Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell is unlike any other YA Contemporary Romance I've read in the past. I'm not a huge fan of YA Contemporary Romance, or romance for that matter so I didn't have very high expectations. It just wasn't my favourite genre, so I was pleasantly surprised when I absolutely LOVED, LOVED this book and I couldn't stop from turning the pages. I couldn't even explain to myself why I had loved it so much but I did...strange right? 

Eleanor is considered a strange red-headed teen. She's unpopular at school and she cops a bit of flack for being her and being an individual. She comes from a broken home and had just returned after reluctantly spending a year living with her Mother's friend. 

Park has lived in the same area since he was born, his Father lived there when he was young. He's a quiet Asian kid who's not popular but not disliked either. He's from a loving home with parents that are still in love. 

Their mother jabbed a long fingernail at his dad and covered the phone again. 'I'll send you to your room, too.'
'Honey, I wish you would,' their dad said, throwing a throw pillow at her.

Eleanor & Park are two very different people but attending the same school and living in the same housing development, what takes place in Eleanor & Park is the unlikely friendship/relationship that forms between the two. 

I think that my favourite part of Eleanor & Park were the characters, they were just so gorgeous and the interaction and the chemistry and the emotions with each character was so well written that you really see in depth into each character, which makes the readers heavily invested in their life and world. We have Eleanor that is just plain weird:-

Girls who don't want to be looked at don't tie curtain tassels in their hair. They don't wear men's golf shoes with the spikes still attached.

Then we have Park, who's just as normal as can be and when they meet they didn't meet in the love at first sight way, the gradual friendship that developed between them was so sweet and real. 

He always felt like he should say something to her, even if it was just 'hello' or 'excuse me.' But he'd gone too long without saying anything since the first time he'd cursed at her, and not was all just irrevocably weird. For an hour a day. Thirty minutes on the way to school, thirty minutes back. Park didn't say anything. He just held his comics open wider and turned the pages more slowly."

Love the way Rowell explained things:-

That would be a giant understatement anyway. She was the only person in class who'd read her poem like it wasn't an assignment. She recited it like it was a living thing. Like something she was letting out. You couldn't look away from her as long as she was talking. {Even more than Park's usual not being able to look away from her.} When she was done, a lot of people clapped and Mr Stressman hugged her. Which was totally against the Code of Conduct.

Eleanor lived a very hard life:-

But if she told Mrs Dunne about the toothbrush...maybe Mrs Dunne would just get her one. And then Eleanor could stop sneaking into the bathroom after lunch to rub her teeth with salt. (She'd seen that in a Western once. It probably didn't even work}.

Eleanor's dialogue is filled with so much emotions:-

I just want to break that song into pieces,' she said, 'and love them all to death.

humorous

She didn't want to run, period. It made her breasts feel like they were going to detach from her body. 'I'm going to tell Mrs Burt that my Mom doesn't want me to do anything that might rupture my hymen,' Eleanor said. "For religious reasons.

She tried to remember what kind of animals paralyzed their prey before they ate them...
Maybe Park had paralyzed her with his ninja magic, his Vulcan handhold, and now he was going to eat her.
That would be awesome.
Jesus. Was it possible to rape somebody's hand? 

so sweet in their interaction:-

are you trying to give me a nickname?
No, I love your name. I don't want to cheat myself out of a single syllable.{because apparently everything made her want to kiss him. Park could tell her that he had lice and leprosy and parasitic worms living in his mouth, and she would still put on fresh Chapstik. God}

interaction between his parens and Park

"How long am I grounded?" Park asked his father.
"That's not up to me, that's up to your Mother.'
His dad was sitting on the couch, reading Soldier of Fortune.
"she says forever,' Park said.
"I guess it's forever then.'

love Park's family even Grandparents

"I thought you were grounded,' his Grandpa said.
"Hush, Harold, you can't be grounded from your own grandparents..."

I had so many quotes because there was absolutely no review I could have written that would have given this book the credit it deserved, by quoting I think it really gives those reading this review the idea on what type of book it is. It is definitely one of those books that stays in your mind for a long time.