Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

Two misfits. One extraordinary love.
Eleanor... Red hair, wrong clothes. Standing behind him until he turns his head. Lying beside him until he wakes up. Making everyone else seem drabber and flatter and never good enough...Eleanor.
Park... He knows she'll love a song before he plays it for her. He laughs at her jokes before she ever gets to the punch line. There's a place on his chest, just below his throat, that makes her want to keep promises...Park.
Set over the course of one school year, this is the story of two star-crossed sixteen-year-olds—smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect when I picked up Eleanor & Park. Something YA-ish. Probably something hipster and obnoxious. Kids using far too big words and being too cool for school. Something like that.

This book is nothing like that.

It very quickly grabbed my attention and refused to let it go again and I read and read and read. Both characters are so perfect to me and so flawed. They come from two very different backgrounds and both struggle to understand the other's.

Unlike many other YA-books I felt that the love in this felt real. Real teenage love, first crush, first whirlwind of emotion drama, it was all there and it was just so palpable. I never doubted it for a second and I loved how they did. How they both struggle. It's not just all sorted and packed and ready to go, there are obstacles to overcome and after those, there are even more; it's never easy. And whilst dealing with all that they've also got all those other teenagery-feelings and thoughts going on. The book is so very cleverly written that I could just so easily remember how it was to be that young and feel like you know everything, but at the mean time also feeling so very lost.

The plot changes direction as the book goes on and I know not all enjoy the way it goes down. Some say it felt rushed or too out there. Personally I liked it. In life, when things like that happen as happens here, they do happen quite fast, or so I imagine anyway. My only complaint was how the ending leaves me hanging. It's unsatisfying, but I've never been a fan of more open endings. I need more of a hint of what happened then.

I definitely recommend this book for both the old and the younger, as a nice change of scenery from the usual YA drama.

ELEANOR & PARK by Rainbow Rowell ISBN13: 9781250012579 328 pages / Published in 2013

Review by Iben Jakobsen, BoB, 2014