Park is the boy at the back of the bus. Black T-shirts, headphones, head in a book - he thinks he's made himself invisible. But not to Eleanor... never to Eleanor.
Slowly, steadily, through late-night conversations and an ever-growing stack of mix tapes, Eleanor and Park fall for each other. They fall in love the way you do the first time, when you're young, and you feel as if you have nothing and everything to lose. (Goodreads)
I know, another book report ;) They're just easier right now, while I try to find a good groove for getting into blogging again. The world lately hasn't helped much with finding that mojo. It's just...such a mess. My heart aches for those who have lost loved ones. For the sick, for the lonely. It's hard to focus on much else. Except books. I have been reading quite a lot. Writing is slow and sticky, but also happening. Now that my tough spring semester is over, I'm planning on making words on the page a better habit. We'll see if I manage it! Anyhow, on to this book:
I've heard about a million rave reviews for this novel. So many people madly LOVE it. I'm afraid this won't be that kind of review. I honestly didn't find much in it that I could identify with. I love YA and this book made me question whether I've gotten too old to enjoy such a novel. It's hard to say. But, while it was interesting and I finished it, I just...didn't care for it. The characters were fine, the writing wonderful, but while I was a kid in the 80's, I don't remember much of it. Mix tapes were sort of a thing, but I didn't ever really get into them. I didn't date until college; I never really had that whole "fall in love the way you do the first time" while young, which is an experience central to the novel. So, the novel itself just kind of fell flat for me. And Eleanor. God. Her household was horrific and entirely troublesome, and perhaps hit a little too close to home. And on some level, I wanted to see her win. Like, I read so that I can see the characters win over their adversaries--to give me a little hope that it's possible. But Eleanor just...didn't. She survived, yes, and there's good in that. But I wanted to see her crawl out of herself a bit more, to have a way to win. It just bothered me to watch her let everything happen to her and never seem to stand up on her own. Yes, yes, it's important to have books like that, too. But I guess it just didn't hit me right. I've meant to check out more of Rowell's work, but honestly, I'm not too sure I want to now. Maybe in the future I'll find myself drawn to something with a bit of a different theme :)
