Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

Bono met his wife in high school, Park says.
So did Jerry Lee Lewis, Eleanor answers.
I'm not kidding, he says.
You should be, she says, we're 16.
What about Romeo and Juliet?
Shallow, confused, then dead.
I love you, Park says.
Wherefore art thou, Eleanor answers.
I'm not kidding, he says.
You should be.

Set over the course of one school year in 1986, this is the story of two star-crossed misfits-smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try. When Eleanor meets Park, you'll remember your own first love-and just how hard it pulled you under.

During the years I taught high school, this book made the rounds.  I have always avoided it because my students warned me it was romance based, and I have always been vocal about how idiotic I find most YA romance.  However, I think this book has an entirely different vibe from other YA romance I've read.  There is a realness to the main two characters and their families (both bad and good), and the teens sound and act like teens (to the point that I felt frustration often).  This may be the only romance novel in my entire life that I've stayed up past bedtime for.

4.5

336 pages