Published: April 2012
Number of Pages: 336, ebook
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance, Realistic, Fiction
Setting: Omaha, Nebraska; 1986
Plot: 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. (Goodreads.com)
Personal Thoughts: The first thing that stood out to me and the part that I loved SO MUCH was that this story was set in the eighties, 1986 to be exact. I was born in 1985, so it was interesting to see this author's take on teens in that particular time period. This book deals with many things from teen romance, bullying, step-parents and broken marriages... oh, and GUY LINER! (:
I absolutely LOVED Eleanor right off the bat, she was so easy to relate to in the sense that she is such a simple girl. She's one of those girls that doesn't need all the glitter and glam to be happy in her life. Though she's severely insecure about herself and the people in her life, she is very confidant in knowing WHO she is and what she thinks she wants from this life that she's really only trying to survive. Life had dealt her a hard hand lately.
I really enjoyed seeing Eleanor grow in this book, watching her change and open up (if only a little bit) towards Park. In the beginning of the story, she was so capable of being loved and so open to it... but that was one of the things that bothered me so much by the end of this book. Eleanor wanted to be known completely and loved so deeply, but would never just let Park ALL the way in!
Now, Park. He is by far one of my favorite Young Adult male characters EVER! I just love his personality and style and the fact that he's not afraid to let his friends know he's a bit on the weird side! Throughout the whole book, I was so glad to see Park remain exactly who he was and I feel like I got to really know and understand him completely. I adored his love for Eleanor and his ability to love her for exactly who she was (dirty clothes, crazy hair and all), and he didn't try to change her or judge what he didn't know about her life. He also seemed very okay with the boundaries that Eleanor set very early on and he tried really hard not to push them, although I felt so much that he wanted to. My favorite thing to see in this book was when Park changed from being embarrassed about being around her and being seen with her, to being embarrassed for her. He loved her, and eventually stood up for her to his own friends. That's love, people!
An added note of hilarity, this quote had me rolling on the floor: "Don't bite his face, Eleanor told herself. It's disturbing and needy and never happens in situation comedies or movies that end with big kisses." Eleanor's sense of humor is literally the best!
But this is my favorite overall quote from the book: "He tried to remember how this happened - how she went from someone he'd never met to the only one who mattered." I love this quote because I thought it was a very genuine thought and kind of a big deal for a teenager falling in love. I think it truly shows the honesty in the love that Park was feeling for Eleanor.
By the very end of the book (spoilers ahead), Park will eventually find someone who loves him completely and Eleanor will go on alone until she can learn to finally let her walls down. I was very unhappy with how Eleanor left town. I felt like the end of the book was very rushed and I felt like Park (and I) had no closure at all! The postcard, while I'm glad she was finally able to say those 3 words (I think she finally told him she loved him), didn't give me what I needed from the end of this book at all! I found myself thinking that the end of this book had SO much potential to continue, but it just seemed to flop at the end with no real direction. It was obvious to me that it was probably the author's intention, but I'd really like to ask her WHY?! I felt like these characters grew up so much and grew to know themselves and each other really well over the course of the story, just to let them end things so abruptly with no real reason why?! I loved the story, but the end, much like some other endings in real life, really disappointed me.
Recommended Age Level: 13+
Rating: 4
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