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A review by kpunt
Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
5.0
Eleanor & Park warmed my heart. The characters are delicately construed and you root for them. Like from the first page. It’s almost like I was sitting on that bus with Park when the new girl made her way down the aisle. I cringed at the awkwardness of it all, really felt those 6 inches between Eleanor and Park – it was awesome. The less awesome parts – Eleanor’s creepy stepfather, Park’s mom’s initial dislike for Eleanor, THE FREAKING ENDING – were pitfalls. Rowell gave me a ticket and took me on a rollercoaster ride, I’ll tell you what.
I loved the quaintness of their love. Rowell spends pages describing both Eleanor and Park’s reactions to their simple act of hand holding on the bus. I felt real emotion for their first “date” that was literally a phone call. There wasn’t a ton of touching, but when their was, it was just the right amount of sweet and sexy.
It’s a modern-day forbidden romance. There’s a very intentional reference to Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet in the novel: Rowell wants readers to think about what young love means, to read beyond the kill-myself-for-the-guy-I-met-3-days-ago in the play. In the midst of a serious domestic violence situation at home and rifts between family members, Eleanor and Park form a bond. Eleanor says, “I don’t like you, Park. Sometimes I think I live for you” and I think that pretty much sums up why their relationship is so pure. Romeo and Juliet who?
I loved the quaintness of their love. Rowell spends pages describing both Eleanor and Park’s reactions to their simple act of hand holding on the bus. I felt real emotion for their first “date” that was literally a phone call. There wasn’t a ton of touching, but when their was, it was just the right amount of sweet and sexy.
It’s a modern-day forbidden romance. There’s a very intentional reference to Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet in the novel: Rowell wants readers to think about what young love means, to read beyond the kill-myself-for-the-guy-I-met-3-days-ago in the play. In the midst of a serious domestic violence situation at home and rifts between family members, Eleanor and Park form a bond. Eleanor says, “I don’t like you, Park. Sometimes I think I live for you” and I think that pretty much sums up why their relationship is so pure. Romeo and Juliet who?