cliffs of nostalgia

[solovei]

First post!

So, I made this to keep the longer, personal-ish things off of my tumblr, spent a day or so tweaking everything, and then... drew a total blank. But now I actually have stuff to talk about, so lets see how long I can keep this up!

Finished Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell today while making dinner and I can say it's been kind of a wild ride. Like, the stay-up-till-1-am-reading-and-crying kind of ride. I don't usually read YA romances and was hesitant about this one, but a friend had very good things to say so I thought I would give it a go. I'd read Rowell's Fangirl before and my reaction was very different. Whereas Fangirl hooked me mostly by it's context (I have not heard of a book before or since hat even acknowledged fanfiction existed), I had no patience for its protagonist. The two leads of Eleanor & Park, on the other hand, felt like people I know now, and people I knew in high school. I got... very very invested in these kids. Maybe a little too invested, but that's beside the point. I think this book ticked off a lot of things I like, in YA and in general:

Also, any and all discussion of The Smiths? Yes.
Acknowledgement that "Love Will Tear Us Apart" is an amazing song? Very yes.
Low-key discussion of gender presentation without a big glowing arrow pointing to it? Sign me up. 

Oh and on a final note, I really enjoyed the shifting perspectives. It was just really refreshing to have a teenage boy in a YA novel discuss his feelings for a girl. I don't feel like that happens often? So many times when there's a romantic story we get such a limited view of it.

P.S. You know that thing where you fall asleep reading and then you can't quite remember if something was in the book or in your dreams?
 

Comments

[yuuago]

Hopefully you'll keep it up. ;p I find having a place to braindump is really helpful. Tumblr... is not ideal for this.

What you mentioned about both of Rowell's books lines up with what I've heard from others... seems that preferring the characters in Eleanor & Park is pretty usual. I hadn't heard about the low-key discussion of gender presentation. That sounds interesting. Maybe I'll have to take a look. (Just watch, I say this, but will forget, happens every time.)

[solovei]

I've put Carry On on hold but it's extremely popular so I don't know how long it'll be till I get it. It's... god, how do I explain it. As far as I understand this is the Harry Potter expy that Rowell made up for Fangirl and now she's publishing it as a separate book? I kind of want to read it just for the layers of abstraction it occupies, to be honest.

And I can always remind you :P