Eleanor & Park Review

In so many reviews this story gets compared to Romeo and Juliet, and while in simple terms it can be seen as a similar story, Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell is much more. Set in a small town in the mid 1980s, Eleanor and Park meet when they are fifteen on the way to school. Park is forced by circumstance to share his bus seat with the oddly dressed new girl. Though the course of their bus rides together they slowly develop a friendship and eventually a relationship. The two have very different home lives, Park with the Norman Rockwell family, and Eleanor with her divorced parents and six people living in a two bedroom home. Between school bullies, personal insecurities, and home lives they try to keep from each other; their relationship suffers many ups and down over the school year. A contemporary young adult novel that pulls the reader, and by the conclusion of the novel leaves its reader an emotional wreck.

I liked this book, probably would rate it 4.5 stars. I felt like it started a little slow, took almost fifty pages for me to actually start caring about the characters, but after that I was so invented I finished the book in one sitting (it was a long sitting, but still). I felt like the author pushed a little to hard with the Romeo and Juliet references, as well as the references to hell. I understand that many people feel that high school is hell, and Romeo and Juliet is a story that most people know, but I just felt annoyed.

The narration also took a bit of getting used to. It constantly changes between Eleanor and Park, but not just at the start of a chapter, but constantly throughout the book. Every section is labeled with the character, but I found it frustrating that the POV was constantly shifting.

The development of not just the relationship, but the characters in general was what kept me reading, and I am glad I did. With so many reviews comparing this book to R&J I was concerned that I wouldn’t like the story, but honestly I found very few similarities. I loved the way plots worked their way to the surface of the story, giving little hints and guidance along the way. It was the kind of plot where I could reasonably make assumptions about what I thought was going to happen, and do it with relative accuracy, but wasn’t written in a way that “well duh” ever entered into my head.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys contemporary fiction or young adult novels.