2013 Book Challenge 40/35: Eleanor & Park

It's been a few hours after I was done reading Eleanor & Park and somehow I still find myself wanting to cry. Oh yes I am that affected. I enjoyed Attachments TREMENDOUSLY and although against my will (and that is because I needed to do an awful lot of grown-up things to do like work and, seriously, starting a really good book won't let you do that), I picked up another book from the same author (Rainbow Rowell). Thank God for the down time while manning my booth and also that whole day I got sick so staying in bed the entire day and reading was justifiable, I got to finish another awesome awesome read.

{goodreads}

Honestly, if I have never picked up Attachments, I would never had attempted reading this. I judge books by their covers and this cover doesn't make me want to pick it up and read it. Plus, Goodread's blurb goes like this~

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.

What first love?  Unfortunately (or fortunately), this 30-something manang didn't have a first love and there was no pulling under whatever ever happened. So okay, I do read these YA books because we aim to live vicariously but the blurb just didn't make me want to read it. Basta thank God I did because then I would have missed out on this super awesome book.

Set in 1986. Eleanor met Park in a school bus and the their first meeting wasn't pleasant at all. Because Eleanor looked weird, Park tried to steer clear of her at first- he didn't want to share his bus seat with her, didn't want to talk to her, didn't want to have anything to do with her- to avoid being made fun of or bullied. Being the only Asian in school, Park already felt different and he didn't want to further complicate things by having the "wrong" associations. But something happened during the course of sharing a seat of an hour-long bus ride.

"He tried to remember how this happened- how she went from someone he'd never met to the only one who mattered."

 You see, this is what I love in stories such as this (and This Is A Love Story), love that has slowly developed into something beautiful. I happen to like love-at-first-sight stories, so what I sort of frown upon is how teenage couples in most YA reads are so sexually active and at times, promiscuous. With the exception of The Duff because I really liked that one. But you see the beauty of how their relationship evolved, that it's not just about sex, baby.

For Eleanor, I have the girl from Brave in mind. The Brave girl may not be fat but I guess it's the hair. I can't think of any peg for Park because I seriously cannot imagine a half-Korean guy with green eyes. I think of my Hallyu crushes and I really put a face or at least borrow a face for my Park. I usually have a vivid imagination but I really cannot imagine an Asian guy with green eyes. My imagination has been challenged.

Park. Seriously, I should stop crushing on fictional characters. Actually, someone told me I should stop reading romance novels/ love stories because they are ruining reality for us. WHAT? You mean there are no nice guys in real life? But you see, I really really REALLY want a nice guy like Nick (TIALS) or Lincoln (Attachments) or Park. Props to Park's Korean mom for raising such a nice boy. Nice, cute and unassuming.

{via Siminiblocker.com}
one of the best art work based on the book ♥

Eleanor has legit reasons to sulk her life away. Her biological father isn't much of a father, her mother is putting up with the abuses from his stepfather and her stepfather is a drunkard who lusts after her and writes inappropriate things in her books. None of those "I want freedom" angst (I am referring to you, Bailey Gray, ranting about your college scholarship and that your mother buys your underwear. Bailey, Eleanor doesn't have and can't even afford a toothbrush, for crying out loud!). You can see how Park became a big part in her life, how he became the sunshine after the storm.

"Nothing was dirty. With Park.
Nothing could be shameful.
Because Park was the sun, and that was the only way Eleanor could think to explain it."

"Ever since the first day they'd met, Eleanor was always seeing him in unexpected places. It was like their lives were overlapping lines, like they had their own gravity. Usually, that serendipity felt like the nicest thing the universe had ever done for her."

and he was always there for her. He never intended to be her hero, he just did what he thought he had to do. I love him and his family for how they were to her. This time, I think I understand why she was clinging to him like that. And it wasn't even the annoying kind of clinging. You see, words really aren't enough to relate my experience while reading this book. Usually I do not think highly of young loves but with this one, I did. Omigaaahd, especially the last few chapters of the book- I was already crying.

Universe, how could you split up this adorable couple? Why why why!?!?

'I just can't believe that life would give us to each other,' he said, 'and then take it back.'
'I can,' she said. 'Life's a bastard.'

This story, I can imagine how it could affect you until old age, unless you meet another great love, hehe. Three year olds falling in love with each other, that I will never ever get in a million years. But this, omigaaaah, this is beautiful. I really am super affected. Plus, that it's sort of an open-ended ending and those three words could be anything. I'd like to believe it's "I love you," but it could also be, "I am sorry."

"He'd stopped trying to bring her back. She only came back when she felt like it anyway, in dreams and lies and broken-down deja-vu."

this is me after finishing the book, only with tears in my eyes

 P.S. Please throw all expectations out the window to fully appreciate. Remember, expectation is the root of all disappointments.