603#Ai no Kotoba ~ [Book Review] Eleanor & Park

[edited: Dec 30, 2015]
First love. High school. These two sum Eleanor & Park perfectly. 

Rating : 4.4/5

Two misfits.
One extraordinary love.

Eleanor... Red hair, wrong clothes. Standing behind him until he turns his head. Lying beside him until he wakes up. Making everyone else seem drabber and flatter and never good enough...Eleanor.

Park... He knows she'll love a song before he plays it for her. He laughs at her jokes before she ever gets to the punch line. There's a place on his chest, just below his throat, that makes her want to keep promises...Park.

Set over the course of one school year, this is the story of two star-crossed sixteen-year-old—smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try.


Eleanor & Park tells the story of a red-headed new-girl-in-school named Eleanor Douglas and a half-Korean boy named Park Sheridan. They meet when both of them have to sit at the back of the school bus every day. Unconsciously, the friendship between Eleanor and Park forms through Park sharing his comic books with Eleanor. Without any of them utter a single word, they share the comics and a friendship is formed between the two misfits. 
Eleanor doesn't come from a happy family. Her parents divorced and Eleanor lives with her mother, together with Richie - her good for nothing stepfather. I felt the urge for Park to use his taekwando skills kicking Richie, half dead perhaps? 
Park's situation is completely different to Eleanor's. His parents are so loving and his younger brother is nice, too. Park's father is a veteran while his mother comes from South Korea. Sometimes Park has to deal with racism issue due to his small build when his younger brother has normal build of a white guy.   Both of them loves to be alone, actually. Even though Park has friends, but he finds discomfort in their presence. And Eleanor has only two friends in her new school excluding Park. 
What I love about Eleanor & Park is the way I could feel their love, the way they fall for each other - through the songs, comics, English class and their way of comfort in their misfits. Both Eleanor and Park are brave, they are brave enough to fall in love even though they both know first love almost never lasts. I just hope Eleanor will appreciate herself more. Park being with her every time she needs him is lovable.
To me, this is not a typical high school love story where the good girl falls for the bad boy. I have some issues with that kind of high school or college romance. This is a love story of two misfits who find comfort in little things - music, comics, conversations without involving the guy being rough with the girl.
Even though I did question the ending, I still love Eleanor & Park. A good Young Adult book which I would like to recommend to every YA lovers ;)
Till then. Wassalam.