28 May 2014
Safe Haven: The Review Safe Haven is a novel written by Nicolas Sparks. Like most of Mr. Sparks novels, it is a love story. However, this love story has a hint of danger unlike many of his other books which are pretty calm in comparison. In retrospect, it is a novel that was intended for his common audience, mostly, young girls and older women. This review is my personal opinion of this novel with a summary of the book’s contents along with some of its strengths and weaknesses. Spark’s is a talented writer, there is no doubt about that. He uses great descriptive writing to really help paint what he envisions while writing for the reader to see it just as he does. For example, the way he describes all characters, and the scenery around them. The story’s main character is a girl named Katie. The story starts off with Katie coming to a small town in North Carolina called Southport. There she has a little, old abandoned cottage. She is recluse and starts working at a restaurant named Ivan’s. She meets another main character named Alex and his two kids Josh and Kristin at the local grocery store that Alex owns. Alex and Katie form a friendship that eventually leads to a romantic relationship (what a big shocker there). Jo, a semi main character but mostly a minor character and is Katie’s only friend and neighbor. Sparks described Katie as having brown hair and being frail, thin to the bone. He kept up the mystery of her past from the beginning with her moving to a small town clearly looking to get away from her past. She has little to no money, clearly demonstrated when she would go to the grocery store and try to find the cheapest food items as possible. Sparks throws in a lot of allusion and flashbacks within chapters 17 to 21. Katie reveals to Jo that she was married to a detective named Kevin. She told Jo that Kevin became and alcoholic and would abuse her. She left hoping Kevin would never find her ever again. Within chapters 17 to 21, Katie keeps having flashbacks to her old life and the reader gets glimpse into her past with Kevin. One thing that was very enjoyable was being able to follow Kevin’s story in a way. The readers were able to see what his thoughts and feelings were. The book ends with what many would call a shocking plot twist. Without giving away the ending or ‘plot twist’ I’ll just say I found the ending to be kind of a cliche and boring. All the character were basic everyday people. The only person that help interest were Katie and Kevin. Which I guess Sparks did on purpose to keep the focus on them. The story itself had some moments where it really picked up speed. For example, the flashbacks Katie would have and when Kevin found her towards the end, leading to the climax. However, the rest well most of the novel lagged. It was a very slow process to get to the answers the readers really wanted to know such as who is Katie really, what is her story? The whole story line seemed very cliche, girl is in an abusive relationship, runs away, falls in love, new guy comes in and saves the day; the end. To top it all off with one some of the most basic themes in literature, which are to move on from the past and create a new beginning for yourself and to let others in, because we all need love and help from those around us. I usually enjoy novels by Nicolas Sparks, however this one did nothing for me. I felt like I was forcing myself to read it, as if it were a chore. For that fact alone, I would not recommend this book to my fellow peers. There are plenty of other novels by Sparks that are good, such as The Notebook, Dear John, A Walk to Remember and The Wedding. This novel was definitely not my favorite from this author, I would not recommend it, unless you are severely bored and have time to kill.
Works Cited (I’ll fix into proper MLA later on) http://literary-devices.com http://www.liberty.edu/media/2030/Thesis_Statements_for_Book_Reviews.pdf http://sparkssafehaven.weebly.com http://www.beereads.com/safe-haven-nicholas-sparks
Cited: (I’ll fix into proper MLA later on) http://literary-devices.com http://www.liberty.edu/media/2030/Thesis_Statements_for_Book_Reviews.pdf http://sparkssafehaven.weebly.com http://www.beereads.com/safe-haven-nicholas-sparks
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