Eleanor & Park

First off, it’s set in the 80s. This is my generation. No smartphones. No social media. Just pure teenage angst.

Mostly, I love the back-and-forth conversation and inner thoughts of Eleanor and Park. Rowell nails the authenticity of teens. Their strange humor and insecurities. I want to throw my arms around them and shelter them from the cruel bullies haunting them.

Rowell sucks you into their lives, and it feels so real and raw that you remember the wonder and horror of your own teenage years. The dialogue is rich in its realness, and the tender little moments between Eleanor… show more.

This book struck a chord with me. It's a tale of two misfits finding each other, and I've always considered myself a bit of an outsider.

It’s brutally honest, and that rawness caught me off guard—in a good way. It made me feel seen and heard, and I know it’ll resonate with anyone who’s felt a bit 'different.'

This is one of the great love stories in young adult literature. Eleanor and Park are each dealing with their own issues, as teenagers do. They are completely different from each other, and yet, after an incident on the school bus brings them together one day, everything changes. Similar to so many of the characters in these other books, their paths might never have crossed, or, if they did, the wall would never be broken down so that they could actually see each other and yet they did and it was, which to me is what sets up the best… show more.

This book swept me back to the eighties and those Hell-days of riding the school bus and yeah, maybe carrying a tray of mystery meat through a packed lunchroom. However, where this story really shines is the budding romance between the two main characters. Just try and leave them behind after finishing the last word. Believe me, their journey will linger. 

Painful silence between Eleanor and Park blossoms into an unbreakable bond as we follow the pair over the course of one school year. They come to each other from very different places, but by the end, you’ll want these… show more.

Eleanor & Park is the story of two 16-year-olds who ride the school bus together and fall in love for the first time. Your typical first love story, right? Wrong. Eleanor and her mother are both victims of domestic abuse, Eleanor also suffers from poor body image, and she is bullied at school for not fitting in. Park is a half-Asian cool kid who tries to break through Eleanor’s tough exterior. Set in the mid-1980s with lots of cool cultural references, Eleanor & Park will appeal to the romantics, the quirky ones, and the misfits among us.

Yet another beautiful coming-of-age novel, Eleanor & Park took me on a journey that tells the familiar tale of what it is like to be young and in love. Rowell takes that theme we all know and puts a unique spin on it that made my heart smile while reading it. The author plays with nostalgia, very smart young main characters, and the common tale of the pain of love—a fun, important read for the coming-of-age story lover.

It’s the mid-80s in Nebraska in Eleanor & Park, and a shared love for English rock bands is the fertile ground from which the titular characters complicated love story blossoms. Again, The Smiths would fill most of the A side tracks on this mixtape, as they are the band most mentioned throughout the book, which is apropos for this emo-before-emo-was-a-thing tale. Had John Hughes not somewhat wasted “If You Leave” by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark on Blane and Andie, I think that song would’ve made a great love theme for Eleanor and Park, and I’d definitely include it… show more.

Eleanor & Park brings to life how mental illness affects not only the person suffering but also the relationships she/he has. And it does so with wit and humor and mountains of heart. But it’s also a pitch-perfect “first love” story set in 1986 that will have you laughing, sighing, cringing, and breathless.