My daughter read this book and loved it so much; I also picked it up to see what all the hype and excitement and squealing was all about.
About the book
Set over one school year in 1986, Eleanor & Park is the story of two star-crossed misfits – smart enough to know first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try.
~ Synopsis from goodreads
My Review
I am not the target age for Eleanor & Park (definitely too old to be reading first love type of stories), so I”ll try to keep that in mind while writing this review.
First up, I loved the characters, Eleanor and Park. I love how their love story was a slow boil, how each of them was such a distinct character with their own individual personalities.
Park is a reasonably straight-laced boy living the perfect family life. However, he doesn’t fit in at school, and he struggles to live up to his father’s expectations. Eleanor lives a rough life with multiple siblings and an abusive stepdad. These two should have nothing in common, and usually, a love story between such different characters would have been unbelievable for me.
Where I had issues with the book was with the setting of 1986. It just seemed way too in the past for me. Since I grew up during that time period, I should have been able to relate to the mixtapes, the walkmans, and the very 80s feel of the book. But in actuality, something felt off about it to me; maybe the writing felt too contemporary? I don’t know.
I also struggled with the lack of plot. While the character setting was note-perfect, I felt that more than 1/2 of the book dealt with Eleanor and Park sitting side by side on the bus listening to music, and reading comic books.
The critical plot points came a little too late in the book for me, and the ending seemed very abrupt. It felt like Rainbow Rowell had a sequel planned, but it didn’t pan out.
Either way, an enjoyable book, which just seemed to drag on a trifle while moving to an unsatisfactory ending.
