Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

5 stars

“It was the nicest thing she could imagine. It made her want to have his babies and give him both of her kidneys.”

I am so, so, so thrilled that I decided to reread this. Like, I feel like I could read this everyday of my life. I won't but I could. I forgot how much I loved it and what it felt like to be reading it. This books gives me genuine feelings and I love that.

It is so fluffy, it is beautiful and it's funnily enough, set back when my mum and dad were 16. Which I think is kind of cool. This book makes me want to love someone that much. It has done everything I love in a contemporary.

When I read this for the first time I was only 13. Now I have a couple more years on me, I'm about to turn 16. I remember thinking that when I was 16 I was going to fall in love for the first time. So when I read this book, I thought that was what it was going to be like and I was so excited but also kind of devastated because it's so bittersweet. So this is what I thought I was in for, it obviously is not. I mean, it might be, who knows but I definitely won't (probably) fall in love the day I turn 16 (maybe with the books I get given). So, I guess this gave me a lot of what I believed about love and I guess a lot of what I still do. I don't believe it's always bad but I do think when you're young that you probably won't get your happily ever after yet, my parents did but I think I'd have to be ridiculously lucky to get that.

Anyway, away from personal experiences. I love how real Eleanor is. She isn't perfect, she's insecure about herself and her body. I like that it showed Eleanor's body issues from both sides because I liked seeing Eleanor being down on herself and insecure and wondering what Park saw in her but then Park would come along and he just thought she was so beautiful. I thought it was nice to see that even though Eleanor wasn't happy with herself, Park thought she was amazing and incredible anyway. I think that's an important message.

I kind of love the bittersweetness of it. I love that you don't know if it works out or what happens at the end because that's the unpredictability of young love. I think it adds interest where it could have otherwise been a fluffy pile of mush (not that I'd mind) but still. I just love an edge.

It is so fluffy and it always warms my heart so incredibly much. Especially when they hold hands for the first time, it makes my heart melt. That is absolutely 100% my favourite scene.

I always love this. It was one of my very first contemporary reads. I got it back when I didn't even have a bookshelf, I just stacked my books in a pile on my desk. Until the stack get too high and fell on me whilst I was admiring it, this was when my parents decided it couldn't go on anymore. I'm in love with this book, I'm in love with Rainbow Rowell's writing and I'm in love with the memories it gives me of my first read.