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Monday 15 September 2014

Rainbow Rowell's Eleanor & Park

Eleanor & ParkEleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Eleanor is the eldest of five children and lives with all of them in a single room while her abusive step father intimidatingly rules the home. Park is from a well off family whose parents are still very much in love. The two high school students meet untowardly on the bus to school and for a while ignore each other completely keeping a healthy six inches between them. Eleanor soon becomes the reject in school, struggling with all sorts of bullying whereas Park is respected, although he would have you believe that's only so because he dated the right people in middle school. However, Eleanor begins to read Park's comics over his shoulder and then starts their relationship. As the two misfits spend more and more time with each other they fall more deeply in love sharing aspects of each other that wouldn't have dreamed sharing with others. Park becomes really defensive and for a while manages to subside the bullying that Eleanor is struggling with. However, they can't seem to figure out who keeps writing the awful phrases that keep appearing on Eleanor's notebooks. After coming home one day Eleanor discovers that the culprit is her abusive step father and with the help of Park and some other unexpected friends, including Park's father, they manage to help Eleanor run away to her uncle's house in another state.

Rainbow Rowell's Eleanor & Park creates the most unexpected love story between two unassuming people. There was a good depth to her characters and the events that occurred in her novel are very probable and because of these two aspects the reality of this book kept me interested. However, the romance seemed kind of unrealistic. At first, it felt right. The hand touching and stealing glances at each other when they were sure the other one wasn't looking. That was all very reminiscent of middle and high school relationships but the speed at which is developed from that to Park declaring his love for Eleanor felt wrong and almost like a move to increase the drama and keep the plot moving. Every other thing about their relationship felt right. Even after Eleanor had left, the reactions that both protagonists had to the situation worked well.

I really enjoyed the way Rowell wrote the novel alternating between the two protagonist's/lover's perspective that worked really well, but I think I like her other novel, Fangirl more. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

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