Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

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My rating: 5++

Book summary:

"TWO MISFITS. ONE EXTRAORDINARY LOVE. 
It's 1986 and two star-crossed teens are 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.

 A cross between the iconic '80s movie Sixteen Candles and the classic coming-of-age novel Looking for Alaska, Eleanor & Park is a brilliantly written young adult novel."

 "I want everyone to meet you. You're my favorite person of all time."

      Yes, I want everyone to meet this beautiful book. Everyone! After I finished reading Fangirl, I had to get my hands on all books written by Rainbow Rowell. I've started Eleanor and Park the very next morning. If you'd ask me which one of this two I like more, I wouldn't know what to tell you. Both of them have that special something, fairy dust all of our favorite books sprinkle all around them.

      This novel is completely different from Fangirl. That is a good thing in my world. I don't like authors who are constantly writing books with similar characters and story. If you had read one, it's as if you read them all. Rainbow Rowell is not one of those authors (I'm reading Attachments currently and it is whole other category, I'm even wondering if it's written by the same person).

      I absolutely adore setting of Eleanor & Park - everything happens in 1986. - and don't even let me start with the music: The Smiths, The Joy Division, U2... Walkmens! Yes, I used to have one of those. Making mixtapes was a big deal and it took a lot of time. I still have few tapes somewhere in the apartment.

     But the most captivating part of this story are main characters, Eleanor - overweight and awkward new girl, and Park - part Korean and part Irish boy with great music taste.

 “What are the chances you’d ever meet someone like that? he wondered. Someone you could love forever, someone who would forever love you back? And what did you do when that person was born half a world away? The math seemed impossible.”

      This is not a story about a boy and a girl who fall in love at a first sight. This is not a story about fat girl who fights a social stereotypes in her school and in the end changes the way everyone thinks about her. But also, Eleanor & Park is not another story about bulling. Not completely. Main focus is somewhere else and it is so honest and real. Eleanor has some issues with the way she looks but she still knows what she wants, who she is and she doesn't try to fit in. She just is. Park is fighting with his identity - being Korean is what defines him where ever he goes, but he doesn't even know what does it mean to be Korean. Along with family problems, great music and epic make out sessions, this novel will keep you on the edge until the very end. I really hope that Rainbow Rowell won't get into the all too familiar trap of writing sequels. This story should stay just the way it is and she should write new stories.

     Eleanor & Park goes just after Fangirl on the list of my favorites. Thank you, Rainbow, for giving us your stories.

 Happy reading,