Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

Overview:

Eleanor is a girl with a crappy home life who gets bullied at school because of how she looks. Park is an Asian guy going to school in a town that with a very small Asian community and is just trying to make it through high school. They end up sitting together on the school bus and form an interesting friendship/relationship. This book takes you through the issues they face at school, with themselves, and with their families all while trying to fall in love.

My thoughts:

I wish I would have read this book sooner. I loved that the author wrote about characters that are physically different from the majority of the characters I read about. Eleanor is a girl that struggles with her weight because she’s not thin and has very curly red hair. I enjoyed reading about a character that didn’t have the perfect body or hair because it made her more relatable. Park is half Korean which is different from most of the characters I read about that are usually white or a nondescript race. 

Rainbow Rowell did an excellent job of capturing what it’s like to face any issues while in high school. I also appreciated the fact that she brought up cultural issues. A little something about me: I’ve always enjoyed learning about other cultures, Korean included, so it was nice to see her address some cultural differences and how they can be viewed in a society that may not share the same values.

The only thing I didn’t absolutely love about this book was the ending. It’s not so much because it was bad ending but because it wasn’t a very definitive one. The ending definitely leaves you wondering and wanting more.

I genuinely loved this book! It’s a great read but with a caution note regarding the ending.