A book about two people with exceedingly diverse personalities. Eleanor a tomboy girl with an unfortunate life while Park’s life seems to be normal. Somehow brought with fate these two started with sitting next to each other on the bus.  The characterization in this book was something you could really connect to in a personal level since most of the characters just lived a regular life with nothing special. 

“Eleanor couldn’t tell if the Asian kid who finally let her sit down was one of them, whether he was just really stupid” (Rowell 11). This gave me a flesh feeling from the character as when people are nice to us we don’t automatically love them. We start thinking why’d they do that or what were their intentions towards us.  Another quote I felt like the characters were changing is “He tried to remember how this happened—how she went from someone he’d never met to the only one who mattered” (Rowell 299) Their progress towards loving each other was something that took time like all relationships which made it feel so realistic to me.

Although the characters sit next to each other on the bus it takes them a while to accept each other. The story is told in the perspectives of both characters so you get insight on how each character feels and what they wished they said. They start off cold towards each other not speaking at all to the other. As the story progresses Eleanor and Park share a common interest that brings them together. Eleanor & Park I recommend as it feels like you’re sitting with them through all their hardships since Rainbow Rowell could display imagery on another level.