Book Talks: Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

I did cry during this book, but mainly because I was expecting to cry, so I just let it all loose.
I did a happier, half baked review here: http://bookahooligans.blogspot.com/2014/06/half-baked-reviews-eleanor-park-by.html

It's about these two characters; one is Eleanor. She's the new student. She's a little
overweight, has really really red curly hair, she's very quiet, and when she does speak, she's usually pretty funny or sarcastic.
The other character is Park. He's pretty normal. He's Asian, he wears band t shirts, he reads comics, and he leads a pretty normal life.
One day, Eleanor walks onto the bus, and immediately, Park thinks "She's asking for it." Eleanor is really quirky and she's an easy target for bullies. So, when we tries to find a seat on the bus, everyone says mean things to her, and tells her that she can't sit in a certain seat. Finally, Park just says "Sit down!" (plus some unkind words) and she sits next to him.
That is how this amazing story begins.

I am not prepared to review this book. If you're reading this, it's a miracle because I wasn't really sure if I would ever make a book talk for this book. It's practically perfection. What more needs to be said?

Without spoiling anything, I can say these things about the book:

• The characters are very realistic.
• The talking is very realistic. Reading the book made me feel like I was just eavesdropping on their conversation from the seat behind them on the bus.
• The characters definitely are different than most YA characters, and I really liked that. Think back to the last time you read a book with an overweight YA character . . . keep thinking . . . keep thinking . . . found anything yet? No? Didn't think so. I just appreciate that the author added that into the story because it gave the main character a flaw, a struggle, an insecurity, a message that looks will never interfere with true love.
• Every page was perfection.

Now, for spoiling. If you don't know how this whole thing below works, then I'm terribly sorry. You'll have to look through another one of my book talks to find out, or you can use your knowledge on how computers work to discover the truth.
<SPOILER> None of the book reviews that I have read have said exactly what Eleanor's stepdad is. The book doesn't say it directly either. It just says that Eleanor isn't allowed to have a shower door, her stepdad wrote nasty notes on her books, and he's not a nice person. So all we can do is speculate. I don't get the impression that Eleanor was raped or sexually assaulted by him, just because I think she would have been less trusting with Park and that her situation would be entirely different. But I get the impression that Richie might have been verbally abusive, at least. But I was not expecting that ending. When Eleanor first saw the makeup and messed up comic books, I was thinking "Those stupid, irresponsible kids . . ." but then, once everything came together, I was just like . . . OH MY GOSH ELEANOR! I somehow let the whole Eleanor having to use the bathroom without a door thing just completely slip under my radar. And the ending . . . I'm not sure how I feel about the ending. It was like, NO! LOVE EACH OTHER AND HOLD EACH OTHER AGAIN! But it was also like, that was the cutest thing I have ever read. What do you guys think Eleanor's letter said? It seems like most of us can agree that she said something along the lines of "I love you" because that would have been a perfect ending, but we can never be entirely sure. <SPOILER>

Anyway, loved this book. Fantastic. I'm gonna go die in a corner.