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

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

Here are some choice excerpts from this fantastic book review. Warning there are some rather gross fetishizing and racist stereotypes in the samples she post from Rowell's book. Some are so ridiculously racist they left me wondering if the book was written in the 1950s. 

by the way this is so very Memoirs of a Geisha-y because Park happens to be a half-Korean kid who LOOKS more Asian than his brother

But Park has green eyes!!!!! so magical!!!! So EXOTIC!!! Also “almond-flavored” please that’s not the most cliched description for Asian eyes in the book

Here have some more grossness around those oh-so-exotic “Asian” eyes

Please let that sink in for a moment. Like Ming the Merciless. Who, as you might know from the Flash Gordon comic, was originally introduced in 1934 and is a pretty clear stand-in for, uh… yellow peril. upon googling, looks like this:

This Othering, this fetishization, does not stop through the entire book. Finally, we get towards the end: 

So no, Eleanor never gets over Othering her boyfriend.

Wait hold on Asian women don’t get a pass either, as Park’s mom is painted as the oppressive parent who doesn’t like “weird white girls”, but according to Eleanor…

Over and over again we’re slammed in the face with the fact that Park is Asian, he’s half-Korean, but only in the way he looks and almost always in the context of his relationship with Eleanor, never by himself. Half the book is supposedly written from Park’s perspective but he never really introspects on his identity except during that scene when he’s with Eleanor, bitter that there aren’t any “hot Asian guys.” Not even Asian AMERICAN, just “Asian”. As though the author were not aware of the hybrid culture that exists in the country—maybe because Park’s “the only Korean in Omaha?”

That's all I could stand to copy and paste over here. Please go read the rest of the review it is great and well worth your time, and rage. 

It's safe to say I will NOT be reading this book, and am very hesitant to read any of her other stuff.

But even more disturbing is how I have to take a step back and think before automatically trusting other peoples recommendations for books like this, since this is the first time I've ever seen any mention of the racism in the book. 

Is racism and fetishization of Asians SO common, or so accepted that people just don't see it anymore? Even when it is this blatant?

Funny I should ask this question considering the whole #CancelColbert controversy [For a rundown of that and a well thought out criticism and assessment of the whole thing click here.]

I guess this just clarified how much of an issue it really is.