Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
Source: Bought Hardcover
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Publication Date: February 26th 2013
Age Genre: Young Adult
Challenges: TBR-Cleaning My Shelves
Challenges: Contemporary  

Two misfits.
One extraordinary love.
Eleanor... Red hair, wrong clothes. Standing behind him until he turns his head. Lying beside him until he wakes up. Making everyone else seem drabber and flatter and never good enough...Eleanor.
Park... He knows she'll love a song before he plays it for her. He laughs at her jokes before she ever gets to the punch line. There's a place on his chest, just below his throat, that makes her want to keep promises...Park.
Set over the course of one school year, this is the story of two star-crossed sixteen-year-olds—smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try.

I joined the Rainbow Rowell bandwagon a while ago, when I read and loved Fangirl, so Eleanor & Park has been on the top of my TBR list for a while now. I was just so darn excited for this one! But from the get-go, this book and I... we didn't click.

It started with the slang. I know, what? Well, this book is set in 1986, right? 1986 slang should be different than contemporary slang. Maybe not by much, and maybe not all of it, but some. And yet, the boys and girls cursed and swore same as they would today. And that bothered me to no end! I wanted to feel like I was in 1986. I didn't.

Then there was the love story. I loved the love story in Fangirl. I expected to be similarly bespelled by Eleanor & Park's. Can you sense the 'but I wasn't?' coming? Because I wasn't. It started out good. Them not talking. Then them starting to kind-of-maybe be friends through comics. Then them saying they need each other---wait, what? Huh?

This is insta love. They know almost nothing of each other. They've known each other for such a short while in which they were talking. I'll buy lust. I'll buy attraction. I'll even totally buy them starting to go out because let's face it, when you're sixteen loving the same comic books can totally be a reason to start dating.

But that excessive "I need you's" and "I live for you's"? Were they necessary at that point? Couldn't they have been pushed back eons and be given at a more appropriate time in the plot, where I could believe them?

From the moment those words were uttered, I was over the romance. Big time. I seriously considered DNFing when this line of dialogues continued, but I was so damn interested in Eleanor's family story. I wanted to know what will happen with this heartbreaking background too damned much to give up on the book.

And the ending? I've seen plenty who hated it. I did too, but not on account of Eleanor & Park. No, I disliked the ending because SPOILER we have no idea what happened to her family. We know from Park's POV that they left Richie (thank god and it's about effing time and good riddance), but we also know through Eleanor's POV that they're not at their uncle's with her, because she doesn't mention them once. The sole reason I read on - and I wasn't satisfied! END SPOILER

All in all, this is not the Rowell book I'd recommend. It's not bad, but it's far from perfect.

Nitzan★

Thursday Oldie: Switched by Amanda Hocking

CLICK HERE TO READ AN UPDATED VERSION OF THIS REVIEW! 

So as you guys know, I just moved here. And that means my old blog now lies abandoned... alongside all my old reviews. But because I feel like some of them don't deserve such an awful treatment, I'm going to slowly move my favorite reviews here, especially if my opinion differs than Megs. (though some editing may occur, as I'm a little OCD about my reviews, and the older they originally are, the more likely I am to have things I want to rephrase). 

Switched by Amanda Hocking
Series: The Trylle Trilogy #1
Source: own paperback
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Publication Date: January 3rd 2012
Age Genre: Young Adult
Originally published: Sep 16, 2012

When Wendy Everly was six years old, her mother was convinced she was a monster and tried to kill her. Eleven years later, Wendy discovers her mother might have been right. She’s not the person she’s always believed herself to be, and her whole life begins to unravel—all because of Finn Holmes.
Finn is a mysterious guy who always seems to be watching her. Every encounter leaves her deeply shaken…though it has more to do with her fierce attraction to him than she’d ever admit. But it isn’t long before he reveals the truth: Wendy is a changeling who was switched at birth—and he’s come to take her home.
Now Wendy’s about to journey to a magical world she never knew existed, one that’s both beautiful and frightening. And where she must leave her old life behind to discover who she’s meant to become…

Sorry for the language in this review. This book makes me emotionally unstable. 

So, I'm actually going to start Tuesday Oldie with one of my my most hated books ever. Switched is a book I'd rather forget I've ever read, though it provides great rant material. It's widely loved, so yes - I'm a minority in my opinion. But I'm really not one to hold my tongue.

I'll admit to getting this book solely for the cover. I mean, look at it! It's absolutely stunning! And the summary sounded rather interesting, too, and my friends loved it... yeah, I had all the reasons in the world to get this book, and to love it. Except I didn't. Because it drove me mad.

The short version is - Insta love. Annoying heroine. A love interest with what appears to have multiply personality disorder and a "romance" that borders on obsessive. And those are just a few. If those sound like things that may turn you off... don't read this book. 

Now, I'll admit - this book is intriguing solely for its choice of supernatural beings. Trolls are not the everyday literature heroes. But of course, Hocking's trolls are the farthest thing away from the big, ugly boulders of rock we're accustomed to. In fact, they just look like supermodel humans! So, maybe not that different from everyday literary creatures... 

Now, moving to the Long Version (because, let's face it, what kind of rant would it be if I used the short version?!) - 

Wendy is our MC, and at first I liked her. She was a breathe of fresh air among all the pretty heroines who think they're ugly. But then she had to ruin it by thinking herself average compared to. And it was her only redeeming quality, too! Because when Wendy started obsessing over Finn, she completely lost me. If she didn't manage to make me laugh a few times, I might've burned her at the Worst MC stake.

Only time I really felt for her? When everyone were furious with her for doing something wrong, when she couldn't have known better because no one explained a single thing to her! 

Now, what can I say about Finn? It's not often that I outright dislike a main male character. But I didn't like this one - not even when he was playing nice. And most of the time he wasn't. Most of the time he was a jerk. Or he was distant. At the end, I never got what Wendy sees in him. 

But I'll be honest. I liked almost all the supporting characters. Too bad this trilogy isn't about them, cause I'd read Tove's story, or Rhys's (who was just such a cute one!) or Matt's (another cutie).

Now we're getting to the major rant. This is going to be huge. Be warned. Because the romance.... just... Oh. My. Fuckin'. Freakin'. Tripping. God. WHY?!
I wanted to kill myself. I wanted to kill Wendy. I just wanted it to end already! This was so Insta Love...

This was one of the worst case of Insta Love I've ever seen, and I couldn't find one good reason for them to fall in love! Just to clarify things for you... It takes her four days to decide she's fallen in love with him. In those four days, their contact is summed to: 

The Following contains spoilers about the first 100 pages of so. I hid it best I could behind [ ]. Just mark it to see the dreadfulness.

[On the first day, they barely talk, she accuses him of creepily staring at her and he promises he'll try not to bother her with it (not to stop, mind you, just not to bother her with it). 

On the second day, he insults her and acts like a total jerk. Oh, and he ends up Edward style on her windowsill and breaks the news she's a troll. Wendy's reaction? Learning he's only stalking her as part of his job makes her sad that he's not stalking her cause he wants to. WTF?! How desperate for attention (not to mention f*cked up) are you?! Then he tells her he needs to take her to an effing compound and somehow they reach the point where Wendy realized there's been others before her. Which makes her utter this lovely gem:

"Crazy I could deal with. Slutty, not so much".

What. Is. Wrong. With. You?! taking you to a compound is okay, but the idea you're not the first he'll take to the compound (and no, this is not a euphemism for something dirty), is not?! Dear lord. 

But wait, it gets worse, because she spends the third day wondering why isn't she leaving with him, because she really likes the idea of a life with him (whhhhy? And when did you ever get the impression the compound would lead to a life with him!?) and the only thing keeping her there is her family. After one last attempt to make her come with him, he leaves. 

And so, she spends the forth day depressed about his departure (Bella issues much? At least Bella knew Edward months more than you know Finn!). Luckily for her, he saves her from a kidnapping attempt! And, god almighty, save me. She was slapped around, kicked and beaten - but she wouldn't trade it for anything because it led to Finn touching and looking at her tenderly.]

The "love" in this story completely overshadowed and overpowered the plot, to the point where I felt there wasn't much of the latter. Thankfully, it all eased up after the first 100 pages, which was just so much better to the degree I could actually enjoy their first kiss.

And yes, you had to suffer through all that to get to this admission ;)

Also, I liked the ending. And I think that if this story took a slightly different turn (like erasing this god-awful romance and focusing around the troll story more), I might have liked it. But it didn't. 

P.S Someone, please answer me this - do people really say Foxy nowadays?! 

Nitzan★