B. Eleanor & Park

Eleanor & Park

Highlights

All her bones seemed more purposeful than other people’s. Like they weren’t just there to hold her up; they were there to make a point. — location: 204

She started copying a poem called “Caged Bird” into her notebook.… Sweet. It rhymed. — location: 403

Park felt like he should say something to her. He always felt like he should say something to her, even if it was just hello or excuse me. — location: 415

It was finally jacket weather. Eleanor wished she had a jacket. — location: 430

Do you feel like he’s your dad?” “I don’t know,” Ben said flatly. “What’s that supposed to feel like?” — location: 435

It would be like letting him watch her eat. It would be like … admitting something. — location: 512

And when she handed it back to him the next morning, she always acted as if she were handing him something fragile. Something precious. You wouldn’t even know that she touched the comics except for the smell. — location: 530

which made him self-conscious, knowing he was going to be sitting so close to her. — location: 539

“Because…” he said quietly, looking at his desk, “because people want to remember what it’s like to be young? And in love?” — location: 574

There was something about the music on that tape. It felt different. Like, it set her lungs and her stomach on edge. There was something exciting about it, and something nervous. It made Eleanor feel like everything, like the world, wasn’t what she’d thought it was. And that was a good thing. That was the greatest thing. — location: 743

Holding Eleanor’s hand was like holding a butterfly. Or a heartbeat. Like holding something complete, and completely alive. — location: 953

It was like this at taekwondo sometimes, too. Park could never master something new if his dad was the one teaching it. — location: 1047

Raucous — location: 1266

Sometimes it seemed like she would never be able to give Park anything like what he’d given her. It was like he dumped all this treasure on her every morning without even thinking about it, without any sense of what it was worth. — location: 1386

“I’m lying on the floor in the living room,” she said faintly. “In front of the stereo.” “In the dark? It sounds dark.” — location: 1527

“I don’t like you,” he said. “I need you.” — location: 1584

“I don’t think I even breathe when we’re not together,” she whispered. — location: 1614

She never felt like she belonged anywhere, except for when she was lying on her bed, pretending to be somewhere else. — location: 1851

For the rest of the day, whenever Eleanor felt nervous or scared, she told herself to be happy instead. (It didn’t really make her feel better, but it kept her from feeling worse.…) — location: 2340

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. — location: 2407

He’d thought he was over caring what people thought about him. He’d thought that loving Eleanor proved that. But he kept finding new pockets of shallow inside himself. He kept finding new ways to betray her. — location: 2609

crypt — location: 2626

drabber — location: 2742

tittered, — location: 3241

Eleanor didn’t even know all this existed. She hadn’t realized Omaha could be such a nice place to live. (In her head, this was Park’s doing, too. The world rebuilt itself into a better place around him.) — location: 3951

chicanery — location: 3975

(barring — location: 4274

Eleanor had never thought about killing herself—ever—but she thought a lot about stopping. Just running until she couldn’t run anymore. Jumping from something so high that she’d never hit the bottom. — location: 4281

Like she was more comfortable out of her shirt than in it. Like she was happy inside out. — location: 4311

“I just can’t believe that life would give us to each other,” he said, “and then take it back.” “I can,” she said. “Life’s a bastard.” He held her tighter, and pushed his face into her neck. “But it’s up to us…” he said softly. “It’s up to us not to lose this.” — location: 4433

She was pretty sure she’d thank him for saving her life. Not just yesterday, but, like, practically every day since they’d met. Which made her feel like the dumbest, weakest girl. If you couldn’t save your own life, was it even worth saving? — location: 4504

You think that holding someone hard will bring them closer. You think that you can hold them so hard that you’ll still feel them, embossed on you, when you pull away. — location: 4524

He’d stopped trying to bring her back. She only came back when she felt like it, anyway, in dreams and lies and broken-down déjà vu. — location: 4639

But he couldn’t summon her. Sometimes he couldn’t even remember what she looked like, even when he was looking at her picture. — location: 4643

(Maybe he’d looked at it too much.) He’d stopped trying to bring her back. — location: 4644

He wondered if she’d read it, and whether she thought Ozymandias was a villain, and what she thought Dr. Manhattan meant when he said, “Nothing ever ends,” at the end. Park still wondered what Eleanor thought about everything. — location: 4652

Park turned it over and recognized her scratchy handwriting. It filled his head with song lyrics. — location: 4683