Review: Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

Title: Eleanor & Park
Author: Rainbow Rowell
Published by: St. Martin's Press
Pages: 328
Source: Library
Format: Hardcover
Rating: 5 stars

Summary from Goodreads: Set over the course of one school year in 1986, ELEANOR AND PARK 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.

Devastatingly beautiful and heartbreaking.  Eleanor & Park will be sure to warm even the coldest of hearts and touch the lives of everyone who reads it.

Why, oh why did I wait so long to read this book!  Please excuse the incoherence in this review because even after finishing it couple of weeks ago I can't seem to come off the whirlwind that Eleanor & Park put me on.  

Eleanor has led a tough life.  She wears her individuality as a shield to protect herself from others harmful comments and from letting them get too close.  Somehow through comic books, mix tapes, and bus rides Park slips around that shield and it starts to crack just a little.  At first I wasn't really a fan of Eleanor.  She was brash and stand-offish, but the more I came to know her and her situation the more I just wanted to rescue her and her siblings (who I actually was not fans of either, but that didn't stop me from caring about them).  

Eleanor and Park's relationship was so cute.  They had some rough patches but the best thing was that they brought out the light in each other.  They were people who shouldn't hide, but instead let their individuality shine.  While there were many adorable scenes between these two, this book was hard to read.  It wasn't Rainbow Rowell's writing or anything like that, the subject matter was tough.  I found my heart hurting and wanting to escape from the story and yet I couldn't put the book down.   I had become attached to these people and their story and I couldn't leave them until the end.  (Little did I know they would stick with me long after I turned the last page). 

The characters and the situations in Eleanor & Park were very realistic and that is what makes it the book that so many people love.  It showed that sometimes life doesn't even hand you lemons, instead it takes everything and you have to somehow go on when there is nothing left.  It showed that sometimes you have to grow up before you are ready and know that the horrible thief that stole your childhood would never be caught and punished.  But it also showed hope and kindness -- and love.   

Eleanor & Park will blow you away...seriously just go read this book.  

Review Post: Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Title:  Fangirl
Author:  Rainbow Rowell
Published by: St. Martin's Griffin 
Pages: 434
Format:  Hardcover
Source: Purchased
Rating:  4.5 stars

Summary from Goodreads:  In Rainbow Rowell's Fangirl, Cath is a Simon Snow fan. Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan, but for Cath, being a fan is her life—and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving.

Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to. Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words . . . And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone.

For Cath, the question is: Can she do this? Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?

We as book lovers get attached to characters, worlds, plots, authors, and essentially every other aspect of a book.  These people and places become a comfort to us and a part of our lives just like their non-fiction entities.  Who didn't hope for their very own letter to Hogwarts, to be able to shoot an arrow like our favorite fearless heroine, or dare I say it...want a sparkling boyfriend of our own at one time or another?  We get completely immersed in the story and it becomes part of who we are. 

The same is true for Cath.  She is not only a Simon Snow fan, but she is THE fan.  You know the one who has fans of their own.  Not only does she live for the books, movies, world, and characters but she is also one of the most famous fanfiction writers out there with a massive following of her own.  She's a bit obsessed to say the least and it is taking over her life.  

I really loved Cath as a character.  She was a bit naive and sheltered but she also didn't bend to peoples will or change who she is.  However, Cath was just one of the outstanding characters in this novel.  Wren was eccentric and a bit wild.  She knew what she wanted from life and went after it.  Levi was completely and utterly adorable.  Where was he when I went to college?  And my favorite character had to be Reagan.  I loved her and her surly attitude.  I thought she was a riot.    

College is a tough transition and I think that Rainbow Rowell did an amazing job at capturing two of the different ends of the spectrum with Cath and her sister.  Both of these girls were going through some traumatic experiences and tough times, then on top of that they move away to college.  They handled things very differently, though truth be told also very typically.  Looking back on my undergrad days I can definitely see myself in both of these girls and their actions (is that a good thing?)

Fangirl was a different take on YA/New Adult and I think I quite liked it. For me at least, it seems a bit more relate-able than other NA books, yet it still had most of the elements + it was hilarious.  There were so many times I laughed out loud when reading this novel.  (side note:  This novel seems to bridge both YA and NA, though in an interview Rainbow Rowell states she feels it is more YA.)

Fangirl is definitely worth the hype.  I think I'm going to stock up on a couple of these books, as they will make great graduation gifts.