Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

Eleanor is the new girl. Unfortunately she looks different with her big red hair and her eclectic clothes.  So naturally the bus is a minefield for her. Fortunately Park offers her a seat but in the most begrudgingly way possible. The two strike up a friendship through the comics that Park loves, a friendship that quickly becomes something more. But Eleanor's home life is far from ideal and she finds that falling for Park is both the best and worst thing she's ever done.

If Eleanor tried to kiss Park, it would be like a real-life version of some little girl making her Barbie kiss Ken. Just smashing their faces together.   p.164

A co-worker lent me this book and I am so happy she did. This is one of those books where you finish it and you are not sure how you lived without it. I'm not sure how to describe it really. It was just beautiful. John Green said in his review of the book that "'Eleanor & Park' reminded me not just what it’s like to be young and in love with a girl, but also what it’s like to be young and in love with a book." I have to agree with that.

Eleanor and Park fall in love sure. And he can never really understand what she is going through with her abusive stepfather and poverty and her mother who has half-abandoned her. Eleanor lives in both a state of fear and acceptance, that if she wants to stay with her mother and her siblings then she has to deal with having almost nothing and with having a stepfather who could go off at any second.  But Park has the mother and father who love each other who would give him whatever he needed and support him. So there's not much in their family lives to bring them together. But they find love through comic books and music and just being together. It's pretty beautiful.  The whole book is just amazing.