Rainbow Rowell

"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"--

Eleanor & Park

Srijita Sarkar 

If you couldn’t save your own life, was it even worth saving?

"I’m not ready for you to stop being my problem."

The world rebuilt itself into a better place around him

He wished that they could go through life like this. That he could physically put himself between Eleanor and the world.

Because Park was the sun, and that was the only way Eleanor could think to explain it.

Park wanted to pull on the chain, to pull it into his chest and anchor her there.

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.

If she showed him how much she needed him, he’d run away.

But Park’s face was like art. And not weird, ugly art either. Park had the sort of face you painted because you didn’t want history to forget it.

For the first time in weeks, Park didn’t have that anxious feeling in his stomach on the way home from school, like he had to soak up enough of Eleanor to keep him until the next day.

“I don’t like you, Park,” she said, sounding for a second like she actually meant it. “I…”—her voice nearly disappeared—“think I live for you.”

He closed his eyes and pressed his head back into his pillow.

“I don’t think I even breathe when we’re not together,” she whispered

“Why do you even care about him? He’s never cared about you.”

God. Even if it was true, it still hurt to hear it that way.

That feeling she used to have when she was sitting next to Park on the bus—that feeling that she was on base, that she was safe for the moment—she could summon it now. Like a force field. Like she was the Invisible Girl.

She tried to remember what kind of animals paralyzed their prey before they ate them.…

Maybe Park had paralyzed her with his ninja magic, his Vulcan handhold, and now he was going to eat her.

Maybe I’m not attracted to real girls, he’d thought at the time. Maybe I’m some sort of perverted cartoon-sexual.

Or maybe, he thought now, he just didn’t recognize all those other girls. The way a computer drive will spit out a disk if it doesn’t recognize the formatting.

When he touched Eleanor’s hand, he recognized her. He knew.

As soon as he touched her, he wondered how he’d gone this long without doing it.

Holding Eleanor’s hand was like holding a butterfly. Or a heartbeat. Like holding something complete, and completely alive.

He looked exactly like a rat. Like the human being version of a rat

Lulu Evensen

"I just wish you weren't so sad all the time" , Aysel." Me too. Me too.

You saved my life, she tried to tell him. Not forever, not for good. Probably just temporarily. But you saved my life, and now I'm yours. The me that's me right now is yours. Always.

I just can't believe that life would give us to each other,' he said, 'and then take it back.'

"But it's up to us .' he said softly. It's up to us not to lose this.'

He loved how much they 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.

She held his beautiful face and kissed him like it was the end of the world

Maureen

Amazing! This love story is all about reality. Not about rainbows and butterflies, but just two teenagers trying to survive the waves.

Anna 

Sice jsem od této knížky měla vyšší očekávání, ale i tak jsem si její čtení užila. Líbila se mi komplikovaná rodina Eleanor, líbilo se mi, že je byla jiná, než většina holek, než většina hlavních hrdinek coming-of-age knih. Eleanor a její tvář posetou pihami, její vytahané džíny a pánské košile si budu pamatovat asi ještě hodně dlouho.
Park už pro mě nebyl tak zajímavý, ale i přesto mi byl sympatický. Obě postavy jsem měla svým způsobem ráda a fandila jsem jim, ale i přes to všechno mi v srdci nenechali nějakou větší stopu. Jejich příběh ve mně nezpůsobil žádné větší emoce, žádný smutek nebo neskutečnou radost.
Kdyby nebylo konce knihy, bohužel musím přiznat, že bych celý příběh hodnotila ještě hůř. Konec knihy to naštěstí zpestřil, ukázal nám, že existují tisíce verzí konce, a že ne vždy musí být jen konec šťastný. A za to jsem ráda, toho si na příběhu cením.
✩
3,5*/5*
Lepší průměr, stojí za přečtení, ale nečekejte nic přelomového.

Kiran Aftab

To be completely honest, the beginning of the novel was slow and made me wonder if I wanted to continue reading. As I progressed, I realized that I could relate to their experiences and it really hit home. Also, the ending OH MY GOD. I WAS SO SHOOK WHEN EVERYTHING HAPPENED AND I FEEL LIKE I SHOULD HAVE SEEN IT COMING, BUT AHHH THE ENDING WAS WORTH.

Shannon C

ugh this book was perfect. but that ending :(

Mercy Jepchirchir Barno

This book was okay but I still felt ish-ish about it. The writing, there are times I felt that it was a bit sloppy. Whenever I read a book, and I hope I'm not the only reader here, where the plot could be good, but the characters are better, from the start of that book till the last page, there's a character development. With this book, I didn't see any of that. There are moments where I did laugh. I absolutely loved Parks' parents, especially his mum. I hated Eleanor's mum and the stepdad so much, honestly. How Eleanor and Park ended, I'm not really sure I liked how it ended.

#1 New York Times Best Seller! "Eleanor & Park reminded me not just what it's like to be young and in love with a girl, but also what it's like to be young and in love with a book."-John Green, The New York Times Book Review 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. A New York Times Best Seller! A 2014 Michael L. Printz Honor Book for Excellence in Young Adult Literature Eleanor & Park is the winner of the 2013 Boston Globe Horn Book Award for Best Fiction Book. A Publishers Weekly Best Children's Book of 2013 A New York Times Book Review Notable Children's Book of 2013 A Kirkus Reviews Best Teen Book of 2013 An NPR Best Book of 2013

Kattia

This hasn’t aged well and maybe if I read it as a teenager, I would’ve enjoyed it?

Ali Angco

Monicap

The Feels, the feels, the feels!!!

I read this, and not only do I understand WHY it got so much hype on booktube, but I think the Hype is well-deserved. 

Looking to read another book by Rainbow Rowell. (Probably Fangirl, as Attachments doesn't really sound like my kind of book)

reminds me of line from betty by taylor swift, “i’m only seventeen, i don’t know anything but i know i missed you.”

buny

Sarah Sammis

Rodrigo Figueiredo Severino

If we ignore the fact Park being Asian is mentioned every 5 seconds for god knows what reason, and the Star Wars dirty talk which had me irking, this was a nice book! I had fun with it, the relationship was very wholesome and well built but I felt like this was very slice of life and very small scale, and when the drama came in the last like 30 pages I felt like the reasoning for said drama wasn’t explored enough throughout the book. It was still sad of course but yeah. All in all I liked it just not a romance that made much impact on me but they’re cute!

Aparna

** spoiler alert **
           This book is one of kind young adult novel about two misfits living in the suburbs of Nebraska ,USA in the 80's. The double narratives from Eleanor and Park as well on how they bond over mixtapes , comics frame a love story.

#2021

chloe rae

I don't know about anyone else, but my to-be-read pile is getting a little out of control. REALLY out of control. So I promised myself recently 'no new books!' and then put all my unread books into the order I'd read them. It seemed like a good plan. I'd stay away from book stores and try to get excited about all the amazing books I had left to read.
Then this book happened.
And let me tell you, this book wasn't on my to-be-read pile. It wasn't anywhere near it. I'd only barely just heard of it. But then, one day a few weeks ago, through a string of (not so) unfortunate events, I ended up stranded at my local Barnes and Noble for two hours, waiting for my brother to get off work. I figured I'd pick up a random book, read a few pages for the time being, and if I liked it enough I could come back and buy it later. I'd already made a promise to not buy books but that didn't mean I couldn't look around, right? I mean, what else is there to do to pass the time in a BOOK STORE? It'd be stupid NOT to read. I looked around for a bit, and lucky me, picked up this lovely novel. I'd read the sample on my kindle a while back and thought I'd see what else it had to offer.
Uh oh.
As soon as I got about 50 pages in, I was hooked. The two hours flew by and next thing I know, I'm telling my brother to wait 5 minutes so I can finish 'this one chapter' and then buy the book. I broke my promise to myself. But hey, some promises are meant to be broken, right? Or is that about rules?
Oh, whatever.
My point is, this book is ridiculously amazing. I couldn't get enough of it. Of the characters, of the love story. It just felt so REAL to me. The musical reference were AMAZING. And the timeline of the romance was perfect. Nothing felt rushed or fabricated. Eleanor and Park's relationship was so raw and honest, adorable and intense. All the characters were perfectly constructed, and I felt like I knew all of them even if they only showed up a few times. The story is just incredibly beautiful and I'm so glad I randomly decided to pick it up.
On the back of the book there's a review from Publishers Weekly that states: "Rowell keeps things surprising, and the solution maintains the novel's delicate balance of light and dark." That's such a great way to describe this book. It's light and romantic and funny, but it deals with some heavy stuff. And you may think this back-and-forth switching would cause whiplash but it's SO well done. I didn't even notice it.
And there are some surprises in this book, especially with the ending. The ending kind of leaves you hanging but personally, I loved it. It leaves the reader up to decide. I also loved the switching POV's. I never once felt like I missed anything, or got bored of one POV. It was natural.
Overall, I know this book will be one I always remember. So quit reading this and go buy it.
You can thank me later ;D

Reya Estrella

"you can't go wrong with cliché stories" is definitely not something I'd say for this. The story felt underdeveloped and written for the sake of your typical teenage romance. Whilst I'm not denying my love for your average boy meets girl romances, this felt underwhelming... lackluster I should say. I felt sympathy towards Eleanor as a character, but even so, both Park and her were too unrealistic to make the overall story interesting. I enjoyed Rowell's other novel, Fangirl. But this, unfortunately, was not worth the read.

Maui Santos

"You can be Han Solo," he said, kissing her throat."And I'll be Boba Fett. I'll cross the sky for you."
-
Once again, I was too late for the bandwagon.
I feel like if I picked this one up in my teen years, when I was also a sentient bucket of teen angst (as with the characters in this book, and possibly any teen ever), I would have enjoyed this book more. Maybe I would have related to the characters, as they went through Earth-shattering dramas, and desperate love declarations. But alas, I am a 31 year old with a frozen heart, I guess.
Now, on the positive side, I was expecting and overly-emotional YA romance, and I got much more than I bargained for. This book deals with topics of domestic violence, poverty, bullying, racism, and how two kids find refuge in one another despite all these things. The ending hits hard, in the best way. Also, the music references in there are awesome.
That being said, it is impossible to ignore that something is off with this book. Firstly, the way that Park's character is handled made me sort of uncomfortable. I mean, I can't claim to know how a Korean-American kid living in the 80s USA might have felt at all, but it just seemed very self-loathing and kind of racist? Can you be racist against yourself? I don't know. (While we are at it, Eleanor's 2 black friends at school? Complete stereotypes. It was cringy to read) Secondly, the romance was a bit confusing. They completely ignore each other for weeks, and then, suddenly, they can't live without each other. How? Am I too old to get it? Was I like this at 16?
Well, if we established the fact that I am old, and not a romantic at heart, I am finishing off this review.
3 stars from me.

Dealogues

I heard this book when I was 15 or 16, and the reviews were overwhelmingly good. There is one quotes I remember in the back of my head, which says:
"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."
I lived with that quote for, like, a decade. Whenever I see something, when I am strolling around the neighborhood, listening to what we refer to as Tumblr music, this quote just pops out of my head. That's my calling to finally get and read this book.
The first time I read the novel, my expectations were high remembering how that one particular quote from the book literally and basically made everyone kicking their feet in the air. The first few chapters were boring. Park was mean as hell, Eleanor was basically, or at least tried to, never cared about anything nor anyone. I get that this story revolved around 16-year-olds with unstable emotions. For me, Eleanor was insecure. Had my 15-year-old self read this, I think my reaction would have been the same as other people's. But today I am 23 and have learned to be gentler to myself.
Then, Park changed. He had become less cold interacting with Eleanor, and turned out that Eleanor was more welcoming than myself would have been.
"Beautiful. Breathaking. Like the person in a Greek myth who makes one of the gods stop caring about being a god.
Until pages 200-something, it felt like they were one against the world, like nothing could stop them. That's where everything fell apart. At first, I thought Eleanor was dead, like they'd have Clay and Hannah Baker's story in 13th Reasons Why. Thank god she didn't. Her life was just miserable, and they were only 16. What do 16 year-olds understand about how this world works fully?

Gracie Marsden

Cute, but hollow. There were scenes and snippets I liked, but the ending seemed rushed and the overall story seemed contrived. More of a brain-candy book, doesn’t leave much to be analyzed.

I hate this book so bad. The author is good at writing, I can tell. She can but why did she have to write like this? This book is frustrating that I want to cry. And the plot does not even make any sense, she wrote this book like an unfinished wattpad story, a draft even. I can't believe I chose this book because of the cute book cover :*( 

Annika Arguemore

I loved how real it all felt. It was all well-written and the plot well-formed. One of the best books about puppy-love to ever grace the world of literature, alongside Flipped. Perfection.

★★ // filed under everyone-liked-but-me.

Jun Angelo Cabuguas

No mamen que nostalgia. Me sentía súper identificada con Eleanor (en especial la parte donde se cambia de escuela y finge que nunca conoció a Park). Hace mucho que la leí pero la recuerdo medio cliché pero es que ustedes no entienden la relación entre una chica y el libro que leyó cuando tenía 13 años. 

Altamente recomendado para adolescentes con complejo de “nací en la época equivocada”. 

Ximena Martini

No mamen que nostalgia. Me sentía súper identificada con Eleanor (en especial la parte donde se cambia de escuela y finge que nunca conoció a Park). Hace mucho que la leí pero la recuerdo medio cliché pero es que ustedes no entienden la relación entre una chica y el libro que leyó cuando tenía 13 años. 

Altamente recomendado para adolescentes con complejo de “nací en la época equivocada”. 

Eleanor & Park

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