Eleanor & Park

#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

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Published Feb 26, 2013

378 pages

Average rating: 7.81

318 RATINGS

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Community Reviews

tayloractuallyreads
May 02, 2025
6/10 stars
I liked this book, but also I didn’t. Honestly, I just really didn’t understand their love for each other and maybe if I did I would have liked this book more.
JaneRose0514
May 02, 2025
6/10 stars
I like this book because the story goes along is love is something you fight for. Both characters go through the struggles of love with fighting their enemies, family, and friends. The same theme also is in Romeo and Juliet. They are both are in rival families but die to be together.

Eleanor meets Park on the morning school bus, trying to drown out the noise with music from his Walkman. He ignores his neighbors Steve and Tina, fellow high school classmates who are chatting loudly and obnoxiously in the back of the bus. Then, Eleanor's sitting on the steps outside school, going through a mental checklist trying to figure out how she can avoid riding the bus again. We find out she's just moved, her mom doesn't have a car, and for some reason, she can't imagine calling her dad. Turns out Park knows a lot about martial arts, by the way, "because his dad was obsessed with martial arts, not because his mom was Korean". Now, Park can't deal with leaving Eleanor to fend for herself at the back of the bus, and he "hated himself for thinking like this"
Anonymous
Dec 19, 2024
8/10 stars
WHAT WERE THE THREE WORDS?!? I LOVE YOU? IM COMING BACK? JSJSKSKS !!! THIS WAS A HELLA GOOD BOOK
uneven_shvm
Jul 24, 2024
6/10 stars
The Book was great. I really enjoyed it. Romance between the main character. Eleanor and Park was really beautiful. Sometimes it feel cringe, but I mean is a teen love story so at least we can expect that much. The romance overall was very good. Very interesting and you feel for the character as well, both Eleanor and Park. The overall theme of the book, I would say focus around bullying, but this is what the negative comes in, the book doesn’t tell you how how to deal with bullying. That’s the issue. I mean, you can understand more when you read it, but feels like every character in this book didn’t want to do anything about this bullying situation. Anyways, apart from Eleanor and Park you don’t feel attached to other characters as much as you do with the main character. The author didn’t focus on the other characters that much. The Book mainly focus on and Park and Eleanor and their relationship, and how they develop feelings for each others. Also, sometimes it feels like the story is dragging a little bit, I mean the Book can easily be cut shot 20 or 30 page. Overall the book was good. It was a good romance book. If you like romance, you can definitely try. There is some negative of this Book, but you can overcome that negative when you finished the book and the ending was, I would say good, not perfect, not bad, good, I like the ending.
Anonymous
Jul 17, 2024
4/10 stars
There were good parts of this book but I felt as though every chapter was the same monotonous plot of awkward teenage romance and characters who do not develop throughout the story.

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