Eleanor & Park - Rainbow Rowell

Bono met his wife in high school," Park says.

"So did Jerry Lee Lewis," Eleanor answers.

"I’m not kidding," he says.

"You should be," she says, "we’re sixteen."

"What about Romeo and Juliet?"

"Shallow, confused, then dead."

''I love you," Park says.

"Wherefore art thou," Eleanor answers.

"I’m not kidding," he says.

"You should be."

Set over the course of one school year in 1986, ELEANOR AND PARK is the story of two star-crossed misfits – smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try. When Eleanor meets Park, you’ll remember your own first love – and just how hard it pulled you under.

I picked up Eleanor & Park at Powells earlier this month because you may remember how much I enjoyed Attachments last year and also, Rainbow Rowell is adorable on Twitter and her enthusiasm  about the book got me excited about it as well.

Eleanor & Park is great because it is very much about that super heady teenage love, love where it is important and it's everything and it is the most. It captured that feeling perfectly and it's one of those things that I think will revert every reader to about seventeen years old.

What's even better, though, is how great the characters are. Underneath this veneer of teenage love, there are two teenagers just trying to get through their lives, grow and mature in very different home lives and very different problems. They're not perfect: Eleanor gets upset overly easily and is heavier than she'd like to be. Park doesn't always get along with his dad and still sometimes gets embarrassed to be seen with Eleanor (who isn't cool) and then mentally beats himself up about it.

These kids are real in a way that a lot of YA fiction doesn't cover. They're also the kind of kids that I would have hung out with in high school (yes please, reading Watchmen together) so perhaps I'm a bit biased but Park's problems seemed real in a way I know most kids deal with and Eleanor's are indicative of another significant portion of kids. 

It all fits in perfectly well with Rowell's writing style, which is crisp and fresh, never meandering (except when it should) and full of references that pop. I really enjoy her style and look forward to reading more from here. She has a book called Fangirl coming out soon that looks right up my alley.

Eleanor & Park is absolutely lovely, full of teenage love and angst in just the right doses. You will breeze through it (I read it in less than 24 hours and had a tv marathon in-between) but it will stick with you. Read it and remember what it felt like to be sixteen and in love.

P.S. Also, the cover is adorable.

Attachments - Rainbow Rowell

I know the saying goes that you shouldn't judge a book by its cover. Well, sometimes you can and in this case, the cover told me that this was exactly the book I was in the mood for. It just looked like a clever, silly romantic comedy and I was in the mood for something light. Also, it was on the 'buy one, get one half off' table at Waterstones and who can resist that?

Attachments tells the story of Lincoln, an IT guy for a local newspaper. The year is 1999 and the internet is still a somewhat new idea. Lincoln's job is to watch for red flagged emails sent on the company server and make sure that the people involved get a reprimand. It's a graveyard shift and it's mind-numbingly boring but the pay's good and Lincoln honestly doesn't know what else to do with himself.

Although Lincoln hates his job, there is one perk: he gets to read the emails of two best friends, Jennifer and Beth. Although he started reading their emails because they were red flagged, he just couldn't find it in him to give them a warning because they just seemed so fun and nice. And so, without realizing it, Lincoln becomes the third, silent person in this friendship. And although Lincoln would love to meet them and actually become real friends, what do you do when you know everything about a person but have never actually met them?

Attachments is a good read, mostly because it doesn't fall into the standard romantic comedy trope. It has all the hallmarks, rest assured. It has a man pining after a woman who barely knows him. It has a woman who is still with a hack of a boyfriend although she knows it's not going anywhere. And it has genuinely funny moments where you can't help giggling as you turn the page.

However, there is a lot more to the book than just people falling in love in a quirky way. All three of the main characters, Jennifer, Beth and Lincoln, have reached some sort of dead end in their life at the point the book begins. Lincoln is stuck in this horrible job but doesn't have the energy or inclination to look for something different. Beth has been going out with the same man since she was twenty and doesn't know if anything is ever going to change between them. Jennifer's husband wants to start a family and Jennifer honestly never wanted kids. As the story plays out, each have to deal with the fact that their life has stalled and find a way to move on.

Jennifer and Beth may be important characters but the real star of this story is Lincoln. The whole thing is from his point of view and you only hear from Jennifer or Beth through their emails to each other (or when they interact with Lincoln.) As such, you really form an, excuse the wordplay, attachment for the guy. He's never had a real force driving him towards anything and he just sort of drifts through life. And as you learn more about him, seeing how his first love broke his heart and how he has hidden himself in academia, you just want to root for him more. He's a very lovable lead. 

Rowell also has a real talent for writing dialogue. Her style is quirky and fun but most of all, the emails between Jennifer and Beth read just like emails between real life best friends. Although you know nothing about them that you don't read from their emails, they are completely fleshed out characters with strengths and weaknesses, good and bad qualities. They sound like real people. It's very endearing.

Attachments is a lovely book and more than just a simple romantic comedy. It's fun and light but has a few important ideas. It's also a very quick read (I read it in an evening.) I very much recommend it.