REVIEW: ELEANOR AND PARK BY RAINBOW ROWELL.

Title: Eleanor and Park
Author: Rainbow Rowell
Edition: Paperback
Published: February 1, 2013
Publisher: Orion
Pages: 327
Source: Bought from Fullybooked
Category: Romance, Contemporary
Trailer: here

Synopsis:

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.

Eleanor and Park is one invigorating emotional ride!

I've heard nothing but good things about Rainbow Rowell's novel, Eleanor and Park. I was so excited to get my grabby hands on it but it took a while for me to read it. Have waited so long for copies to be available here in our country. When I went to Fullybooked a few weeks ago, I didn't see any hard covers. I was doubtful because I wanted to get the hard cover but the urge to read it won. I bagged a paperback copy and devoured it overnight. Then THE FEELS in my stomach started circling and wouldn't leave.

Eleanor is fat, red haired, weird and the new student. Her life is one huge chaos and she's very poor. She doesn't even have friends yet. But when fate let her sit beside Park in the school bus, her perspective changed. However, Park hated her. He doesn't like what he sees and he's irritable when she sits next to him. He knows he will be bullied for sure. But something about Eleanor's weirdness makes him change his perspective, too.

WHAT CAN I SAY? A lot. THIS NOVEL IS JUST FANTASTIC. SIMPLY FANTASTIC. First off, I loved the alternating POV. It made it so much easier to get glimpses of each character's thoughts and emotion and also to get fuller FEELS about the story. It wasn't overlapping anything, the consistency was smooth and no complicated transitions. The simplicity of the story was actually breathtaking -- NOSTALGIC even. And it captured so much of my heart that at the end, I literally just stared at it and smiled and almost cried. It was awesomely written. Definitely no bad parts, I absolutely have no bad thoughts for it. The novel was very new to me. It was so refreshing reading a story that reminded you of your joyful past -- the uncomplicated past -- where cassette tapes were mainstreams and snail mails were treasured. The lightness of the premise added to the beauty of the novel. It does let you thoroughly focus on the characters. As I browse each page, I cannot help but be mesmerized by how the love story developed before my eyes. Rowell took her time to make sure that the romance would bloom in the right place at the right time. Every twists and turn got me cheering, giggling, crying and sobbing. There were even parts when I held my chest to make sure my heart hasn't come out yet. I TOTALLY CAN RELATE AND I TOTALLY LOVED EVERY SINGLE THING ABOUT THIS BOOK.

I love all of the characters especially Eleanor and Park (of course,  they're the main characters). Eleanor may have been a little insecure about how she looks but she didn't let other people dictate what she should feel. She didn't let society change anything about her no matter how cruel the people around her were. She embraced her character, her uniqueness, her personality and she didn't even judge. Plus, she was so humble. Park complimented her character in every single way and his eagerness to be with her, his patience and his sincerity blew me away. I love them to bits however, the ending? The ending was SO cruel and painful I want a sequel! But I guess, Rowell ended it like that to keep readers awed and excited. Such an awesome novel.

Eleanor and Park is one novel I would surely not forget. It pinched my heart that the mark will be there forever. Engrossing, romantic and witty kind of a story, it is surreal, subtle and nostalgic. It hits the right spot! I will never find the right words to proclaim how much this novel embraced me but it is one you would come back to over and over again!

 

What are the chances you’d ever meet someone like that? he wondered. Someone you could love forever, someone who would forever love you back? And what did you do when that person was born half a world away? The math seemed impossible.

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. "Which means, when I see you on Monday morning, it's been like sixty hours since I've taken a breath. That's probably why I'm so crabby, and why I snap at you. All I do when we're apart is think about you, and all I do when we're together is panic. Because every second feels so important. And because I'm so out of control, I can't help myself. I'm not even mine anymore, I'm yours, and what if you decide that you don't want me? How could you want me like I want you?"
He was quiet. He wanted everything she'd just said to be the last thing he heard. He wanted to fall asleep with 'I want you' in his ears.

You think that holding someone hard will bring them closer. You think that you can hold them so hard that you'll still feel them, embossed on you, when you pull away.
Every time Eleanor pulled away from Park, she felt the gasping loss of him.