Eleanor & Park by Rainbow RowellPublished by: St. Martin's Press on April 12, 2012
Genre: Contemporary, Romance
Pages: 335
Source: Purchased
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Rating: ★½
Set over the course of one school year in 1986, ELEANOR AND PARK is the story of two star-crossed misfits—smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try. When Eleanor meets Park, you’ll remember your own first love—and just how hard it pulled you under.
Did I read the same book that everyone else read? I did not love Eleanor & Park. I didn’t even particularly like it.
I thought it started out pretty good and I thought the main characters (Park in particular) were kind of cute. But then it just went down, down, down.
First, the romance. Some might find it cute and sweet, but that’s kind of all it was. It didn’t feel like real, true, passionate love. It was the kind of romance that you might say “Aww” too for a minute, but it wasn’t that heart-wrenching, passionate romance that I was expecting. It was young and naïve. Like in high school romances when people think what they have is ever lasting love, but then they grow up, look back, and realize it was just a cute fling. That’s what I thought Eleanor & Park was, and as a result, I thought the book was shallow.
Eleanor & Park barely scratched the surface with love and the romance. Eleanor and Park meet, sit next to each other on the bus, exchange glances, read comics together, barely actually speak to each other, then, on page 109 and 111 respectively:
“I don’t like you,” he said. “I need you.”
Park
“I…”—her voice nearly disappeared—”I think I live for you.”
Eleanor
“I don’t think I even breathe when we’re not together.”
Eleanor
It felt so insta-love-y. Sure they shared a few cute moments, where Eleanor would get on the bus, sit next to Park, not even speak to him, but read his comic book over his shoulder… but they went from that to, “I can’t live without you” type declarations? It just felt way too fast. And even after that point, I never felt any passion in their relationship. If anything, Park just seemed intrigued by Eleanor, rather than passionately in love with her.
As the book went on and they just kept sharing loads and loads of silent moments (listening to music together, reading comics together), I got bored. I felt like nothing was happening; the plot wasn’t progressing. It was just “Eleanor and Park spend time together… then more time together… then more time…” But there was no real plot there.
And the bits of plot that the author did try to tie in didn’t go anywhere. Eleanor has a bad family situation. Her father doesn’t want her and she live with her mother, her stepfather, and her siblings. Her stepfather is an abusive drunk and her mother refuses to leave him. But despite this site plot, nothing ever happens to it. There’s not even a big climax at the end… there’s a tiny one, but even then, the problem never actually gets solved. Eleanor just runs away from it.
So overall, I just found Eleanor & Park to be a shallow read. I literally think that word describes this book perfectly. It skims the surface of first love. It skims the surface of family problems. It skims the surface of living in an under-privileged home. Although it does really focus on race, to the point where you’d think Eleanor only likes Park because he has ‘cute Korean eyes/skin’. Respiring Thoughts does a great job of highlighting the race problems in this book.
Also, I thought Eleanor was a bit of a bitch at times. She got mad at Park for no reason, she was so annoyingly self-critical, she went on and on about how she was fat, and at the end View Spoiler » . I was honestly just sick of all her self deprecation and lack of confidence. And even at the end, I don’t feel like she ever gained confidence, so there was no character growth there.
One more thing I’ll note is the writing style. I didn’t love it. Another reviewer put it wonderfully:
But what really made me want to heave this book across the room was the ping-pong writing style. Rowell wrote very short sections, bouncing back and forth and back and forth between Eleanor and Park’s point of view.
Although I didn’t mind it at first, this style of writing really started to annoy me after a while. We’d get chapters that were basically like:
Eleanor loved the way Park held her hand. It was so nice.
Then:
Park felt like he was touching something real and genuine. Holding Eleanor’s hand was like holding a butterfly.
Then:
Eleanor was in heaven. She disintegrated.
Just constant back and forth, back and forth. Obviously I did some major paraphrasing up there, but that’s basically how it was. Some chapters were less than a page long and would just go from Park to Eleanor, then back again, in super quick succession. It wasn’t for me.
I wanted to love this book because everyone else does and because I did love Rainbow Rowell’s Attachments, but this time it looks like I’m a black sheep. I don’t mind a cute, fluffy book now and then, but I have to be in the mood for them. With everyone’s extreme love for Eleanor & Park, I expected a book with a lot of substance.. but turns out, it is way more of the cute, fluffy type (which takes me back to my “it’s shallow” point). So maybe part of the reason for my low rating is that I went in with totally different expectations. This book is cute and shallow—it’s not intense, drastically emotional, or heart-wrenching.
The Verdict
Wow, shallow. That sucks. If you can’t fall in love with the characters, you can’t fall in love with the book.
I hadn’t really given any thought to the racial elements of this book, I got wrapped up in how it made me feel so I didn’t read it critically.
All interesting points, if I ever get round to reading it again I’ll have to read it with this in mind.
I’m sorry you didn’t like this one better 🙁 I have it on my Kindle but I haven’t gotten the chance to read it yet and I’m a little scared now…
OMG “I don’t like you,” he said. “I need you.”…..that is the worst line ever! Great review, and yes, you are the only person who I’ve seen that doesn’t like this book. And based on your review….I wouldn’t either!
Yes. Yes yes yes. I saw your review on Goodreads and was like “SOMEONE WHO GETS ME”. lol, but yes. Agree 100%.
I’ve heard great things about this one, but haven’t gotten around to reading it. In fact I just read my first Rainbow Rowell book, Fangirl not too long ago and loved it so have been looking forward to getting my hands on her other books. But now I’m wary of this one… I feel like I will still try it eventually because there were so many good reviews, but it’s definitely been bumped down on my priority list after reading your review. I can’t stand fluffy books that don’t dig into anything real.
I haven’t read the book, but most everyone I’ve talked to has loved it! I have it waiting on my shelf… but I haven’t picked up the courage to read it. I’m afraid I’ll end up hating it too!
To be honest, I’m a little disappointed to see that you didn’t enjoy Eleanor & Park that much. Personally, I loved it but I can see where you’re coming from. It was sort of insta-lovey but I adored Park so I tended not to notice. I totally agree with you about the ending. As much as I liked Eleanor, I still can’t forgive her for that ending. Great review!
I have yet to read it (it’s on my shelf though!) but I find it really refreshing to read something else than complete raving about this book! Like many other readers I’m sure, I’m always a little weary of books “everyone” loves. Now I can go in knowing a little better what to expect! 🙂
Ewww, yeah, no. Thanks for the review because I thought about reading this because I loved Fangirl, but no. Just no. I can’t stand insta love and the quotes make me want to upchuck. I don’t mind a fluffy read once in a while, but this would be too much. Love the review!
Oh noes!! After all the hype, I was kinda wanting to try it. But now…I’m not so sure 🙁
I HATE instalove with the fire of a thousand suns, and this one sounds way too shallow for me. I do believe that people can have very fast passionate romance (I wouldn’t believe it if I hadn’t experienced it myself), but it has to feel real, and that is EXTREMELY hard to pull off without seeming like instalove or instalust.
I don’t like plot-less books, I get bored to easy. My attention span is too short for that! I think I’ll pass on this one for now…
Oh wow! I’ve read SO many positive reviews of this one, but I’ve also read a few reviews like your, Ashley. You know how I felt about Fangirl so I’m curious what I’ll think about E&P. Sometimes books where not much happens doesn’t bother me, but other times, it’s SO annoying. And the flip-flopping between POV might get on my nerve.
Poo that this wasn’t better for you girl!
I haven’t read Attachments yet, but I LOVED Eleanor & Park. On the other hand, I didn’t like Fangirl as much as I hoped I would based on Eleanor & Park. I need to get my hands on Attachments then, I think, to see which way it evens out, heh.
I’m glad you loved Eleanor & Park! I hope you love Attachments too! I’m all over the map with Rainbow’s books..
Eleanor & Park – kind of hated
Fangirl – It was okay
Attachments – LOVED
Crazy! Lol.
THANK YOU. I’m one of the few (it feels) that loved Attachments but didn’t really like E&P. Like, at all. I’m glad to know I’m not the only one.
I feel like I’m cheating on an author when I love one of their novels but feel super negative about another.
It’s so nice that someone feels the same way! And yes, it’s very weird when you love one book but dislike another. 🙁
Is a 2015 release in my country and bloggers are reading it like is the best thing ever XD…i’m skipping XD
It was at time a good and “meh” book in my opinion and I somewhat dislike Rowell’s writing style as well. But I thought Park was pretty good. Eleanor on the other hand… You describing her as the B word is pretty true at some points of the story. -.-
I’ve only read two of Rainbow Rowell’s books – ‘Park and Eleanor’ and ‘Fangirl’. Maybe this isn’t an accurate description of ALL her books, but it feels like Rowell can’t write a plot-centric book. I struggled to get through those two books because it was like… the two or three main characters that the story focused on spent time together, spent more time together… and then spent MORE time together. She gives the reader this backstory for the characters, and then doesn’t do much, if anything, with it. I don’t know. Her ideas are compelling, but the actuality of what she produces isn’t compelling. it’s just boring. there’s no goal the characters work towards. I don’t want to root for them. I don’t know if that makes sense.