M. Suzanne Terry

I rarely feel compelled to write a review of a book unless the author specifically requested it, I signed up to help promote it, or I received it for free in exchange for a review. I don’t really put a lot of stock in reviews until after I’ve already read or bought a book, so I forget that other people might.

But I can’t hold back with Eleanor and Park.

This book has been recommended to me a lot, so I recommended it for book club this month. I’m so happy I did.

I love it.

I felt 16 the whole time I was reading it. I relived the angst and the constant inner monologue of what-everyone-must-be-thinking and all the feels. It is the best description of a teenage crush/love story that I have ever read. Eleanor and Park are sweet and weird and cute and awkward, and I love them.

There are some great lines here. I usually jot lines down, but I couldn’t stand to put the book down long enough. So I took snapshots of them.

[PSA – what follows is vaguely spoilery, so if you’re a purist and haven’t read it yet…well, stop reading and go get it so we can be fans together!]

It started with a teacher describing Eleanor’s speaking voice:

“That’s a voice that arrives on a chariot drawn by dragons.”

Eleanor describing Park:

“Like the person in a Greek myth who makes one of the gods stop caring about being a god.”

Park describing Eleanor (forgive the bad quality – it’s highly possible I was in mid-squee while taking the photo):

“She never looked nice. She looked like art, and art wasn’t supposed to look nice; it was supposed to make you feel something.”

Park second-guessing his present for Eleanor:

“Jewelry was so public…and personal, which was why he’d bought it. He couldn’t buy Eleanor a pen. Or a bookmark. He didn’t have bookmarklike feelings for her.”

This line. Oh, Park. Sweet thinker:

“If she weren’t made of so many other miracles.”

Seriously. *heart cleft in twain*

I have more pictures, but you get the point.

Read this book. It won’t take long. I read it in one sitting (and you’ll want to, so put aside a few hours for it).

It’s been a long time since I read something this impossibly sweet.