Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

The book that I read was Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell. It's about these two people who are outsiders in their lives who meet and fall in love. It's quite generic to be honest.

The main girl Eleanor is constantly described as being fat and having massive unruly red hair and always dressing really weirdly. Yet that's okay because Park is in love with her. It just seemed that it was always being like "how does he like me? I'm fat" like I get that she was supposed to be a self conscious character but I mean stand up for yourself. The only times she actually felt good about herself was when Park said nice things about her and that doesn't exactly scream role model or strong person in any way. I get that her home situation was really bad, her stepdad hated her and she always had to walk on eggshells around him but love yourself for yourself sometimes not because someone else said that you looked nice! plus Park is always saying things that sound like thinly veiled back-stabbing compliments towards her.

Park is the main guy in the book. He is introduced as kind of popular yet at the same time is an outsider who is really actually unique and perfect in his own way. With about one friend. He is half Korean and it seems that the book can't go one chapter without mentioning it. One time it even said something that went like "No Korean guys can be good looking" I mean WHAT? Isn't that a touch racist? Park's mum is a beautician and one day he starts wearing eyeliner because he thinks it makes him look better and his dad asks him why because guys don't usually wear eyeliner and he starts crying. I don't really know why but I think it was supposed to show that Park's family isn't perfect either..?

In this book both the main characters acted normal enough at the start but then fell in love in about a second and then started acting like they were on drugs. Having random mood swings, becoming so dependent on each other I thought that I was reading Twilight and just a general strangeness. I think what the author was trying to do was have them as the classic YA John Green or Stephen Chbosky outsiders but just missed the mark. I just couldn't have any feelings about them because I thought that they were utterly ridiculous. Maybe if Rowell had spent more time exploring other characters like Eleanor's mother and the abuse that she was going through regular beatings and what I'm guessing is rape would have given the book more range and depth. The "super emotional ending" just flopped because by the end I just didn't care.

So overall I would not recommend this book but I wish the author tons of luck with their other books in the future.