Eleanor & Park: A Novel

A gorgeous first-ever-paperback edition featuring sprayed edges with a stenciled script design.

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.

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Published Oct 29, 2024

336 pages

Average rating: 7.88

396 RATINGS

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Community Reviews

Carmen Maldonado
May 26, 2026
8/10 stars
I loved this book. But OMG! That ending had me a little confused. I didn't know how to feel at the end. Many many feels!!!!!
The.readrose
Jan 28, 2026
2/10 stars
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.
Cresta McGowan
Dec 25, 2025
10/10 stars
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.
Khris Sellin
Jul 05, 2024
8/10 stars
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.
Shantallb
May 28, 2026
6/10 stars
I’m too old for this book

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