Eleanor has just moved back in with  Sabrina, her exhausted mother of 4 small children and slave to every whim of her deadbeat husband, Richie.  Eleanor already feels like an awkward teen with her crazy red hair and her curvy body but the leering eyes of Richie make all that ten times worse.  By chance, and because no one else would let her sit with them, Eleanor meets Park on the bus ride to her first day in a new school.  At first, they share just a seat  on the bus but over time, they share a love for music, comic books, and just being together- even when the difficult circumstances of Eleanor's life are always working against them.   

​

I have put off writing about this book because I have been afraid that this write up would not do it justice.  I enjoyed this story so much and I think listening to it was a huge part of that experience.  The parts of Eleanor and Park were read by two different narrators- a female (Rebecca Lowman) and a male (Sunil Malhotra).  I felt like they captured all the appropriate emotion that comes with being a teenager.  The love story here is one where two people feel like misfits for very different reasons. Eleanor identifies as a misfit because she sees herself as large and clumsy with crazy red hair and for Park, it's because he is half Korean in a small Midwestern town, takes Taekwondo, loves punk and new wave music, and enjoys wearing eyeliner. The love that develops between them goes way beyond the depth of a "typical high school romance" as they come to know each other intimately with empathy and an understanding that goes deeper than any other connection in their lives.