Rating: 2.5 stars
“Eleanor is the new girl in town, and with her chaotic family life, her mismatched clothes and unruly red hair, she couldn’t stick out more if she tried. Park is the boy at the back of the bus. Black T-shirts, headphones, head in a book – he thinks he’s made himself invisible. But not to Eleanor… never to Eleanor. Slowly, steadily, through late-night conversations and an ever-growing stack of mix tapes, Eleanor and Park fall for each other. They fall in love the way you do the first time, when you’re young, and you feel as if you have nothing and everything to lose.“
I have heard nothing but great things about this book since it’s release, but I really can’t see why. I had said to myself for absolutely years that I wouldn never read any of Rainbow Rowell’s work because it just never appealed to me, but I finally decided to pick up Eleanor & Park, and I now wish I had stuck to what I told myself.
There was just something about this book that didn’t sit right with me, and I was reading it, it just never felt right. I can appreciate that Rowell has covered some sensitive subjects in this book, and executed it amazingly, but other than that, I really wasn’t a fan of this one.
I think my reasoning for the 2.5 stars could be the fact that I wasn’t a huge fan of Rowell’s writng, I felt like it dragged on, I really don’t know. I don’t like talking badly about a book I wasn’t the biggest fan of because that book could be someone’s favourite and it could have helped them a lot in life. My guilty conscience is too stong when talking about books, I suppose.
I’m usually a sucker for romance in books, but this one, even though it was sweet, and almost forbidden, didn’t do anything for me.
The subtle racism didn’t do it for me either, and this could be another reason I didn’t feel right when I was reading. It made me cringe, the way the Asian characters were described and some of the dialogue that was used by these characters.
Even though I wasn’t a fan of the story, the end kind of got me. I have an idea of what Eleanor wrote on the postcard, but nobody can be sure for certain, unless Rowell has revealed it somewhere since publication.
Tea Stains and Book Spines 