Summary: Learn more about the book Eleanor Park in this review.
Synopsis from Goodreads for Eleanor & Park:
Two misfits.
One extraordinary love.
Eleanor… Red hair, wrong clothes. Standing behind him until he turns his head. Lying beside him until he wakes up. Making everyone else seem drabber and flatter and never good enough … Eleanor.
Park … He knows she’ll love a song before he plays it for her. He laughs at her jokes before she ever gets to the punch line. There’s a place on his chest, just below his throat, that makes her want to keep promises … Park.
Set over the course of one school year, this is the story of two star-crossed sixteen-year-olds—smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try.
This book and author had been recommended to me by several friends, so I was really looking forward to reading it. Unfortunately, it seemed like everyone else was dying to read it because it took quite a while to become available on my library’s e-book system!
I love that the author chose to have his main character be a young woman who was truly just herself. She didn’t bother with fitting in with all the “fads” that the other teenagers follow, but loved to express her creativity through her clothing. This isn’t to say she wasn’t a little self-conscious, like any other teenager, but she definitely knew who SHE was as a person better than most. I also appreciated how the author showed her two lives: the one she tried to express at school, and the one she tried to hide at home. It was a classic teen romance, a little like Pretty in Pink, where the boy tries to break down that barrier and see where she comes from.
One more thing that I loved about this book is that although the romance and relationship become a huge support for Eleanor, it’s not her “end-all be-all” and she relies on herself to be her own hero.
This is definitely an adorable young adult romance, with a “girl-power” kind of twist, and I recommend it to anyone looking for something honest but sweet.