Day 28…and little hearts start popping out of their ears…

NATALIIA TOTKA
100 Naked Words
Published in
6 min readJul 30, 2015

The story of two, heartbreaking, exciting, smart, sexy, a tender connection and concoction of thoughts, actions and an anticipating delusion that this could end like a fairy-tale.

Book cover

Eleanor&Park by Rainbow Rowell

This isn’t a review or anything like that. This is merely a bunch of quotes that I loved in this book.

You could practically see the horns hidden in her bangs

you’d be surprised what could be a surprise at this point

Giant, dramatic ha

That’s a voice that arrives on a chariot drawn by dragons.

This house was designed by cave trolls, Eleanor thought.

Like they weren’t just there to hold her up; they were there to make a point.

And where there was a Walkman, there was the possibility of music

You’re going to forget everything else I teach you. Everything. Maybe you’ll remember that Beowulf fought a monster. Maybe you’ll remember that “To be or not be” is Hamlet, not Macbeth…But everything else? Forget about it.

Brains love poetry. It’s sticky stuff.

Maybe somebody else on the bus would drop out or die or something and she’d be able to move away from him.

Diary-of-Anne-Frank crazy

Jesus-fuck-sit-down scenario. Jesus…No, it wouldn’t.

less confrontational silence

Never was a story of more woe

Romeo and Juliet are just two rich kids who’ve always gotten every little thing they want. And now, they think they want each other.

It was “Oh my God, he’s so cute” at first sight. If Shakespeare wanted you to believe they were in love, he wouldn’t tell you in almost the very first scene that Romeo was hung up on Rosaline… It’s Shakespeare making fun of love.

then — carefully — put the headphones over her hair. He was so careful, he didn’t even touch her.

Asia’s out-of-control huge

And if she didn’t know already that she liked that stupid, effing Asian kid, she knew it now.

I just want to break that song into pieces, and love them all to death.

Because being assaulted with maxi pads is a great way to win friends and influence people

What have we got?… Ophelia was bonkers, right? And Juliet was what, a sixth-grader?

Sometimes she wondered if the shape of his eyes affected how he saw things. That was probably the most racist question of all time.

The X-men aren’t sexist. They’re a metaphor for acceptance; they’ve sworn to protect a world that hates and fears them.

Holding Eleanor’s hand was like holding a butterfly. Or a heartbeat. Like holding something complete, and completely alive.

As soon as he touched her, he wondered how he’d gone this long without doing it. He rubbed his thumb through her palm and up her fingers, and was aware of her every breath.

The way a computer drive will spit out a disk if it doesn’t recognize the formatting. When he touched Eleanor’s hand, he recognized her. He knew.

Over-the-top bliss

Was it possible to rape smb’s hand?

She looked like she was going to a funeral — in a coffin.

Back to missing you

she didn’t have time to die of ecstasy or embarrassment

she kissed the back of her hand, just to see how it felt on her lips

she should smile like that all the time, Park thought; it made her face cross over from weird to beautiful. He wanted to make her smile like that constantly

Good God, Eleanor, stop. You’re blinding me. Is that why you keep that smile locked away, because it’s too powerful for mortal man?

It was the nicest thing she could imagine. It made her want to have his babies and give him both of her kidneys.

he worried that Eleanor wasn’t calling because he’d betrayed her. That she’d know somehow, that she’d sense a disturbance in the Force.

Stop asking that. You always ask that. Why. Like there’s an answer for everything. Not everybody has your life, you know, or your family. In your life, things happen for reasons. People make sense. But that’s not my life. Nobody in my life makes sense…

Not even me?

Ha. Especially not you.

I miss you, Eleanor. I want to be with you all the time. You’re the smartest girl I’ve ever met, and the funniest, and everything you do surprises me. And I wish I could say that those are the reasons I like you, because that would make me sound like a really evolved human being… But I think it’s got as much to do with your hair being red and your hands being soft… and the fact that you smell like homemade birthday cake.

think I live for you

I don’t think I even breathe when we’re not together. Which means, when I see you on Monday morning, it’s been like sixty hours since I’ve taken a breath. That’s probably why I’m so crabby, and why I snap at you. 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. And because I’m so out of control, I can’t help myself. I’m not even mine anymore, I’m yours, and what if you decide that you don’t want me? How could you want me like I want you?

He wanted to fall asleep with I want you in his ears

Yes, I want everyone to meet you. You’re my favorite person of all time.

I’m not fantasizing about being thrown from a moving vehicle. Weird.

Only Park’s DNA had missed the memo. Maybe the Korean genes scrambled everything.

She never felt like she belonged anywhere, except for when she was lying on her bed, pretending to be somewhere else.

I think you might have ruined your face

Did she miss him? If he showed him how much she needed him, he’d run away.

Don’t bite his face. It’s disturbing and needy and never happens in situation comedies or movies that end with big kisses.

If Eleanor tried to kiss Park, it would be like a real-life version of some little girl making her Barbie kiss Ken. Just smashing their faces together.

Eleanor was right: she never looked nice. She looked like art, and art wasn’t supposed to look nice; it was supposed to make you feel something.

Eleanor made him feel like smth was happening

Next time, I’ll just say “Eleanor, follow me down this dark alley, I want to kiss you.

Eleanor, duck behind the bushes with me, I’m going to lose my mind if I don’t kiss you.

She’s nothing and you’re…everything. You’re everything, Eleanor.

He didn’t have bookmarklike feelings for her.

It was the trying part that was so disgusting

There’s no reason to think we’re going to stop loving each other. And there’s every reason to think that we won’t.

It was like their lives were overlapping lines, like they had their own gravity. Usually, that serendipity felt like the nicest thing the universe had ever done for her.

and his eyes were so green, they could turn carbon dioxide into oxygen

You’re not the Han Solo in this relationship, you know.

I want remember tonight — Park said. He was such a dork sometimes.

Everywhere he’d touched her felt untouchable. Everywhere he’d touched her felt safe.

oh, look. Swans

I think those are geese.

Well, they’re the best-looking geese I’ve ever seen.

I…just really don’t want to say good-bye to you, Eleanor. Ever.

Like she was happy inside out.

how she went from someone he’d never met to the only one who mattered

What were the chances you’d ever meet someone like that? Someone you could love forever, someone who would forever love you back? And what did you do when that person was born half a world away?

I just can’t believe that life would give us to each other, and then take it back.

I can. Life’s a bastard.

They weren’t going to become another stupid high school romance. They were just going to stop.

Everything she felt for him was too hot to touch.

Nothing ever ends

A book worth reading.

Previously

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Thank you for reading,

xo

N@t

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