I finally understand all of the craze about Rainbow Rowell's Eleanor & Park. The characters are brilliant, the plot is well paced, and I'm pretty sure I felt every emotion possible during the day it took me to read this. 

Eleanor & Park is more than a story about a first love. Rowell shows what it truly means to feel like a misfit. Eleanor is the girl that all of the other kids in high school make fun of. Her hair is too big and too red. In fact, she is too big (according to herself). Her stepfather hates her and her mother won't do anything about it. She is an outsider in her own home. Park is half-Korean in an all white community. Although his life is pretty good, he rarely lives up to the expectations of his All-American father and is often compared to his football-playing younger brother. I loved the story because it is something so common, yet Rowell made it so important and so meaningful. People become infatuated with each other and fall in love every day but in Eleanor & Park, it is truly a challenge for them to stay together, but they continually fight for each other because they know that what they have is so real.

I definitely would recommend this book (just be sure to keep some tissues on hand).