Eleanor and Park

Author: Rainbow Rowell

Series: Stand Alone (please no!)

Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult

Publisher: St Martin’s Griffin

Released: 26 February 2013

Summary: courtesy of goodreads.com 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.

My Review: I cannot get enough of Rainbow Rowell lately.  I follow her on tumblr and twitter and I wish she had an Instagram.  Basically she has reached the same prophetic levels as John Green in my whole author fandom thing.  I’m pretty sure if I were to meet her in real life I would start crying or something equally embarrassing.  Are you ready to know why? OKAY! HERE’S WHY!

Eleanor and Park literally broke my heart and put it back together again.  Now, I will admit, I was approved for this title almost a year ago on NetGalley, I read it, and I didn’t feel strongly either way on it.  I didn’t love it, but I didn’t really hate it either.  Then I read Fangirl (and Fangirled over Fangirl) and decided to research Eleanor and Park a little bit more.  John Green had endorsed it, that alone was a pretty big get for me.  And then I read this article on Rainbow Rowell’s website about how much she loved the audio version, so I finally signed up for Audible and downloaded my free book (I’ve never read an author endorsing their audio book before unless they themselves have read it) and then went on to Amazon and bought the print version.

Before I go on, there is something you should know.  I’m not usually a fan of audio books.  I like the voices I come up with in my head.  I don’t travel a lot or have a long commute, and I prefer records.  I also read faster than most narrators, and I don’t find them very engaging, they never sound like the characters in my head.  The audio version of Eleanor and Park is one in a million because I absolutely love it.  In turn, I ended up truly and fully falling in love with Eleanor and Park.

Not only are they relatable, both singularly and as a couple, I loved that Eleanor’s life wasn’t perfect, but she still found happiness.  The overall tone of Eleanor and Park, for me, is hope.  Yes, there are definitely depressing parts to this novel, but this novel also accurately depicts a life.  Maybe not your life, maybe not my life, but it depicts a life just as real and true as any of ours, and it’s unapologetic and beautiful.  In a world where contemporary young adult novels aren’t really the norm anymore, Eleanor and Park stands out.  It’s authors like Rainbow Rowell, John Green, and Melina Marchetta that make me remember why I love reading.  Because I love experiencing different lives, and I love getting the opportunity to identify with people.  I grew up in a white upper middle class suburb.  I didn’t have any friends who (to my knowledge) were like Eleanor or Park, and getting the opportunity to see life through their eyes, to see each other the way they see each other, and to live for just a few hours, the same way they did resonated with me.  I feel like I want to stand and shout from the rooftops, “I get it world! I get why you love Eleanor and Park!  I do too!  Let’s live in this beautiful tragic lovely world together.”

Let’s do it.

Fangirl

Author: Rainbow Rowell

Series: Stand Alone

Genres: Contemporary, New Adult

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

Released: 10 September 2013

Summary: courtesy of goodreads.com A coming-of-age tale of fan fiction, family and first love.
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.
Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.
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? Writing her own stories?
And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?

My Review:  Every once in a while a book comes along that reminds you what it’s like to be alive.  I won’t lie, I’ve been reading a lot of fantasy books lately.  Don’t get me wrong, fantasy books are awesome.  My favorite genre though, is contemporary.  A genre that Rainbow Rowell excels at.  I read Eleanor and Park at the beginning of the year and was a little mixed about it for a while, I had never read anything like it before.  I knew I liked it, but I wasn't sure if I loved it, but when I saw Fangirl at the store (for an obscenely good price – without the shipping wait on Amazon) I picked it up without a second thought (I’ll admit there was a LOT of cover love going on).  Then I got home, realized I still had to read a few books for work, etc. and would fall asleep every night staring longingly at Fangirl, waiting for the moment when I could devote my whole world to reading it, because I knew (you know when you have that feeling – you see a book and you just know it’s going to change you? – That’s the feeling I had.) it was going to demand my attention.  And it did.

First up, I will admit – I didn’t realize Simon Snow was a Harry Potter-esque character – for some reason I thought he was the lead singer in a boy band (I OBVIOUSLY did not read the blurb closely enough), this was quickly dispelled when I opened this book and read the first page - which I loved – I literally loved this books from page one! (har har).  And, although I am not a stranger to fanfiction (I’ve never written any – but I read a lot of it growing up) Fangirl took me into a whole new world – while never leaving this one.

I identified with Fangirl more than I thought I would.  Leaving your family behind to go to college, the feelings of separation and loss, discovering yourself for the first time and struggling with that.  I liked that Cath had problems, that she had anxiety.  I loved that she had people willing to love her anyway – like Reagan and Levi (I LOVED Reagan, why did I not have a roommate like Reagan in college?!)  I also loved how incredibly real this novel was.  I felt like a lot of this novel was my college experience (except my English teachers weren’t nearly as fun).  I remember hitching rides home on the weekend – being really scared to try and find the dining hall – rooms the size of most people’s closets – thinking that my college experience was the definition of adulthood and then graduating and realizing it was just a stepping stone.

Fangirl perfectly depicts the American college experience – for me.  It’s a novel about growing up and becoming the adult and the friend to your parents and siblings instead of the child and the sister. Rowell perfectly captures the emotions, and the situations of what its like to be a freshman in the most beautiful and enamoring way possible.  I don’t want to think of what the world would be like without books by authors like Rainbow Rowell in it.  Definitely less beautiful, and a lot let feeling, and a lot less awesome.  (seriously though – a LOT less awesome).

And that last page – gah.  I actually had tears in my eyes – WHY DID IT HAVE TO BE OVER?!  I highlighted it and have been repeating it over and over to myself.  “Ready or not here I come.  Here I come, ready or not.”  Never have I identified with a book more in one sentence then I did there.  Rainbow Rowell - here is me, promising to read everything you write from now until the end of days.