Eleanor and Park is one of the few talked about books that I have utterly disliked contrary to the popular opinion. According to the blogger who liked the book it was meant to be an epic love saga. It was meant to stir your heart and soul. Sadly, none of this happened. On the contrary I was repulsed enough to not pick up to read the last 30 pages of the book until right before writing this review.
Cover Page
The cover page is everything a great book should consist of. The lovely graphic, which relates to the story inside and beautiful font to go with it. The colour scheme is lovely too. That is why it aches me to find the content of the book as it is. The cover from Orion books is worth an applause.
Characters
Eleanor is a kid from a not so well to do family. She faces abuse and general disruption in life. She lives in old ill-fitted clothes. These clothes make her stand out from the crowd, maybe look like a rebel child too. However, she is not.
Park is a popular by of Asian descent. He has friends and a loving family. Park has his own issues.
Apart from the above-mentioned details, the characters do not stand out at all. They are shallow and unrelatable. At certain point in the story, you find yourself disinterested in what happens to them. It gets boring.
Content
Both the kids suffer from problems every teenager goes through. Well, Eleanor’s is a little more frightening but the narration kills the story. It is the story of two kids from different backgrounds finally connecting and falling in love eventually to separate. A clichéd story that is spoken of repeatedly with different settings.
Language
It is shallow too. The words are opposite of powerful, throughout. You do not connect with the narration. It is as dull as reading newspaper. There are hardly any sentences to quote as opposed to many other love stories.
Good points
I loved the cover. It is so beautiful that I hate myself for the intended separation. I cannot keep a book on the shelf for its cover especially since I hate the content so much!
Bad points
The characters are shallow. The content is shallow. The narration is boring.
Overall
I regret buying this book. Sometimes popular opinions are not your opinion. It is definitely the case with this book.
Whom do I recommend this to
No one. Absolutely no one.
Quotable quotes
Okay I actually liked ONE quote
Eleanor was right. She never looked nice. She looked like art, and art wasn’t supposed to look nice; it was supposed to make you feel something.
Go ahead, grab yourself a copy of Eleanor and Park and tell us what you think about the book! If you are a Kindle person, ensure to select the Kindle edition of the book.
Looking to buy a Kindle?
The frontlit, high-resolution Kindle Paperwhite seems to be the officially preferred Kindle at Meraki Post; Veena, Gazala and Ram have one each. And while Pooja may claim she is more of the “Love the new book smell” kind of person, she may be secretly deciding between the premium Kindle Oasis and the simple and efficient Good Ol’ Kindle.
Kindle Kindle Paperwhite Kindle Oasis
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