Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell - book review by Carlyn

credit to amazon.com

Eleanor and Park is a coming-of-age story set in the late 80s. The teenagers meet on the bus on Eleanor’s first day of school. She is the weirdest girl that Park has ever seen, and the other kids aren’t kind to her. Park lets her sit with him begrudgingly and over time they form a relationship.

Eleanor and Park come from different backgrounds but share a love of comics, music and science fiction. Park is half Korean American and lives with a loving family while Eleanor is the eldest in a large and poor family.    

The couple overcome many obstacles to be together. Eleanor is bullied at school for dressing weird, being overweight and poor. While Park struggles with being a minority, fitting in at school and his relationship with his dad.

I had read so many reviews about this book when it first debuted. It’s a book that I had wanted to read for a long time. I was interested in the book because I learnt that the protagonists were different to the norm. Eleanor is plus sized, and I hadn’t heard of many books that had a plus sized heroine. In addition, Park is half Korean and half Caucasian. The book chapters also alternate point of view between Park and Eleanor.

I’m Asian and plus sized so I was very interested in reading this book. I could empathize with the characters. I grew up in a very white neighborhood and there were very few Asian people represented in the media at the time. I wish there were books like this one to read when I was younger.  I recommend this book for anyone who enjoys Young Adult fiction.