I haven’t posted in a while because of school work, but I’ve been reading as much as I could in my free time and I finally got around to Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell. I heard about the book a while ago – mostly good things – but I’m always hesitant to read an author I’m not familiar with. What finally made me buy it was that I saw a collector’s edition sitting all alone on a shelf at Barnes and Noble, so naturally, I picked it up, not wanting to miss a chance at owning a book with such beautiful cover art. That being said, I regret nothing!
Told in alternating points of view, Eleanor & Park is a story about two 16 year olds who meet on the school bus on the first day of school. The story is set in Omaha, Nebraska in the late 80’s and is filled with great musical references.This book is one of the most interesting stories I’ve read in a very long time. It’s cute and funny with such great characters, I couldn’t put it down. I really like the structure of the book; it is written from both Eleanor and Park’s perspective, which isn’t something that’s easy to do without disturbing the flow of a story, but Rowell makes it seem as natural as breathing.
Eleanor is such well developed character. She isn’t shallow or unrelatable. Although her home life is complete crap and her only real solace is Park, she is still just a typical teenage girl. She has all the gushy feelings girls have when they get their first crush, and all of the fears. One thing that sticks out about her is how she seems to fixate on Park so completely. At one point she says he is so cute she wants to eat his face, which I thought was hilarious because it’s definitely something I would’ve said when I was 16.Overall, Eleanor is just trying to survive her awful stepfather, and the horrors of being the new girl in a town where everyone already knows their place.
Park is my favorite character because for one his name is Park. His family is the opposite of Eleanor’s, which makes for a great contrast in the way the two characters interact with each other. Park is a hopeless romantic due to being brought up by parents who are completely in love with each other. He even says that the one thing that made him feel better when he woke up scared at night was knowing how much his parents loved each other. I think that is such a beautiful thing for someone to say, especially a 16 year old boy because let’s be real, how many teenage boys do you know who would actually admit that? I know zero, but I digress. My favorite thing about Park is probably how much he cares about Eleanor. He wants to be her protector and even though she is cynical and sarcastic she melts right into him because she knows he is truly genuine.
I dont want to give too much away for those who haven’t read the book, but I give it 5 stars and I hope to God that there will be a sequel. I also wouldn’t be opposed to a movie. I would definitely recommend reading this book, it was worth every second.
For more information on Eleanor & Park or Rainbow Rowell, visit her website.
Happy reading! 🙂
honor of the movie adaption of Fifty Shades being released next weekend, I’ve decided to give my thoughts on the steamy bestseller.
owns is another fabulous novel by John Green and I absolutely loved it. The story is about a high school senior named Quentin and the girl hes been head over heels for since they were kids, His neighbor Margo. Margo takes Quentin on an adventure unlike any he’s ever experienced, then send him on his own adventure. With the help of his best friends, Quentin unravels the mystery that has always been Margo. I honestly was not expecting to love this book as much I did, even though it’s clear that by now I think John Green is a genius. It was funny and thought provoking and I loved the mystery aspect of it. I would certainly recommend this book to all who have not yet read it. The best part is that Paper Towns is in the process of becoming a movie starring Nat Wolff (Issac from The Fault in our Stars movie), and Model/Actress Cara Delevingne. The movie is set to be released June 5 of this summer and I am more than excited!
ga of books titled Hush, Hush, Crescendo, Silence, and Finale. The series’ focus is on fallen angels and nephilim, and the relationship between the two main characters Nora and Patch. I read these books a while ago and my experience with this series is one that has stuck with me for a number of reasons. I decided to read Hush, Hush because I’ve always been very interested in the story of the fallen angels and prior to this book I read Fallen, a novel by Lauren Kate. I enjoyed the overall plot-line of Fallen, but it was a bit of a slow read for me so I went to the book store in search of a similar story with a more engaging plot. In this instant, I’m guilty of the very thing we are told not to do as children – I judged the book by its cover – because the covers are all beautiful – and took Hush, Hush to the register.
Here’s the short version. A teenage girl named Hazel Grace Lancaster suffers from thyroid cancer. Her mother makes her go to a cancer support group at a church for other kids with cancer. At this support group she meets the ever charming Augustus Waters, who had osteosarcoma, but is now in remission. They hang out, fall in love, and just when you get really attached to them as a couple, John Green rips off the band aid and tears your hope apart with the cold, hard iron fist that is cancer.
