It’s time again to link up with the always fabulous Amber and Rachel to share an book review. They introduced us to #collaboreads in May and today is the day we get to link up and share the books we read in July! The concept is simple – there are only five steps:
- Visit their blogs and see the prompt for each month’s link up.
- Go choose a book.
- READ {you get 30 whole days}.
- Write a review to link up with Amber & Rachel.
- Do it all over again next month!
The criteria for July was to read a book with the character’s name in the title and just like last month’s review, I chose a book that I purchased almost a year ago and never got around to reading. Since I read Landline by Rainbow Rowell earlier in the summer, I was hoping to find Eleanor & Park just as magical.
From Amazon:
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.
Park is half-Korean, sixteen with no driver’s license, introverted and unassuming. He has the perfect “Leave it to Beaver” family and a bus seat all to himself. Eleanor is overweight (at least she thinks so), quirky, a very eccentric dresser and has been separated from her dysfunctional family for the last year. Did I mention she needs a place to sit on the bus? They seem to have nothing at all in common when they find themselves sharing that seat, but after stolen glances and a few shared playlists, they find themselves in a secret relationship.
High school romance? Check. Speak to each other in song lyrics? Check. Opposites attract? Check.
RIVETING.I love, love, LOVED the writing style. I found that to be true with Landline, but even more so in E&P. I love books that go back and forth between characters’ perspectives since they afford the reader so much more insight into both the story and the characters’ emotions and motivations. Each chapter went back and forth between Eleanor & Park, sometimes multiple times, as they described the scenes from their respective points of view.My other favorite part? The slightly ambiguous ending. I know some people aren’t a fan of open-ended novels, but I kind of adore them. I won’t spoil your reading by giving you any details on how this thing between Eleanor & Park wraps up, but the final chapter had me grinning from ear to ear AND tearing up. How is that even possible?
ELEMENTS.The characters were described so well that I could picture them in my head from the beginning and then would find myself surprised to read something descriptive about them chapters later only to realize I was completely wrong in my assumptions.In the beginning, both Eleanor & Park come off a little abrasive as we get to hear their inner dialogue and they form opinions about one another based upon their limited interaction. As they began to shed their insecurities and share simple details about their lives with one other, I fell hard. For both of them. With every turn of the page, I found Park even more endearing and my sympathy for Eleanor grew in leaps and bounds.It isn’t just the main characters you will fall in love with either. You will feel all the feelings for Eleanor’s siblings and all the rage for her stepfather. You will adore Park’s grandparents and you will grin through every word his mother says. Eleanor’s new friends, DeNice and Beebi, will be YOUR new best friends. This book takes the cake on character development.
I’ve heard it said that sometimes YA novels give characters a voice that doesn’t jibe with what we know about typical high-school aged kids. Characters in books are oftentimes far more altruistic than their real-life counterparts and the main characters fall into that category here. Yes, there is typical teenage angst and all the BIG FEELINGS that they don’t quite know how to handle, but at the same time these two are so smart and savvy and they had such deep feelings for each other. As a quirky artist (in combat boots and a plaid skirt), who fell head over heels for the high-school quarterback (in his preppy button down shirt) and married him six years later, I could really relate to how much they felt for each other and how little they cared for what everyone else had to say. Sure, I’m 35 now and could be cynical if I wanted, but I remember being seventeen and having no one take me seriously.
ASSOCIATE.While I actually prefer Rainbow Rowell’s writing style to that of John Green, it should surprise no one that I’ve chosen yet another YA, coming of age, boy-meets-girl saga for this month’s read. It’s hard not to associate it with other stories in this genre, especially when I keep reading them back to back! Like Paper Towns, E&P starts with boy loves girl / girl isn’t so sure of boy and ends after an epic road trip, although the circumstances of both are decidedly different.
DESIGN.Since I read last month’s Collaboreads selection on the Kindle, I really wanted to get my hands on a paper book this time. Even though I had already purchased and downloaded it, I shelled out another eighteen books for the hardback copy and I’m so glad I did. It’s a shelf-er. I love the cover illustration (this seems to be something Rowell’s camp does really well) –the characters are perfectly depicted and that earbud cord as an ampersand? Perfection.
STARS.Amazon gave it 4.5 stars and if we’re being honest, I’m going to have to go with a solid 5. I know I should give myself a little room there because no book is perfect, but I just can’t do it. I read this book in two sittings — Friday night at the nail salon and Saturday afternoon in a lawn chair by the pool. I have no idea if the girl even used the right color polish or if my kids had fun at the pool on Saturday (I kid. Maybe. Thanks, dad!). I love a book that I can get lost in and this one was the perfect way to spend a weekend!
QUOTES.
“I just want to break that song into pieces,” she said, “and love them all to death.” p59
Eleanor was right: She never looked nice. She looked like art, and art wasn’t supposed to look nice; it was supposed to make you feel something. p165“You look like you,” he said. “You with the volume turned up.” p216
He loved how much they [his parents] loved each other. It was the thing he thought about when he woke up scared in the middle of the night. Not that they loved him — they were his parents, they had to love him. That they loved each other. They didn’t have to do that. p301
You think that holding someone hard will bring them closer. You think that you can hold them so hard that you’ll still feel them, embossed on you, when you pull away. p311
