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'Eleanor & Park' review by Book Club member Sam..


I absolutely adore this book and cannot recommend it enough. Maybe I was first attracted to the book as it carries an endorsement from John Green on the cover and like John Green; I too fell in love with this book. Sorry people, I think, I would choose it over TFIOS!
 
Yes, Eleanor and Park was a book written for the young adult market but for me as of late, that seems to be where some of the best writing is at (especially if you want your heart strings pulled) and to be fair, this book stands alone. There is very little about this book that is typical. The characters are vividly drawn with words and very much their own people. The setting is the late 80's, an era written not so much about now. Reading this, I realised just how much the world has changed over the last 30 or so years. Life now seems more complicated and I'm not sure set in 2014, there would ever be an Eleanor or Park to read about.
There is a balance of love, comedy and serious matter. I absolutely adore Parks mother and more than once she made me laugh out loud. There was also those lines where Rowell or one of her characters just states something you've always known but never consciously known you know and it is like 'Oh, yeah!' To say this book and I had chemistry would be an understatement. If you believe in the force of friendship then you need to read this book!
 

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