Eleanor & Park // Rainbow Rowell

The other day I passed my driving theory test and to celebrate I decided I would buy myself a notebook (wooo crazy times). I wasn't planning to buy any books or use the remaining £11 on my Waterstones gift card, but I did because with me that always seems to happen (and by the way I bought the notebook as well *hollaahhhh*). So in Waterstones there were a lot of books on the buy one get one half price deal and having found one book that took my fancy called 'The Interestings', I decided I needed a second book to complete the half price deal and after much searching around, contemplating and apple eating, I happened to stumble across the wonderful 'Eleanor & Park' by Rainbow Rowell.

Unlike normal people, what drew me first to the book was obviously not the plot but the cover, because I am one of those annoying people (I annoy myself too actually) who will only pick up a book if it has a pretty, cool or creative looking cover, which means I'm prone to missing out on amazing stories because the cover wasn't pretty enough. Sad times my friend, sad times indeed. But with 'Eleanor & Park', I'm so glad the cover is as cute and beautiful and quirky as it was because it caught my attention, and with that I discovered an amazing story which I'm going to tell you all about right here (I'll warn you of spoilers!).

The story is set in 1986, an era which I only feel I know because I love the film 'The Breakfast Club' which was filmed in 1985, and because it's not too dissimilar to the early 90's in which 'Perks of Being A Wallflower is set, which I also love. As you may have already guessed, it focuses on the story of the insecure, shy but lovely new girl Eleanor Douglas with her amazing mane of ginger curls, and half Korean and also shy but equally lovely Park Sheridan, who has gorgeous green eyes and honey coloured skin and an adoration for comics and mixtapes.

Both are sixteen years old and meet on the scary and intimidating school bus which has it's own rules, hierarchy and order, all of which Eleanor interrupts due to her always being a pinnacle of attention, what with her amazing hair and unique dress sense, which also makes her the target of bullying, as we later find out in the novel. In this very first interaction between the two lead characters, which does not set the scene for the beautiful romance that eventually follows, Park lets Eleanor sit share his spot on the bus, and so begins the rest of the novel, which is nothing like you'd expect.

Going back to when I was deliberating whether to buy the book, I  admit that I assumed it would be the typical 'girl meets boy, they fall in love, it's all cute and happy and completely unrealistic' and although I have a secret penchant for those types of books (ssshhh don't tell anybody), I wasn't sure I wanted to buy a book like that and besides, now that I'm 18, I figured I should be moving onto more grown up books surely. But like I previously said, this book is not what you expect it to be, and the thing that swayed me was actually the first little passage you see when it opens the book, written by Park (the narrative is split between Park and Eleanor throughout). I won't tell you what it says, but something about it made me think that this book might not be what I had previously thought it was, it made me curious, it captivated me, and it seemed like there were darker, more serious themes embedded somewhere within it. 

So I bought it.

And I finished it in three days - it would've been sooner but I was trying to draw it out because I didn't want it to end...

The strange thing about this novel is that it has this way of sucking you into it's heart and the world that Rowell has created, as well as the plot which constantly keeps you on edge in the best way possible, without you even realising. It's only when you put the book down for a moment that you realise you aren't there, living the story with Eleanor and Park, and with that realisation comes that urge to rejoin them once again. The other strange thing about the novel is that all the flaws I could pick from it actually aren't flaws but strong points, because the more I think about them the more I realise that, whether intentionally or not, Rowell has actually captured the feeling or the moment or the event so well.

Lemme explain. Take for example the character of Eleanor, despite her own description of herself, which is tainted by the bullying she undergoes, and Park's description of her, I could never quite picture in my head what she looked like because you're getting two different versions and opinions, as well as the version you automatically draw up yourself. It was the same with Park too. But after some thought, I realised that this was actually quite clever on Rowell's part because it shows that how you see yourself, particularly when you're young, and how other people see you, aren't always the same and that you tend to believe what you want to and convince other people to see you that way too, until someone corrects you and tells you otherwise.

It was the same with the whole falling in love thing. I just thought it happened so quickly, like one minute they're strangers and supposedly don't like each other and they're not speaking or whatever, and then before you know it they're in love. But after some thought, I realised that the way Rowell constructs the whole falling in love thing is again quite clever because it's actually a very realistic portrayal, because when it happens to you, it's true that often it gradually builds up from one little but significant event to another, as happens in the book with the comics and mixtapes, until you realise you're in love, or that you've fallen hard. But when you look back on it in your mind, it all seems to have happened so fast and you can't remember what it was like to feel any other way except this. So again that's another testament to Rowell's penmanship and talent as an author. 

I guess these points lead me to say that I really can't find a way to fault this novel.

I'm not saying it's 100% perfect, because novels rarely are, but it's very, very, very good and I thoroughly enjoyed reading 'Eleanor & Park'. I loved the characters, I loved seeing all these different types of relationships, from the good to the bad, the beautiful and the ugly, which Rowell uses to link one person to another and how she develops these relationships throughout the novel. I loved the story line, I loved how she brings her characters to life with the two person narrative being particular effective in achieving this, I loved watching two people fall in love -even if it is fictional, I loved the setting and the backdrop of the 1980's, I loved being able to feel all these different feelings and emotions all at once. I loved how she captures the feeling of being a teenager and the importance of your relationships with friends, love, books, music, fashion and yourself so accurately, and I even kind of liked the now infamous ending and Rowell's reasoning behind it. 

So I can't praise this book more highly, and it doesn't matter what age you are because everyone, no matter what age or gender, can relate to this book somehow and take something away from it.

GO ELEANOR & PARK!!!