Eleanor & Park: A Novel

Rainbow Rowell

Feb 2013 · Sold by St. Martin's Griffin

About this ebook

#1 New York Times Best Seller!

"Eleanor & Park reminded me not just what it's like to be young and in love with a girl, but also what it's like to be young and in love with a book."-John Green, The New York Times Book Review
Bono met his wife in high school, Park says.
So did Jerry Lee Lewis, Eleanor answers.
I'm not kidding, he says.
You should be, she says, we're 16.
What about Romeo and Juliet?
Shallow, confused, then dead.
I love you, Park says.
Wherefore art thou, Eleanor answers.
I'm not kidding, he says.
You should be.
Set over the course of one school year in 1986, this 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.

A New York Times Best Seller!
A 2014 Michael L. Printz Honor Book for Excellence in Young Adult Literature
Eleanor & Park is the winner of the 2013 Boston Globe Horn Book Award for Best Fiction Book.
A Publishers Weekly Best Children's Book of 2013
A New York Times Book Review Notable Children's Book of 2013
A Kirkus Reviews Best Teen Book of 2013
An NPR Best Book of 2013

Ratings and reviews

I liked it a lot, I don't know if it was my app or the download or what. But I got to the "last page" #253, but there were still like thirty or forty pages after that that were marked as page 253 on the page scroll bar. I actually kind of liked it because I didn't know when the ending would be. I love the love story between the two and the overcome of struggles. But the ending was a little anticlimactic for me (even though I still cried). I'd highly suggest this book.

It's a very cute teenage romance story with a bitter sweet end. However, I really couldn't get over the fetishist descriptions of the Korean boy who also seems to be named after a hotel? Park Sheridan, are you kidding me? I was hoping there would be some explanation for it, maybe it was his mother's last name and she wanted to keep that in the family somehow but none. Also, the Black girls in the story are typically stereotyped. It could have been a lovely book without even having to mention race. Not sure why the writer chose to do so but it really made the reading experience a bit sour.

I read the last words without realizing they were the last words. I turned the page only to find the acknowledgements, which surprised me. The story kinda just ended..... I liked this real world story written in fiction but could have easily passed for non fiction. I'm not really missing these characters like I typically would although I'll probably think on them in the days to come. I like how the author switched viewpoints from Eleanor to Park and back again. The writing style works for me! Thanks. Now please finish what you started ;)

About the author

RAINBOW ROWELL lives in Omaha, Nebraska, with her husband and two sons. She's also the author of Landline, Fangirl and Attachments.