Book Review: Eleanor & Park

Eleanor & Park
Rainbow Rowell
4/5

This book is so wholesome. I went in on a recommendation and I was a little skeptical because I don't really like reading books about high schoolers, but it's set in 1986 so it also doesn't make me feel that old. Eleanor is the new girl, she's awkward and she comes from a not-so-great household, everyone around her seems to be against her. Until the boy who gave her the empty seat next to him on the bus, Park, starts talking to her and they embark on their romance.

WHOLESOME, like it wasn't too much for me, it was just so cute. They're both so awkward and the world seems like it's constantly against them- Park being the only Asian in a small town and Eleanor being new, kind of plus-sized, and eccentric along with her horrible stepfather. I was so nervous the whole book, I hate it when books start off by basically saying that the two protagonists are going to be ripped apart. I spent the whole last hundred pages on the edge of my seat waiting for some heinous murder or something.

I was a little let-down by the ending, that's the only reason that I gave it four stars and not five. Like, the whole book was spent saying that the two were growing into each other, learning how to be the people they really wanted to be. Then the end? Lackluster, rushed, and just sad for me. It's a personal thing to not really like open-endings like that, it just feels like the author is being lazy and not giving us the closure we need. But I could understand it more here, since the whole story is being advertised as something nostalgic and stuck in the past, we don't get to see where they end up in the future. I would have liked it more if there wasn't that weird like one year time jump? Like that huge clump of events before the last sentence of the book. A little bit of a let-down, but didn't make the entire book horrible for me.

I would one hundred percent recommend this if you're into cutesy romances. It's a short read but a lot goes on, and it's pretty realistic to the way that high school works. I was like screaming the whole time. It won't change your life, but it'll definitely be a nice, wholesome and fun read.