Book #14: Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

I've heard so much about this book (and others by Rainbow Rowell) that I felt like it had a LOT of hype to live up to. And to just get this out of the way: it did. I started this book today and finished it this evening because I just couldn't put it down once I got into it. This is Eleanor and Park's love story, two unlikely high school misfits who fall in love on the school bus. They end up sitting next to each other almost by accident, but they eventually start talking and become friends and then more-than-friends. They bond over their mutual love of punk rock and comic books (and their commentary and conversations on both of those are really entertaining to read, even though I'm not even familiar with most of the bands or comics they talk about). The story is told alternately from each of their perspectives, so that you feel like you understand each one of them. I felt like the most beautiful and relatable part of this story was how you could hear their thoughts, so undiluted and pure, coming through the narrative, and how those thoughts just seemed so real and true to their characters and so . . . cute. Let's be honest here--these two lonely misfits were so dang cute when they were falling in love with each other. They both were extremely honest with themselves (if not always with each other) about how they felt about the other one and how serious and quick their falling-in-love felt. I couldn't help but fall a little bit in love with each of them as I got to know them and I couldn't help but remember what it felt like to be that age and stage and remember what all that felt like. Rainbow Rowell did an amazing job of conjuring up this entire story and it left me wanting more at the end. (Really--I couldn't believe that it ended the way it did. To not be a huge spoiler, they weren't in the same place at the end and I wanted to believe that they were reunited but it was definitely up in the air.)

Fair warning: There is a bit of swearing and profanity and some pretty heavy scenes. Also, this is technically a YA novel but didn't feel like one. It was definitely about teens but not only for teens.