Eleanor and Park Review

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell
Narrator: Rebecca Lowman, Sunil Malhotra
Published by St. Martin's Press on February 26, 2013
Length: 8 hours 56 minutes
Genres: Young Adult
Format: Audiobook
Goodreads

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.

   Rose’s Review:

I love this book!  So I listened to this book about a month ago on the audible.com app. I really enjoyed the narrators.  However, since then, my 32 gig SD card corrupted and I cannot retrieve my notes on it. I remember the book, but a neat feature on audible is that you can bookmark sections and leave notes. This is how I remember what to write in my reviews later.  Well, lesson learned. Write your review right after you finish the book, Rose! I lost all of my notes, not to mention the loss of all other stuff on my SD card that was basically brand new and barely used. What a waste of money. (I am glaring at you Samsung Galaxy S4!) It likes to eat SD cards for lunch.  So here is my review from what I can remember from listening to this book a month ago.

I love this book!

It is told from alternating pov of both Eleanor and Park.  What I liked the most about this book it that it “went there.”  While most books make their characters completely appealing, this book is not the case.  When Park first meets Eleanor he is embarrassed of her and for her.  After sharing several bus rides together to school, they begin building a slow friendship by bonding over comic books.  All the time Park is developing feeling for Eleanor, he is still worried about how others will view him because he is associating with her.  He worries a lot about what others will think of him.  I like that he makes a distinction at one point in the novel that he finds Eleanor completely attractive, but he worries that others will make fun of him for liking her.  Mostly he lacks confidence in himself, it is not really about Eleanor.  Eleanor, too, lacks confidence in herself, but she exudes a sense of indifference to the way the other students treat her.  She hides behind a façade of “I-don’t-care.”  She worries all the time that Park is not interested in her. She thinks he is “beautiful” and can’t fathom that he could be attracted to her.  Through it all, Eleanor and Park navigate the awfulness that is high school and battle feelings of insecurity and unworthiness and ultimately acceptance.  Then ending of this book confused me.  I understand what took place, but I do not understand why Eleanor did what she did.  Go read it and tell me what you think! 

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