Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

Title: Eleanor & Park
Author: Rainbow Rowell
Release date: February 26, 2013
Pages: 328

Two misfits.
One extraordinary love.

Eleanor... Red hair, wrong clothes. Standing behind him until he turns his head. Lying beside him until he wakes up. Making everyone else seem drabber and flatter and never good enough...Eleanor.

Park... He knows she'll love a song before he plays it for her. He laughs at her jokes before she ever gets to the punch line. There's a place on his chest, just below his throat, that makes her want to keep promises...Park.

Set over the course of one school year, this is the story of two star-crossed sixteen-year-olds—smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try.

Eleanor & Park is the story of two misfit teenagers who fall in love, set in 1986.  Eleanor is a teenage girl who is very uncomfortable in her own skin.  She's a big girl with crazy red hair, pale skin, and a terrible home life.  Park is a half-Korean teenage boy who stands out in Omaha, Nebraska.  The two of them hate each other at first but they are drawn together by their mutual love of comic books and music.  Their romance is based around shared comic books, mix tapes, late night illicit phone calls, and lots of opinions from people in their lives.

Rainbow Rowell includes many topics that are found in other contemporary novels but Eleanor & Park still manages to stand out among other books on the shelves.  Eleanor & Park are two teens that readers won't be able not to love.  They are both so unique and really quirky.  There is also the fact that Eleanor is such a strong girl even though there are so many terrible things in her life.  Her story is truly heartbreaking.

The age range for Eleanor & Park would probably be around 14 or older.  There are quite a few curse words and some sexual content.  There are also quite a few subtle things that older teens would be able to appreciate whereas younger teens might overlook them.

Themes:

• love
• bullying
• abuse
• friendship
• music
• poverty
• 
  

Extra content:

Prettybooks' review: "Eleanor & Park is a novel that you’ll read and understand why people love it so much, even if it’s not your cup of tea."

Young Adult Indulgence's review: "I believe readers will be in for a treat when they read this story."

Interview with Rainbow Rowell

Another interview with Rainbow Rowell (that includes hints about an Eleanor & Park sequel)