Brilliant and Heart-rending: Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

Eleanor and Park

by Rainbow Rowell

Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Realistic Fiction

Release Date: April 12, 2012

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Source: Bought/Own Copy

Links: Goodreads | Amazon | Author's Website

Synopsis:   

Set over the course of one school year in 1986, ELEANOR AND PARK is the story of two star-crossed misfits – smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try. When Eleanor meets Park, you’ll remember your own first love – and just how hard it pulled you under.

___________________________________________________ Review:

“All I do when we’re apart is think about you, and all I do when we’re together is panic. Because every second feels so important. And because I’m so out of control, I can’t help myself. I’m not even mine anymore, I’m yours, and what if you decide that you don’t want me? How could you want me like I want you?”

I've often wondered when an author would write a YA book that teens could relate to, and it was very hard finding the right one because some of the authors seem to have forgotten what it's like to be young, in love, and naïve, but this amazing, staggering, remarkable, phenomenal book caught me completely and utterly by surprise. I can't seem to stop talking about how perfect this book was. A love story that's complete with outcasts, family drama, and social difference all laced perfectly—that's Eleanor and Park. It's something special. And I believe I speak for every person on this planet who has read Eleanor and Park when I say that it has a special and well-deserved place in my heart.

It's 1986 and new girl Eleanor, who, by the way, has strikingly red hair and a curvy figure,  finds herself in a school bus without an unoccupied seat and perfect asian Park Sheridan comes to her rescue. One thing led to another: Park was giving her mixed tapes, he was lending her his batteries for her MP3 player, smelling the comics that still smell faintly of her, then he was holding her hand. Well, you could picture the rest.

I remember telling myself that I wouldn't cry because I already know how this book would end. I tried! I really did, but I can't help not crying. It ripped me wide open and exposed my vulnerability to the people inside our car. Maybe it was because of how this book was written because her writing style just made me feel like I know them both personally or this book was just really relatable. I choose the former because I, at the age of fourteen, have not been in love and this book gave me a glimpse on how first loves end: in tears and heartaches.

I have been going on and on about how perfect this book was without starting the formal review, it seems that I got carried away by my love for this book. Getting back on track, I think that the plot was faultless. The slow-paced approach was perfect for adorable love stories such as this. It had the perfect amount of sweetness, not too little and not too much. Park fit perfectly with Eleanor from the very start, and I just want to cry because I am taken back to the novel's ending. And to add up to this book's long list of great qualities, it's narrated from the POV of both characters. If there's a book wherein sequential POVs work, it's this one.

As for the characters, I really loved Eleanor. She's the truest and bravest person I know. She bears with Richie's crap everyday of her life, and that's just courageous. She's genuine—I think I don't think I need to expound the reasons why, but I want to. She shows her true self to the world and doesn't pretend to be who she's not. She's larger than most people and wears mismatched clothes and she doesn't hide it and that's what's truly remarkable about her, and also because she reminds me a bit of myself (I do not have red hair, though).

And for Park.. Park, oh wonderful Park. He was just.... delightful! I wanted to eat him up (not the way Eleanor did) because he was just so cute. And did I mention that he's asian? He always knows what to say, even if nothing is to be said at all. He always knows what to do. I've got only one question for him: Why do you have to be fictional?

To wrap things up, everything about Rainbow Rowell's first take on the YA genre is to be loved dearly. The writing was good, it didn't feel melodramatic to hear their words because they're just kids who fell in love for the first time, which from what I hear is the most painful one. I really advise you to read this book because if you don't, you'll never experience so much emotion evoked by one book only.

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