Eleanor & Park
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4.3 • 202 Ratings
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- £4.99
Publisher Description
'Reminded me not just what it's like to be young and in love, but what it's like to be young and in love with a book' John Green, author of The Fault in our Stars
Eleanor is the new girl in town, and she's never felt more alone. All mismatched clothes, mad red hair and chaotic home life, she couldn't stick out more if she tried.
Then she takes the seat on the bus next to Park. Quiet, careful and - in Eleanor's eyes - impossibly cool, Park's worked out that flying under the radar is the best way to get by.
Slowly, steadily, through late-night conversations and an ever-growing stack of mix tapes, Eleanor and Park fall in love. They fall in love the way you do the first time, when you're 16, and you have nothing and everything to lose.
Set over the course of one school year in 1986, Eleanor & Park is funny, sad, shocking and true - an exquisite nostalgia trip for anyone who has never forgotten their first love.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
If you’re a fan of contemporary YA or feel nostalgic for your teen years, Eleanor & Park should be at the top of your reading list. Passionate music and comics fan Park—the only Asian kid at school—has just enough social currency to get by. Then new girl Eleanor sits next to him on the bus with her flaming red hair, strange clothes and dark secrets, and their worlds collide unexpectedly. Fangirl author Rainbow Rowell crafts left-of-centre, likeable characters in this achingly beautiful story of first love.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Half-Korean sophomore Park Sheridan is getting through high school by lying low, listening to the Smiths (it's 1986), reading Alan Moore's Watchmen comics, never raising his hand in class, and avoiding the kids he grew up with. Then new girl Eleanor gets on the bus. Tall, with bright red hair and a dress code all her own, she's an instant target. Too nice not to let her sit next to him, Park is alternately resentful and guilty for not being kinder to her. When he realizes she's reading his comics over his shoulder, a silent friendship is born. And slowly, tantalizingly, something more. Adult author Rowell (Attachments), making her YA debut, has a gift for showing what Eleanor and Park, who tell the story in alternating segments, like and admire about each other. Their love is believable and thrilling, but it isn't simple: Eleanor's family is broke, and her stepfather abuses her mother. When the situation turns dangerous, Rowell keeps things surprising, and the solution imperfect but believable maintains the novel's delicate balance of light and dark. Ages 13 up.
Customer Reviews
Wow
Wow. Such a good book, the characters feel real and their backgrounds are so well developed too. I don't read many contemporary books, but this was very well written. 4.5/5
😞
Great book but such a depressing and simultaneously infuriating ending 😞
Eleanor + Park
Relatable, beautiful, heart warming and heart wrenching.