Achingly sweet. 
 This is the story about an average boy who had a good home life, albeit a somewhat strained relationship with his father, and an oddball girl who had a crappy family situation and how they fall in love, what that love means to them, and how that love changes them. 
 My first audiobook experience, and boy, was it good. More than half the time this story had me grinning like a loon, and in Johannesburg traffic that is pretty unheard of. 
 Sometimes the silliness of Eleanor and Park had me laughing out loud and that really made me feel like an idiot - but I just shrugged off the people in their cars looking at me like I was crazy because I was simply enjoying the story too much. 
 Rowell manages to capture the sweetness, awkwardness and desperation of first love. If someone had to tell me that a teenager had written this I would have 100% believed it because of how perfectly she portrayed teenagers in general 
 "All I do when we're apart is think about you, and all I do when we're together is panic. Because every second feels so important." 
 What I really loved about it was how real it was. It was weeks before they first spoke. No insta-anything. Nothing was portrayed to be perfect, especially situationally, but it still felt perfect to them. 
 I loved that Eleanor was guarded but not broken, even though I think she could have easily been completely unreachable. She was strong. 
 I absolutely adored Park, the things he did and said... He is the epitome of young love and I adore him. 
 "What do you want to show me?" 
 "Nothing, really. I just want to be alone with you for a minute." 
 He pulled her to the back of the driveway, where they were almost completely hidden by a line of trees and the RV and the garage. 
 "Seriously?" she said. "That was so lame." 
 "I know," he said, turning to her. "Next time, I'll just say, 'Eleanor, follow me down this dark alley, I want to kiss you.'" 
 She didn't roll her eyes. She took a breath, then closed her mouth. He was learning how to catch her off guard. 
 She pushed her hands deeper in her pockets, so he put his hands on her elbows. "Next time," he said, "I'll just say, 'Eleanor, duck behind these bushes with me, I'm going to lose my mind if I don't kiss you.'" 
 She didn't move, so he thought it was probably okay to touch her face. Her skin was as soft as it looked, white and smooth as freckled porcelain. 
 "I'll just say, 'Eleanor, follow me down this rabbit hole...'" 
 'I just can't believe that life would give us to each other,' he said, 'and then take it back.' 
 "There's no reason to think we're going to stop loving each other,' he said. 'And there's every reason to think that we won't." 
 (view spoiler)[ The ending wrecked me, so beautifully bittersweet. Perfect. Hopeful. 
 "Nothing ever ends." -- From the last issue of the watchmen. 
 Just three words long. (hide spoiler)]