The book takes place at a high school in Omaha, Nebraska in the year 1986. Park attends the high school, and his love of music and comic books contrasts with the rest of the school. He knows he’s a misfit, but he’s nothing compared to the new girl- Eleanor. Knowing she’ll get torn apart by bullies, he offers her a seat next to him on the bus. They gradually being talking, and a friendship develops between the two. Then, throughout the twists and turns of life, they become so much more.
I really enjoyed this book. The author managed to always keep the plot flowing and interesting. The fact that she set in in the 80’s was also interesting, as not many new teen fiction books set their books in the past. The characters in “Eleanor and Park” were all really diverse, which made the book seem more relatable. The metaphors, the characters, the writing style- everything was perfect.
The characters all had so much depth to them. Sometimes authors tend to neglect the personalities of people in the story or just give them a few basic character traits, but Rainbow Rowell really succeeded in making the characters really interesting. From the start, you learn so much about Eleanor and Park, and she wrote them both really well. Each choice they made and thing they said showed who they were, and the depth of the characters made the book much more personal.
Reviewed by Kitty, 7th Grade, Twin Hickory Area Library
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