Reacting to My First Blog Post

* never gotten a chance to use this Ben Platt gif...until now

I see this trend a lot on Youtube where people reacting to their first video, and thought I would try it with my first blog post! I cringe everytime I look back on my own blog posts, so I thought it would be fun to paste my first book review here, and then reflect on it. So here is the first review ever on Paperback Princess, Eleanor and Park, published July, 2014:


At the beginning of summer, I was allowed to buy three books; one of them being : Eleanor & Park. No, this isn't a book about an intersection, (as my dad thought it was.) This is a book about two star crossed lovers, who didn't care what anyone thought of them. This may sound like a cheesy love story, but it is definitely much more than that.

What first drew me to this book, is that John Green had written a review on it, on the front page. (If John Green liked it, it must be good.) When I read the front flap, I saw that music played a role in the story. I love listening to music, so I thought I'd give it a try.

The first few chapters involve Eleanor and Park just meeting. At first, I didn't like the character of Park. I found him rude to Eleanor. After a while, I grew to love his character.

Although the book was told in third-person, the chapters involve alternating scenarios between Eleanor and Park. I liked that, because I could feel their thoughts and emotions. The pro of this book is the climax. (Emotionally-charged moment) I don't want to give too much away, but the climax had a lot of action, I was constantly turning the page to find out more.

Overall, Eleanor and Park was a good book if you like a cute love story that ends in a cliffhanger. I am not one for cliffhanger stories, so I found the ending a let down. I feel like their love story ended without me knowing what's next. Do they live happily ever after? Do they break up? Those questions were not answered, and I felt disappointed. I love a happy ending to a story, and I'm not sure that I got it in this novel.

Rainbow Rowell did a great job of capturing the feeling of a first love. (Although I've never felt that feeling yet.) However, I would have liked to read more of an ending.

If I were to rate Eleanor and Park, I would rate it a 4 out of 5 stars, for it's thrilling climax, but cliffhanger ending. If you have read, this book, let me know what you thought of it in the comments!

My Review: 

Ok so let's start off with the first paragraph, in which I thought use of a semi-colon would make me sound professional and an oddly placed joke about an intersection (that wasn't even true) would be funny. Smh. 

Then we go on to the John Green mention. I was still very much in my TFIOS stage at this point so all I can say is: ugh. 

"I love listening to music, so I thought I'd give it a try." Very interesting fact, Emily!! 

What the hell is that third paragraph? It's three sentences long and sounds like an 7 year old wrote it. 

I love how I had to clarify what a climax was to seem smart!! I'm pretty sure my mom edited this for me and told me to explain that just in case people didn't know, now I'm pretty sure anyone who has ever read a book knows what a climax is. 

I used to hate cliffhanger stories lol. Now I'm pretty much like: I'll take any kind of ending as long as the lead up to it is good. 

Awww look at little pre-teen me saying that I have never experienced the feeling of a first love. Spoiler alert, I still haven't, but I don't give a damn now lol. 

Fair rating, but I don't think today I would take away a whole point just because the ending was a cliffhanger. I do enjoy a cliffhanger nowadays! 

The last sentence has an unnecessary comma in there and I'm half-tempted to fix it even though this post has already been up for four years haha! 

And that folks, was my first review! Simple, straight to the point, and only goes into detail about the climax and the ending! I clearly had a lot of work to do, but I like to think that I've progressed. 

I'd like to see other people try this as well! Have you ever looked back on an old blog post and cringed? 

Emily @ Paperback Princess