Eleanor And Park
On Eleanor’s first day of school, no one will move over to give her a seat on the bus. She’s not surprised. She’s awkward and different looking with her bright red hair and an overweight body, she’s usually the school outcast. She’s on the bus with nowhere to seat but surprisingly a “weird Asian” boy scouts over for her. I guess he was being nice huh? Park wasn’t too happy with giving her a seat anyways. Park isn’t so perfect himself, he’s a half Korean young boy who listens to weird music, reads comic books and wear black clothing but he’s a lot more accepted in school compare to Eleanor so he has pity on her therefore, he moved over. It takes weeks for Park and Eleanor to finally speak to each other, and even longer for them to touch. But once the walls break down, these two unique individuals find that they are two souls searching for the other.
Eleanor comes from a very dysfunctional family with 4 siblings. Eleanor father left them and eventually started another family with someone else. Due to her father leaving them they were forced to move into a very small house until her mother remarried. Eleanor and her siblings understood what it meant to cherish little things such as a toothbrush or even have a bed although they were cramped in one room. To top this off Eleanor stepfather is a beast who will do everything he can to get rid of everyone one by one.
Eleanor family moved to a new town and into a new house thanks to the beast of a stepfather. He’s an alcoholic, and verbally abusive to the entire family. Besides what she is going through with her family, she is overweight and insecure. She wears men clothing that are way to big since her mother is unable to afford nice clothing for everyone.
Although Eleanor life is a mess, Park family is perfect and solid. He lives with both parents and a younger brother. Park parents are a true definition of true love. Within time, Eleanor and Park became as one. Their feelings for each other deepen and Eleanor was able to escape in Park’s “Brady Bunch” life. Unfortunately, she knows that it’s only a matter of time before her stepfather learns that she has a boyfriend, something that would send him over the edge and maybe even put her safety in danger. Other obstacles conspire to separate them, but always they find that being apart is far more painful than anything they’d have to endure to be together. Eleanor realized that she could no longer risk her life because of a boyfriend so; she leaves everything behind including park and her siblings in order to move with her uncle. The uncle became a new escape for her.
Now it’s time for my opinion
This book was an okay book for me. Although in the beginning I was into it but as the story kept going I was losing interest. Rainbow Rowell is an awesome author as far as writing. E&P was definitely an easy read and because of that I won’t give this book a bad rating.
THE ROMANCE
My Main issue is the romance between Eleanor and Park. I just didn’t get it…although I tried to understand the romance, I just couldn’t understand how Eleanor went from “weird Asian” kid on the bus, Park thinking Eleanor was unattractive to the next chapter they were madly in love. I understand that Rainbow Rowell tried to make the romance realistic so I tried to remember the moments when I was a teenager and the excitement of infatuation I experience for the first time However, with Eleanor & Park, it unrealistic and unbelievable. I just couldn’t grasp the realness behind the relationship. Park went from telling Eleanor “sit the fuck down” on the bus to the next moment Park is telling Eleanor that he can’t imagine his life without her. The romance moved entirely to fast to even understand what was going on. The story had so much potential but in my opinion the story was rushed. In other people reviews I read that people said that the ending was heartbreaking and through out the story they couldn’t stop crying but did I miss something? I did not shed a tear nor was I close to being heartbroken. Eleanor life story was sad but not to the point that it had my heart breaking for her.
I’m not saying that this book was terrible because clearly it touched a lot of people but I think it was a bit overhyped. I went into this book with very high expectations thinking that this book was going to blow me away and I would need a day to move on from this book but instead I’m walking away with an empty feeling because I wish Rainbow Rowell gave me a little bit more. I wish she took her time with this book and didn’t rush every detail.
