Eleanor is overweight newbie at a school with strawberry hair and ill-fitting dresses. Poverty and bad home life had made her prickly and acerbic. She has a thorny personality owing to her extremely bad home life. Park is a bit different too. He thinks of himself as an outcast both at home and with his classmates.

The story moves from their reluctant sitting arrangement, to reading of comics together, to quick exchanges every now and then, to becoming a couple. Every small interaction, every little word exchanged, the comics and music exchanged, the stolen moments together, all made me feel the butterflies along with them. It was absolutely adorable.

People who love sweet romance.

1) The growing friendship – The book shows that they didn’t like each other initially, yet their friendship grew. It started with awkward silence of ignoring each other into a friendship which made one spill secrets. Although the development of romance happened very quickly, the progression from acquaintances to friends is very well done.

2) Changing POV – Usually I don’t like hopping POVs. But as the chapters jump from Park and Eleanor, I can’t help but love being in their heads. I enjoyed seeing how both of them felt differently yet so similarly.

3) Ending – This was a mixed bag. I’m not fan of open endings. But I think interpretation of this open ending depends upon the cynicism of the readers. I felt it was a happy ending. More than being happy, it was Eleanor’s true reaction, something which I would have expected from her. After all, she is the girl who didn’t believe Romeo and Juliet were in love.

Subplots – Some subplots feel short-changed, like I was left wondering about the problems between each character and their respective parents – Park with his Dad, Eleanor with her mom and her stepdad. The ending was open, true, but then the fate of these characters and relations should also have been told.

Read it again!

happy, warm, fuzzy.

is Rainbow Rowell who writes excellent prose.

it has a very nice romance.

it uses F word a lot.

This book reminded me that even nearing thirty has not dimmed that teenager inside me. This is a story of two young kids who are living their school life and falling in love. I wish to live in this book’s world for a few more days minutes. Every time they took a step ahead, I squealed with happiness.

Interested in buying this? Support Writing.Com by making your purchase of Eleanor Park   from Amazon.Com!

Created Jan 24, 2014 at 12:36am • Submit your own review...