Liked, but didn't love0

BQ🖋️- "You saved me life, she tried to tell him. Not forever, not for good. Probably just temporarily. But you saved my life, and now I'm yours. The me that's me right now is yours. Always"

This book was so unexpected! There were a lot of things I loved, but a lot of things I hated! Firstly, if you are looking for a fluffy rom com teen read, this is not it. These characters are really deep, and the book tackled a lot of very serious themes such as bullying, abusive relationships, and racism. A lot of these themes made me angry and are important for literature to cover, but sometimes they did not provoke emotions for the right reasons. For example, the casual rascist attitude of the adult and student society is dropped in repeatedly in their language and behaviours, but I felt like the story was too accepting of this. Like "this is how it was" with little reference to how not ok that is. That's personal opinion but I felt it came off that way in the audiobook

I enjoyed the beginning and enjoyed the end, but found myself getting distracted in the middle. The pace just wasn't there and I know the book is supposed to represent the slow burn of Park and Eleanor intense relationship and I would have probably enjoyed this more in written form. It just didn't grab me enough for an audiobook. Also, as much as I loved how the book brought that first love feeling to life, Eleanor kind of annoyed me a bit too much (again maybe because of the audio) - she didn't come across that nice a person in parts

Overall, I liked this but it didn't blow me away. I think the audio form partly did it for me, as I think I wouldn't have felt such a lull if reading in written form. I would still love to read more from this author in the future!

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Easy listen

A really easy listen, but I enjoyed the story. A gentle love story, with some really sad bits

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Book review eleanor and park

I thought this book was beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time. The characters felt like real people. I would recommend this to anyone.

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A must

Amazing listen a must for anyone
It was great start to finish and even after caps of leave you fell straight back into it

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1 person found this helpful

'Basic but good'

The story wasn't unique. Nothing stood out from other books, but I didn't hate it. If you haven't read a lot of books in the same genre then this would be the book for you. The readers gave a good performance.

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Bittersweet first love romance

This is love on a school bus filled with comic books and the joy of hearing Joy Division for the very first time. The cynic in me says that the author cleverly set this in the 1980s to draw in an audience from a bigger age demographic. Cynicism aside, the two main protagonists are great eccentric characters and their romance is beautifully written. This is further injected with some gritty realism as is Eleanor suffering a ghastly home life under the tyranny of her brutish stepfather.
In summary I would say that this is an excellent book for people with more recent memories of their school life and and the helplessness of living under the rule of monstrous adults. You only have to look at the internet to see how much this has touched the hearts of young adults around the world.

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5 people found this helpful

A beautiful teenage relationship builds

Would you try another book written by Rainbow Rowell or narrated by Rebecca Lowman and Sunil Malhotra ?

I would look out for another book narrated by these two - I particularly enjoyed Sunil's perfomrance, and the balance between the two of them was well cast.

If you’ve listened to books by Rainbow Rowell before, how does this one compare?

I haven't listened to any before.

Which scene did you most enjoy?

My favourite scene was when Park's other insisted on doing Eleanor's hair, and how helpless the two felt. Her love and attention to detail highlighted the neglect and abuse by Eleanor's own family set up.

Do you think Eleanor & Park needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

The book was complete and perfect on its own

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1 person found this helpful

Three words

I’m left breathless. A beautiful well-written and well-constructed narrative with full and interesting characters. I can’t quite let it go.

The two narrators were perfectly balanced and I think represented the things I felt about the characters themselves.

An interesting and spell-binding read

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Excellent performances, characters and story

Loved both narrators, especially the one who played Eleanor. They really brought to life the vivid characters and relationships created by the author. Heart-warming but not sickly or unrealistic. Great story.

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1 person found this helpful

Sweet story if a little jaded

Lovely simple story. Really engaging. Just falls off a bit towards the end and I was left feeling a little disappointed.

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