Book Review #162 – Eleanor & Park, by Rainbow Rowell

Hey everyone!

Here’s my review for a book everyone seems to have loved but I hated. It’s Eleanor & Park, by Rainbow Rowell.

Pros:

• can’t think of one

 

Cons:

• depressing and boring af
• Eleanor is an annoying character, if not the most annoying ever
• so damn racist

 

Verdict:

I have no idea what made me pick this one. I guess curiosity got the best of me. Romance has been boring me to death but I did want to give Rowell a chance since I loved Fangirl and Kindred Spirits so much. But god, this is just so bad. The plot is depressing and boring from the start. Eleanor got on my nerves. I get why people relate so much to her but in this instant, I wasn’t in the mood to deal with her overall hatred for herself and capacity to do nothing about it. I can’t say much about Park because I feel he was just there to give Eleanor a plot. But the most irritating and infuriating thing about this one is how racist it is. And how that is not discussed at all. Maybe when this was released and became more popular, people didn’t as much sensibility to spot this kind of things. It seems like all ethnic groups portrayed in this book never saw anyone from other races and keep using all the stereotypes. And Eleanor kept comparing Park’s skin to food. Not to mention the incredible racist accent the narrator of the audiobook did for Park’s mother… Urgh! I literally saw nothing good about this book and I still don’t know how I made it till the end. If you still haven’t read this, don’t. It’s not worth it. As someone told me, go read The Sun is Also a Star instead. Very similar but so, so much better than this one!

Anyway, have you read this? Recently, maybe? Let me know!

Until soon,

Cat.