. With both a fantastic plot line and character development, I had to give this book 5 stars. Both character’s point of views were written simultaneously which really avoided a single, unreliable narrator. I believe this book does go slightly into abuse, especially with Eleanor’s family and Richie, however it’s only slight and nothing too ‘triggering’ occurs. That being said, I think Rowell has used both Protagonists’ families as a contrast. Eleanor comes from a dysfunctional home with four younger siblings, her mum and Richie, her abusive stepdad. Whereas Park lives with his younger brother, Josh and both of his parents, whom love each other. It is almost as if Rowell, at the start, wants us to believe that Park has the ‘perfect’ life.
For me, what really completed this book and brought it to a 5 star rating had to be Eleanor. At some points she did annoy me as a reader but she was not your stereotypical beautiful, tall, slim, model-type protagonist. She was just a chubby red-haired girl who was plastered in freckles. I loved how despite all of her imperfections and flaws, Park looked past all of that. Despite her mismatched clothes and awkward personality, Park still fell in love with her.
“She looked like art, and art wasn’t supposed to look nice; it was supposed to make you feel something.”
As for the ending of the book, Eleanor’s three words. I find it hard to believe after waiting this long, she wold write ‘I love you’. It doesn’t seem right. There are thousands of things she could have said. I miss you. Park, please stop. See you soon. I like to believe that whatever she wrote, whatever those three words were, they had a deeper meaning. A significance to something else in the book.