Length: 325 pages
Age Group: Young Adult
Published: 2013
Eleanor & Park is a love story about two outcast teenagers living in Nebraska in the 80s. They bonded in the school bus over comics and good music, and they dealt with what most teenagers deal with when they are in love for the first time. Even though the book centers around their relationship, it also speaks about important topics like racism (Park is Korean-American), domestic abuse (Eleanor's home situation), and bullying (as I mentioned before, they were both outcasts).
It is a great book to read if you are looking for a quick, easy read. However, in my opinion, I found the writing boring at times, and there were many moments where I lost interest in reading it. I had to force myself to finish it. While it brings up interesting topics, not just the big ones like bullying but also music and comics many of us know and love, the plot was kind of slow up until the end when big stuff actually happens.
The book also seems very cliche, which is not necessarily a bad thing, with the two main characters being misfits who fall in love, and while reading I did not feel much for the characters' relationship. Yes, I sympathized with their situations, but I did not feel any connection between the two of them. In my opinion, the development of their relationship could have been written better so that the reader will actually want them to be together. By the end of the book, I could not care less about the status of the relationship, and if the book is a love story, I feel like that is an important thing to care about.
My not liking the book, however, will not stop me from watching the movie. I think it could be possible that seeing the characters come to life will help me care more about them since I did not connect with them through writing.
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