Eleanor & Park
Ratings634
Average rating3.7
I read this book about two-ish years ago and absolutely loved it. I curled up on the couch and could not put it down, finishing it in one day. I laughed, I cried, I ranted and raved that the movie was supposed be getting made and then didn't. This book will awaken all the jumbles of feels inside you that you didn't know were there still.
To start I have to say that I did not manage to finish this book, I probably went through the first two or three chapters and then just couldn't continue. It's not the usual thing I read, whereas younger me who lived her life on wattpad would've probably loved it, i received it as a gift and felt like I had to give it a shot.
To put it simply, the reason I did not like this book is that I could not stand any of the main characters, and I've read books with unlikeable protagonists before. In E&P there just wasn't anything compelling me to read on. It's that one book you have to put down because you simply could not care less about the story or the characters.
The writing is easy and enjoyable to read, I'll give it that. To me it seems more like something that belongs on wattpad. (No offence to wattpad writers- I've read some great books on there)
Anyways that's my 2 cents
Me lo leí hace mucho por lo que no recuerdo cuánto me gustó, así que tendré que volver a leérmelo (POSIBILIDAD) para saber que puntuación le pongo ahora.
Particularmente não sei muito bem o que dizer desse livro. Li MUITO rápido (por ser uma leitura fácil é claro) mas por ser interessante. É simples a história. traduzindo.. é tão bonitinhoooooo
Confesso que na minha ignorância jamais imaginei que Park era coreano (mestiço, mas ainda assim, minha gente, acho que é o primeiro livro em que o “príncipe da história é um mestiço, metaleiro, com olhos verdes: amei) e o primeiro livro (talvez a exceção de bridget jones) que é verdadeiramente gordinha, e não é a diva da escola, a musa e coisas assim.
Surtei em muitos momentos com toda a história, com a fofura. Alguns momentos perdi a cabeça com reações como “oi? por que ela não fala logo a verdade para ele? a verdade de tudo? por que usa as roupas de menino, por que não tem nada em casa, porque tem medo de aprensetá-lo... tudo. facilitava o livro”. Ou, quando ela falava da bela mãe dela, que era uma imbecil, “por que ela não larga logo esse canalha?”, mesmo com um filho ela tinha mais QUATRO na bagagem que mereciam um pai melhor que aquilo. (spoiler: e o que raios aconteceu com a família afinal?).
Achei a estrutura das personagens bem delineadas, estruturadas, merecedoras de uma continuação.
Não é um livor que muda vidas, mas que faz pessoas que são acima do peso (o/) ter fé de que é possível ter um conto de fadas mesmo que meio aluado (o amor incondicional do menino, que uma psicólogo mais aenta diria que ele tem aqueles transtornos compulsivos possessivos de querer matar a todos apenas para a amada ser feliz...)
E faltou o reencontro deles.
R. Rowell é amável em sua escrita e sou a favor de mais livros dela! \o/
What a lovely little tale of two young people of coming of age, tackling personal tragedies and growing together and apart.
So, I just finished “Eleanor & Park” and honestly, I really enjoyed it. The romance between Eleanor and Park? Beautiful stuff. Yeah, it got a bit cringey sometimes, but hey, it's about teen love, so what can you expect?
The main characters really grew on me. I found myself caring about both Eleanor and Park, feeling what they were going through. But the other characters? Not so much. The author kinda left them in the background.
Now, the book does touch on bullying, which is important, but here's my issue - it doesn't really show how to deal with it. It's like everyone in the story just... accepts it? That bugged me a bit.
Sometimes the story dragged on - I reckon they could've cut like 20 or 30 pages and it wouldn't have hurt. But overall, it was a good read, especially if you're into romance.
The ending was... well, good. Not amazing, not terrible, just good. I liked it well enough.
So yeah, if you're looking for a romance book, give it a shot. It's got some weak points, sure, but by the time you finish it, you'll probably feel it was worth it. At least I did.
I think this book would've resonated much more with me if I were in high school. It reminds me of John Green novels, Perks of Being a Wallflower, Paper Heart (2009), Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist (2008), if they all had a cousin. The comic book characters and music references give it that indie feel.
I listened to the audiobook. I'm baffled that DeNice's name is pronounced literally D-Nice, not D-Neese??? Did Rainbow Rowell request this specific pronunciation?
Seeing the current rhetoric and retrospective reviews, I can see all the ways in which this book is obviously problematic. I'm just curious how this film adaptation is going to weave this story together to current society. I walk away puzzled, the stereotypes are repetitive and feel unnecessary to the story.
The story didn't wow me in a major way, I felt like I was just learning about two people who crossed paths. I feel empathy for these 2 outcasts and the bullying, but because of their age, I felt like I was kind of just a bystander watching a movie slowly unfold.
It just didn't wow me or have that kind of gusto that makes you walk away feeling hopeful or connected to the characters. It was okay.
Idk know about you but this book didn't seemed so bad to me. I read it fast and it's real portrail of a girl who has love esteem and doesn't believe that anyone could actually love her. And there he was. He ebraced her with all of the flaws and I loved him for that. I'm sorry for all of the troubles and hard times did have to Eleanor go trough.
But the end kinda ruined it almost whole experience for me. But in my head they are end up together and love eachother fiercly
Both characters were dumb af but I kinda enjoyed reading it nevertheless. Fangirl was way better.
i dont care what anyone else says about this book, i love it. I love Eleanor and i love Park. i started this book after school and I finished the book in tears the same night. its cringe at times and very disturbing at other, especially near the end/the climax. I was smiling and giggling while reading the parts where they were saying/thinking the same things but in their own chapters yk. i also felt more connected to the book because i could relate in some ways and maybe thats why i enjoyed it more than others but idk. there were also a few things about this book that seemed unbelievable but then i just think this was 1986 in Omaha Nebraska. I do feel like park could have been fleshed out w/ his relationship w/ his mom. There are also two black girls that become Eleanors friends and with park being half asian and agin this being 1986 in Omaha Nebraska, i figured there would be more discussion about racism. Really its kinda weird cuz this entire book is like how neither eleanor nor park fit in but they focussed more on how eleanor didnt fit in and not park or her black friends. I still thoroughly enjoyed this book.
4.5/5 ⭐️
Ich habe mich so auf das Buch gefreut und wurde auch nicht enttäuscht. Habe es an einem Nachmittag gelesen und es war Zucker süß. Hat mich direkt in die Zeit versetzt als ich das erste mal verliebt war und ich konnte vieles sehr gut fühlen.
Der Schreibstil hat mir auch sehr gut gefallen. Könnte direkt noch eins davon lesen❣️
2.00 (review changed from 1 star to 2 because I did enjoy reading this book at times and was greatly connected to Park, who was really the saving grace for me.
(3/24/22) If you don't want to read my whole review, reading Eleanor and Park felt like how I imagine having sex with an inexperienced man feels. There were parts that felt good, amazing even, but the overall experience was dragged down by random things said or done that just took me out of the mood. Not to mention there is all this build-up but then the climax is actually really disappointing and doesn't resolve any tension so you have to do it yourself later by fantasizing about what could have been. This analogy just went way further than I meant it to but everything I said still fits.
Okay. Originally I was going to rate this five stars, but now that I've calmed down from high of finishing a book I was invested in, I brought it down to a 1. It was very investing and I really enjoyed the characters snd found them very relatable, especially Park. However, there were multiple parts of the book that made me uncomfortable. For example, when Eleanor says things like “stupid Asian kid.” When they said that Park's mom kept her accent on purpose because his dad liked it, or when they compared her to a doll from The Wizard of Oz if you put it in China Town. I feel like there were just too many moments that were fetishizing Asian people for my comfort. I am not actually Asian though, I am African American, so I can not and do not claim to understand how this feels, but it just made me very uncomfortable. I also kind of feel like nothing was really resolved in the end. I don't think either of them really improved their self-image and we still don't know what actually happened to the rest of Eleanor's family. In the end, I don't really recommend this book, which is quite disappointing because it had so much potential. It really could have been great.
What a waste of time! “Eleanor and Park” has been sparkling around for sometime and had some sort of unspecified acclaim. It seems that some people i know who have good taste enjoyed this book, but now I cannot remember who any of them are! I wish I could because I'd like to talk with them and discuss what I'm missing (if, indeed, I'm missing anything).
After listening to the audiobook version via the library's Libby app, I was all too happy to return the book and be done with it. The entire storyline, dialogue, and almost every single character were flat and unimaginative. This seems like a book I might've written in seventh grade, and trust me, that would not have been a good book!
This could be considered spoilery so if you haven't read this book then skip this review. This was my first book by this author. While I was reading this I was thoroughly enjoying it but after it ended I wasn't really sure how I felt about it. When there's a romance involved in a book I want things to end up a certain way and when they don't end the way I want them to it bums me out. This book didn't end how I wanted it to. The ending wasn't bad and is probably more of a realistic ending for a couple 17 year olds but I don't always want realistic. This book Had me feeling all of the feelings while reading it. The ending felt a little rushed to me and I would have liked for certain characters to have repercussions but overall I really enjoyed this book.
Una cree que si abraza a alguien con todas sus fuerzas, lo tendrá más cerca. Una cree que se puede abrazar a alguien con tanta fuerza como para seguir sintiendo su presencia, grabada en ti, cuando te separas.
So, uh.
Rainbow Rowell writes herself into a love-tragedy with a beautiful, “girly”-looking Korean-Caucasian boy.
It's about as bad as that sounds. Full review to come.
Very disappointed with this. I was expecting a beautiful, feel good emotional story but got an awkward teenage story which is fine. Main issue with this book was how the romance was written and the way Park's character was written. He felt quite crazy with his over the top feelings towards Eleanor. I think it would have been much better if the two would have gotten together much later on with more build up and with more awkward conversations between them. Also the whole stepdad thing was really terribly done it shouldn't have been a vital part of the story.
In the beginning, the book was really great! I loved the perspective switched and the writing style was amazing. I loved the way that the author hinted at things and slowly revealed more and more about the characters. I also thought the humor was really well-written. I thought for sure it was going to be a five star read.
At about 15-20% I realized that the story and characters had a couple flaws, but it was still overall a pretty good story and the writing style was really saving it. I thought maybe it would be a four star.
Then, about half way through, the novelty of the writing style wore off and I was really starting to see through and flaws of the characters, especially Eleanor. Not to mention the fact that there were some side characters who were almost nothing but caricatures of stereotypes. So, maybe just a three star book.
When I got to about 60-70% of the way through the book, I just simply found Eleanor annoying. She was picking fights with Park and getting mad at him over pretty much nothing!! He would try to compliment her and she would twist his words around just to be mad at him. Also, some of the things she would say were just plain odd and borderline creepy. She would talk about how she wanted to bite Park's cheeks and “eat his face whole”. Weird. Two star.
Then, the ending. The ending actually wasn't that horrible. It was really sweet and gave the both of them sort of happy endings?? But when you really think about it, Eleanor is still being a bit of a jerk to a guy who did nothing but love her. He wrote her letters every single day and she read none of them. Nearly a year went by before she sent anything to him. It took a year of her not reading his letters and him not hearing anything in response (so, basically, no communication at all) for her to finally say “I love you.”
However, I actually really liked Park. He was one of my more favorite characters I've read about in a while. When he loved, he loved with his whole heart and he put others before himself in every situation he could. While a couple of the things he did were odd, I think that he was still a pretty great character. The fact that he was happy at the end sort of almost made up for everything Eleanor had done throughout pretty much the entire book. So. Three stars.
I think I went into this book with high hopes because I had previously read “Fangirl” by the same author and that is probably one of my all-time favorite books. Not to mention, I just finished reading “Red Queen” right before I read this one and not many books deserved to be compared to that one.
Overall... meh.
Ps. I really don't understand the whole subplot about Park needing to learn to drive shift. It just seems unnecessary and doesn't make a whole lot of sense. I'm sure it's symbolic of something, but I genuinely cannot tell what.
When I first wrote this review I was extremely uneducated and ignorant and failed to spot the multitude of problems in regards to racism throughout this narrative. I apologise deeply for this. I was wrong and I need to educate myself further on racism. I have chosen not to delete my original review as this would be an attempt to hide my ignorance and that would be wrong. I was ignorant, I still am in a lot of ways and I apologise.General statement for all my reviews on books by Rainbow Rowell: For reasons regarding what Rainbow Rowell has written in the past, and her continued defiance to listen to those hurt by this, I no longer read her books, or support and promote her in any way. I am sorry for supporting her, but I won't hide my mistakes as that would be wrong, instead please be aware my thoughts and feelings towards her have changed due to her behaviour and my opinions on her are now different* - July 2020
Listened to the audiobook
Rainbow gave us another cute couple, but unfortunately missed the mark was this book to make it good. Whilst I don't think it deserves the hype it had when it first came out it was still good to listen to (but that's more down to the narrators).
The story follows Park and Eleanor's romance from when they first met to the end of their relationship, but also focuses on Eleanor's not so great home life with her relationship with her stepfather being the main point in this.
Eleanor and Park were enjoyable characters, a bit one dimensional at times but they were also both 15/16, so maybe Rainbow just wrote them that way as they didn't know who they are yet. Whilst I didn't have any real issues with Eleanor I do think Rainbow could have expanded on Park's character more, in particular in terms of how he dealt with racism in the 80s in a small American town, ad unfortunately she just seems to gloss over this aspect of Park's life.
The relationship itself was cute, but at times a bit boring. It's not a romance I would say I ‘ship' as to be honest they don't have that much in common or seem to truly get along as friends, and therefore partners should. However, it's a very true portrayal of how a lot of relationship at 16/15 are - I know my first relationship at 16 was a lot like this (little in common but somehow still in ‘love')
I do think this book had some pacing problems sometimes as the plot wasn't very defined, and there wasn't a form of action in every chapter. But I did like the fact Rainbow didn't shy away from the abuse aspect of the plot, and didn't have to show outward violence to illustrate that Eleanor was in a abusive home. However, that doesn't make up for the fact that sometimes I felt like I was waiting for something to happen.
Overall this wasn't bad, it had a lot of good aspects but too many things missed the mark to mean I actually enjoyed it. It just felt very ‘meh' (2 stars)