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An easygoing, page-turning romance between two real teenagers.

Eleanor is a heavy-set redhead with a twisted home life. Park is an Asian whom feels like he doesn’t belong in the world. These two teens meet on the bus on their way to school. Eleanor doesn’t dress like other kids do; she wears men’s clothes and neckties as hair-ties. When nobody else would offer her a seat on a crowded bus, Park struggled with the decision to be the bigger person and let the weirdo sit next to him, knowing that his barely afloat reputation would go down the toilet. This one decision, to offer her a seat, sparked one of my favorite romances I’ve ever read.

Rainbow Rowell is one of my favorite authors and I decided to re-read some of her books this month. She just released Pumpkinheads, which is a graphic novel I plan on reading this month. She’s also coming out with Carry On’s sequel later this month. What better way to honor her than to re-read some of her previous masterpieces?

Balance

If you’re not a romance reader, you may still enjoy this book. Rainbow does an amazing job with balancing detail and romance, giving us readers just enough to make our stomachs flop. Rainbow also makes sure that every detail is relevant. Each word in this novel is needed and propels the plotline or deepens a character.

Characterization

First, I have to say that the characters in this book are incredibly developed. It has to do with that balance I referenced earlier, but each character has a story and a voice. I was able to picture each character vividly in my head. I also love how she created real people. Even in writing, many characters are Hollywoodized. They have perfect faces and slender bodies. Eleanor is far from perfect and she learns to embrace that. Park is a minority and has to deal with the backlash of self-depreciation. These characters are real people that real people can relate to.

At the same time, she really knows how to make you hate a character. I’ve read so many books in my life and I found myself wanting to throw my phone (I was reading an ebook) across the room because of how much I hate Richie. I’ve possibly never hated a fictional character this much in my life.

I suppose this is a characterization thing, so I'll put it here. I love the use of pop culture references. This book is set in the eighties but the references are still relevant today.

Format

Eleanor & Park is written in third person. With frequent point of view changes. This confused me at first because I couldn’t keep up. I couldn’t understand how Rainbow was switching perspectives this flawlessly while staying in third person. I absolutely love it. The way she flipped the “camera” gave us more insight on the plot and what the other person was feeling, since Eleanor doesn’t communicate her feelings well. This formatting also allowed Rainbow to use more poetic lines that will make your heart sputter.

The Ending

Heartbreaking without being heartbreaking. I didn’t want the story to end. The ending was solid, though. No loose ends and extremely believable after knowing the characters. However, it was still heartbreaking... sort of. The last words of the novel definitely keep you guessing what would come next.

My Favorite Quotes

"That night, Park made a tape with the Joy Division song on it, over and over again. He emptied all his handheld video games and Josh's remote-control cars, and called his grandma to tell her that all he wanted for his birthday in November was double-A batteries."

"Eleanor was right. She never looked nice. She looked like art, and art wasn't supposed to look nice; it was supposed to make you feel something."

"She felt it all right at the back of her throat, like a bomb - or a tiger - sitting on the base of her tongue. Keeping it in made her eyes water."

"'No,' she said, 'it's...' She couldn't think of anything funny to say. 'Yeah, it's for you.'"