Release Date: February 26, 2013Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
335 Pages
Bono met his wife in high school, Park says.
So did Jerry Lee Lewis, Eleanor answers.
I’m not kidding, he says.
You should be, she says, we’re 16.
What about Romeo and Juliet?
Shallow, confused, then dead.
I love you, Park says.
Wherefore art thou, Eleanor answers.
I’m not kidding, he says.
You should be.
Set over the course of one school year in 1986, this 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.
To say this book was adorable doesn’t quite cut it. It’s
more like the relationship between Eleanor and Park was adorable but everything
around them was a nightmare. Which I feel gave this book an emotional depth
that wouldn’t have been there if it had just been a story of first love. And I
felt that way all the way up until the end.
Eleanor has had a hard life. After upsetting her
stepfather one day, her mother leaves her at a neighbors house to let him cool
off. A year later, Eleanor is allowed to live with her family again. If you can
really call it living. A family of 7, I believe, living in a two bedroom house
with an alcoholic/abusive stepfather and a mother who’s too scared to do
anything about it. They barely have money for food or clothes. That plus
Eleanor’s weight and eccentric style make her an easy target when she starts a
new school.
Park is the complete opposite of Eleanor. His family is
together and intact, loving – even if his father is constantly pushing Park to
be more. Even though he’s half Korean, Park is accepted for who he is. He has
friends and has a very easy going attitude about everything. He loves comics
and martial arts. And he’s not too sure about Eleanor when she steps on his
bus.
They
agreed about everything important and argued about everything else.
Rowell captures first love perfectly. From the awkward
glances to the small touches to the butterflies that all lead up to the
confusing feelings. Every aspect of that is covered here. And that’s what drove
the book for me. I adored everything about Park – his family, his hobbies, the
way he loved, just everything. Eleanor was a little harder for me to warm up to
but I believe that’s just because of her harsh exterior. I felt for her, I
really did. And I wanted to strangle her mother because what kind of mother
just watches her children get treated the way they were? She lost all respect
from me in the first few pages. I mean, she left her kid with a neighbor for over
a year and during that time, moved away.
The underlying story of abuse was there throughout the
entire book. And Eleanor’s stepfather, just ew. When the depths of his
grossness are revealed, I felt icky. Like I needed a bath to get away from him.
But when all that is revealed, that’s when I felt the story started falling
apart. And it was literally just in the last few chapters. The ending was very
unsatisfying for me. I’ve read some articles of the author talking about why
she ended it the way she did, but it still doesn’t sit well with me. There’s
too many questions. Too many open plot points. And then just the frustration of
not knowing. Like literally, what the hell happened? I get wanting the readers
to take away their own ending but I just feel…I don’t know, shorted. I didn’t
even need a happy ending, just an ending.
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