Eleanor & Park: Exclusive Special Edition

by Rainbow Rowell

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 mixed 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 and Park is funny, sad, shocking and true - an exquisite nostalgia trip for anyone who has never forgotten their first love.

• ISBN10: 1250127084
• ISBN13: 9781250127082
• Publish Date: 4 October 2016 (first published 12 April 2012)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 21 November 2023
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: St Martin's Press
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 352
• Language: English

Reviews

[alindstadtcorbeax]

Star Rating: —> 3.5 Stars rounded down?

Gah I need to think on this.

I really loved basically all of it. I just don’t do bittersweet all that well, I guess.

Killer “Soundtrack” though. Rainbow Rowell & I really have freakishly similar music tastes.

[writehollydavis]

4.5/5. A sweet and beautiful story about first love and overcoming verbal abuse at home. Eleanor and Park's relationship was so believable and endearing!

[Steph L]

My thoughts on this book can be found in the comments that I made as I read the book. In short: this is one of the best books I've ever read in the YA spectrum, and I've read a lot of books of the YA like over the last few years. I just love Rainbow Rowell's writing style, and this book was no different. I would read this book if you are looking for a fun read, but also one that is a bit of an emtional rolar coaster.

[Joséphine]

Eleanor & Park was a bearable book made better as an audiobook. It wasn't challenging, though it still had a decent enough plot. Throughout the book I couldn't bring myself to care all that much about Eleanor or Park. I should've felt more for Eleanor, at least, because she wasn't only bullied in school but lived in an abusive household. Given all the bullying Eleanor endured for being overweight, I'm confused that Park didn't experience any overt racism. It was set in the 1980s after all, where ignorance about Asians was rampant in dominant white communities. This was addressed only very mildly with classmates referring to him as Chinese when his mother was actually Korean.

What's disappointing is that racism coloured the worldview of both the main characters. While it's understandable that Eleanor might've romanticised Park and his Asian ethnicity, it's strange that Park perpetuated these stereotypes as well, wearing them like a badge. I think this stems from the author's own perceptions which underscored some of the prose as well when it came to describing the characters.

[layawaydragon]

TW: Rape & Abuse

-Loved the characters. Eleanor and Park were great together and alone.

- Loved their switching perspectives.

-Such a believable high-school romance the way it blossoms. It's adorable.

-The family dynamics are great, realistic, and sometimes depressing. (---Not a bad thing.)

-The ending was both sweet and heartbreaking. Hell, the whole damn book was.

I probably went about reading Rowell's books ass-backwards from other people as this was actually the last book of hers I read, instead of the first. As much as the others were great (and one or two I fucking love), Eleanor & Park just blows the rest out of the water.

[jesstheaudiobookworm]

4.5 stars
In retrospect, this was quite possibly my favorite read of September! Beautifully told; it’s amazing that a book that addresses such a triggering topic (abuse) could still give me the “warm fuzzies”. Rowell does an excellent job of using the beauty of the main characters’ unlikely friendship to balance the harsh reality of familial neglect and abuse. I liked this so much better than Fangirl. Rated 4.5 because the ending felt rushed and lacking at the time of reading (I wanted more!), but I’ve come to terms with it now.

[puchunga]

What three words? What the hell!

The end was... Unexpected, I seriously thought she was gonna write back at him or something. But oh well.
I liked the fact that it didn't had a happy ending as everyone would expect.
I also liked the fact that the roles were inverted. The girl was the smart one and the guy was the stupid one. Pretending like things couldn't go wrong. Like everything was perfect and they were gonna stay together forever.
Honey please.
I also liked the way she enjoyed the time they spent together but never let that brief romance consume her. She gave herself to it but not letting herself get lost in it.

I must say, I'm impressed. I expected a lot of cheesy things from these two, but Eleanor is so down to earth and I love that.

Anyway, I want to know what happens to the rest of her family. To the kids, and to the idiot of her mother. And that son of a bitch, Richie, who I believe should've just died or something.

[nitzan_schwarz]

2015 tbr challenge + cleaning my shelves 2015

Originally posted on my blog, please consider popping by! :)

I joined the Rainbow Rowell bandwagon a while ago, when I read and loved Fangirl, so Eleanor & Park has been on the top of my TBR list for a while now. I was just so darn excited for this one! But from the get-go, this book and I... we didn't click.

It started with the slang. I know, what? Well, this book is set in 1986, right? 1986 slang should be different than contemporary slang. Maybe not by much, and maybe not all of it, but some. And yet, the boys and girls cursed and swore same as they would today. And that bothered me to no end! I wanted to feel like I was in 1986. I didn't.

Then there was the love story. I loved the love story in Fangirl. I expected to be similarly bespelled by Eleanor & Park's. Can you sense the 'but I wasn't?' coming? Because I wasn't. It started out good. Them not talking. Then them starting to kind-of-maybe be friends through comics. Then them saying they need each other---wait, what? Huh?

This is insta love. They know almost nothing of each other. They've known each other for such a short while in which they were talking. I'll buy lust. I'll buy attraction. I'll even totally buy them starting to go out because let's face it, when you're sixteen loving the same comic books can totally be a reason to start dating.

But that excessive "I need you's" and "I live for you's"? Were they necessary at that point? Couldn't they have been pushed back eons and be given at a more appropriate time in the plot, where I could believe them?

From the moment those words were uttered, I was over the romance. Big time. I seriously considered DNFing when this line of dialogues continued, but I was so damn interested in Eleanor's family story. I wanted to know what will happen with this heartbreaking background too damned much to give up on the book.

And the ending? I've seen plenty who hated it. I did too, but not on account of Eleanor & Park. No, I disliked the ending because we have no idea what happened to her family. We know from Park's POV that they left Richie (thank godand it's about effing time and good riddance), but we also know through Eleanor's POV that they're not at their uncle's with her, because she doesn't mention them once. The sole reason I read on - and I wasn't satisfied!

All in all, this is not the Rowell book I'd recommend. It's not bad, but it's far from perfect.

Originally posted on my blog, please consider popping by! :)

Eleanor & Park dus, de enorme hype was aanwezig en ik was razend enthousiast toen ik begon. Maar niets kon zo slecht aflopen als mijn ervaring met dit boek. 


Misschien waren mijn verwachtingen gewoon te hoog, maar ik kon echt niet genieten van het verhaal van de buitenbeentjes Eleanor en Park. Ik had gewoon een paar problemen met het boek, waar ik maar niet overheen kwam en die niet beter werden.



1. De liefde
Ik weet het, het is wel vaker te zien in boeken, dus eigenlijk zou ik er niets over moeten zeggen. Maar af en toe krijg je de ontwikkeling wel nog een beetje mee, hier was het gewoon uit het niets, zelfs niet in de gedachten te merken, "bam ik haat je niet meer, ik vind je leuk".
Op de een of andere manier gaf dit me het gevoel alsof ik... alsof ik een hoofdstuk had gemist waarin ze hem iets aardiger begon te vinden, of begon te beseffen dat haar haat eigenlijk geen haat was maar dat ze hem wilde. Maar nee hoor, het was gewoon zo opeens.



2. De historische setting
Het speelt zich af in 1986. Prima, leuk, maar... ik merkte geen verschil erdoor. Ja oké, ze hadden geen mobiele telefoon of sociale netwerken, maar dat was het. Oké, misschien nog door de muziek, maar... op de een of andere manier kwam het me niet geloofwaardig over, als een klein detail wat zoveel meer had kunnen zijn.



3. De personages
Ik snapte Eleanor niet. Ik snapte Park beter, maar nog niet helemaal. Het was alsof ik ze beide oppervlakkig meekreeg, het hele boek overigens, en niet echt meeleefde in het verhaal.



4. Het wisselen van perspectief
Normaal hou ik ervan, er mag van mij vaak gewisseld worden van perspectief en het maakt niet uit tussen hoeveel personen. Maar hier? Het was te vaak en irritant.

Eleanor
Park was just her height, but he seemed taller.

Park
Eleanor's eyelashes were the same color as her freckles.

Dit gaf me gewoon het gevoel van... was dat nou echt nodig? Ik had het boek ook wel even goed gevonden zonder die super kleine perspectiefwisselingen.



5. Hun thuissituaties hadden zoveel potentie
Ik was zo geïnteresseerd in hun thuissituatie, die waren interessant en die interesseerde me het meeste terwijl ik dit boek las. Maar soms leek het maar een bijzaak en er werd voor mijn gevoel totaal niets opgelost. Er leken geen vorderingen te zijn, alleen feiten.



6. De liefdesgedachten
Oké, ik wist niet zeker hoe ik dit moest noemen, maar sommige dingen vond ik gewoon ontzettend vreemd en bezorgde me de rillingen.

Thinking about going out with Park, in public, was kind of like thinking about taking your helmet off in space.

Waarom? Omdat ze het niet kan geloven? Het komt over alsof het een zelfmoordmissie zou zijn, iets wat je nooit zou moeten doen. Waarom in godsnaam niet, Park was populairder dan haar, het pesten zou dan waarschijnlijk minder worden.

Don't bite his face, Eleanor told herself.

Serieus...?

Things she knew now, that she hadn't known two hours ago: Park was covered with skin.

Zou ik inderdaad nooit verwacht hebben nee...

“It was the nicest thing she could imagine. It made her want to have his babies and give him both of her kidneys.”

Dit alleen wanneer Park haar hand vasthield. Gaat dat niet een beetje ver?



Misschien ligt het allemaal aan mij, maar deze dingen verpesten voor mij gewoon het boek. Het had een leuk verhaal kunnen zijn, maar het was het niet voor mij.

[girlinthepages]

This review was originally posted at Girl in the Pages

Eleanor & Park was the last Rainbow Rowell book I had left to read. I had devoured and loved all of her other novels, yet Eleanor & Park was the most hyped of her works, and with hype always comes the potential for disappointment. I decided to take the plunge and read it after picking up a signed and special edition copy. I was 110% not disappointed by this book, as it met every expectation I had going in and brilliantly tackling topics I wasn’t even aware the book contained.

This book is at its core a romance, specifically a romance targeted to capture all of the intimate, awkward moments and emotions experienced in a first relationship. I remember my 14 year old self going through so many of the same emotions, from the thrill of the first kiss to the pressure to define yourself as in a relationship to your peers (made all the worse by social media, which Eleanor and Park thankfully didn’t have to worry about, as the book is set in 1986). Eleanor and Park are both flawed, socially self-conscious, and unsure of their feelings; they’re not instantly likeable characters, which I loved. So often protagonists are written to make readers want to be them or want to be best friends with them, as they’re incredibly perfect, smart, enviable, etc. Any protagonist can be perfect, but writing a nuanced and flawed protagonist is so much more difficult. I grew to learn and care about Eleanor and Park through their experiences and layers of their personality, not because they seemed “likeable.”

“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.”

Speaking of Eleanor and Park, most reviews I’ve read focus on how much they love seeing Eleanor as a YA main character because she’s not super skinny, popular, etc. I completely agree with that sentiment, but for me Park was the character who drew my attention, as he struck me as being less comfortable with himself than Eleanor, who has a quiet confidence about her (for example, she never has to justify to herself or anyone else why she dresses to differently). Eleanor’s inner dialogue is often geared to the external, as her focus and worries gravitate around her siblings, her mother, and her severely abusive and dysfunctional family life. Park, meanwhile, has a much more introverted inner dialogue, as he constantly questions that implications of his race and gender, and struggles to experiment with breaking gender norms through his appearance and battles the constant, if underlying, discrimination he faces due to his half Korean heritage.

Though the book is a romance, it tackled a lot of underlying issues with different systems of oppression, which I explore more in depth in this discussion post That being said, I appreciate that it doesn’t turn into an “issue” book, but rather themes such as abuse, racism, neglect and bullying are interwoven into the larger story without overtaking it. After all, victims of such systems of oppression must often carry on with life despite their circumstances, and it created an odd sort of pride in me as a reader to watch Eleanor fall in love and find someone who values her amidst the traumatizing, abusive, and sexually inappropriate behavior she suffers at the hands of her stepfather. Likewise, I appreciated seeing Park being able to grow as a person and as a boyfriend in a relationship where he wasn’t judged by how masculine he was or wasn’t, and where his race wasn’t a continuous point of difference (at one point, Eleanor admits she doesn’t really know what him being half-Korean “means,” because she doesn’t see him through the filter of race, but rather just as her boyfriend who she adores).

I feel that this book is incredibly important. Not only because it focuses on so many “tough” topics and includes quite a bit of diversity, but because it shows the ugly sides of high school, the tough parts of being a teenager and swimming the the social shark tank everyday, the dirty underbelly that goes on behind closed doors in the suburbs. It shows this ugliness so that it can show how people can cope with it and rise above it, and how ugly situations don’t have to define or mar the rest of your experiences in life. It doesn’t have to be the end of the world; it can be the catalyst to start a new one.

Overall: I loved this book, as usual, because Rowell writes such meaningful characters who’s stories lie in their experiences rather than in their strength of action. It may seem slow for readers who prefer more plot drive novels, but there are so many subtle layers to this book to examine and mentally engage with that I found it incredibly stimulating. My favorite part about this book is how flawed and awkward Eleanor and Park are, and how by the end of it you want the best for them anyways. The ending does get a bit ambiguous, and there are certainly answers I want that I don’t conclusively have, but it wouldn’t be realistic if everything was tied up with a bow. Rinabow Rowell has stolen my heart again with her writing, and I can confidently state that this is a book I will implore anyone and everyone I know who reads YA to experience.