I'm sorry to say that I wasn't thrilled with Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell. I found whatever I read about the book interesting enough to get me to pick it up, which is significant. I'm not a fan of romance, so they're always a hard sell for me. I did want to like it, the way I liked Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist. I ended up just reading a few chapters and jumping to the end.
I wouldn't even mention the book here, since I didn't finish reading it, but I just saw a fantastic discussion of Eleanor & Park in the comments section of a review at School Library Journal. The commentary is all respectful with lots of E&P love and some E&P reservations as far as the title being a Printz contender. There is also discussion of and comparison to other books.
A great read, whether you liked Eleanor & Park or not. If you haven't read the book, the discussion may convince you to give it a try.
I wanted to love it and give a copy to my daughter, Eleanor, but it was slow paced and sort of whiny-- i.e. it was young adult and not middle grade! Unless a young adult book is a rather frothy romance or action packed adventure, they are a hard sell to my readers.
ReplyDeleteYou know, I recall feeling it was slow, too. I don't find a falling in love story all that compelling to begin with because for the most part I know it's going to end either happily ever after or tragically. I usually don't care how the characters get there. So a slow moving romance is particularly difficult for me. In this case, I also didn't find the protagonists all that unique.
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