Eleanor & Park: A Novel

DNF: It took me two months to get about 65% through it...
Just not enough happened in this book for me to stay interested. This book has made me realize that contemporary books are not my cup of tea.
I will either give this book to my step sister/cousin or sell it to Half-Priced Books.

I don't know how to write about this book. Eleanor and Park. Eleanor and Park. A "must read" falls short of the world's greatest understatement.

This novel. These teens. They make you split yourself open and everything you hate about yourself comes spilling out into the world, and everything you love about yourself comes spilling out into the world, and you can't put it back. This books leaves you raw and exposed, clinging to love in a way that doesn't seem possible in words. Propels you to physically press yourself into your "person" and want to mold to them to fill any gap in your soul. That sounds terribly dramatic. I don't even care. This book destroyed me. It is perfection.

From Goodreads:

Two misfits.
One extraordinary love.

Eleanor... Red hair, wrong clothes. Standing behind him until he turns his head. Lying beside him until he wakes up. Making everyone else seem drabber and flatter and never good enough...Eleanor.

Park... He knows she'll love a song before he plays it for her. He laughs at her jokes before she ever gets to the punch line. There's a place on his chest, just below his throat, that makes her want to keep promises...Park.

Set over the course of one school year, this is the story of two star-crossed sixteen-year-olds—smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try.

Cute, sweet, heartbreaking story. It has its flaws, but I zoomed through it like I haven't with any book in a very long time.

Now, I definitely know this is not a mind blowing piece of literature. Did it gloss over a few things that could have made the book better? Yeah, of course. However, it's still a nice story which punches you in the heart a few times. The author remembers what it's like to be a teenager, which makes bring up your own nostalgic memories. Which to be honest are of course full of angst and love. Throw in domestic abuse, bullying, lots of 80's pop references, and you got yourself a nice fluffy story. Which all in all, is what it's kind of supposed to be. (There is vulgar language though, you've been warned.)

Great book rough ending and wish it ended better honestly.