**A note on my notes: This review is spoiler free. If you've read the book and disagree with me, I don't care.**I loved this book! I went into this book as my rebound right after finishing City of Heavenly Fire, which would normally mean I wouldn't give it a fair chance. But I flew through it and finished it in just over a day.
The novel follows two teenagers who are completely different people. Eleanor, who's somewhat new to the town, has crazy red hair, is overweight and loves listening to her music. Park loves comic books and despite living in the town his entire life, still doesn't really fit in. The pair meet on the school bus and after a while, they begin to form an unlikely relationship. As their stories progress, we see how they grow and change as people and how the rest of their lives impact on their friendship.
Young Adult Contemporary isn't my favourite genre because I find that authors try and comment on ideas and social situations that aren't really relevant to their lives so they get it wrong. And let's be honest, teenagers find other teenagers complicated, so trying to create realistic teenage characters when you're no longer a teenager is a mammoth task. However, I think that Rowell managed to successfully steer clear of the typical clichés of the genre and produced characters and a plot that was very believable. The novel deals with situations that are relevant to many teenager's lives today, such as bullying and unstable families.
The story is told through the dual perspectives of both Eleanor and Park. Normally, I am not a fan of dual perspectives because it's hard to really distinguish the character's sense of voice. However, I think that Rowell wrote the two characters parts beautifully. It was easy to tell the difference between the two perspectives unlike other books (Allegiant, anyone?) and it really enhanced the way the story was told.
The characters were just beautiful. They seriously could have been real people, that's how realistic this story felt to me. Their thoughts and reactions to their situations were believable and the way that Rowell expressed each character's opinions was spot on.
Overall, I loved this book. It was beautiful. If you're looking for a fun, easy but emotional read, I would definitely recommend this book to you. If you're like me and you tend to stay away from romantic contemporary novels, I would also recommend this book to you.
"Eleanor was right. She never looked nice. She looked like art, and art wasn't supposed to look nice. It was supposed to make you feel something."
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