Nicholas Sparks

Okay I was sitting here all day trying to figure out what to write next for my blog. I know I could write ten more things about music and about twenty more rants about my life but I really feel like I should do something about books. Then I remembered a little author named Nicholas Sparks.

 Yeah this dude.

Now I don't know if I'm the best person to be stating my opinion of him and his work. I have only read one of his books ,The Last Song. I have watched movies based on his books. I think this guy is like the male Nora Roberts. He just cranks out love stories and then publishes it. Next thing you know they are a movie.

When I was reading The Last Song, I have never complained so much. I was camping while reading it and I kept having little rants about what I thought of the book. My cousins kept saying "Why don't you just stop reading it?" My reply "I DON'T WANT HIM TO WIN!" When I say him I mean Nicholas Sparks. Let me explain this a little more.

The main character, Ronnie, at the beginning is really unlikeable. She was just mean and whiny. I know her parents where divorced and I guess some would think this gives her the right to be whiny. I personally don't think this is the case. I mean my parents are divorced and I've never been as bad as her.  I was just so annoyed with her. The only character that I actually liked from the start was her brother and he was a minor character.

Then something happened. I ended up enjoying the antagonist of the story more than the main character. Why did this happen? Because the antagonist was written really well. You didn't like him the minute you where introduced to him. He of course was a very stereotypical bad guy (leather jacket, long hair and oh no piercings!) but it was done well. So how in the world did I end up liking the antagonist more than the main character is beyond me. I guess it's because he remained consistent.

So like within I'd say the first 50-100 pages Ronnie does a complete one-eighty. Seriously, she went from whiny little prat to a mature, caring girl. It's like Sparks looked at what he wrote and decided that Ronnie was a little too unlikable so he decided to write her differently from then on. He must have got too lazy to go back to the beginning and edit her. Seriously, Sparks, I'm not buying this girl can change that quickly.

ENTERS: Will and along with him, the love twist. Will is you usual rich boy with a heart of gold. He wasn't unlikable and he was probably my third favorite character. I can say he kind of saved the book.

I can see why this guy was chosen as Will in the movie

Then a whole lotta stuff happens and I won't get into it.Sparks isn't a bad writer but he isn't a great one either. I probably won't ever read any of his other books. It seems (from what I've read and watched in movies) they often have the same story line. When I say this I mean there is a love twist and someone with a fatal disease that they will die of. Character changes are just thrown at you from nowhere and appear as the result of minor events, which tells me what Sparks really thinks of his audience's intelligence. It might make sense in Spark-land but not in my head. I only have one thing to say to Sparks:  Your audience is only as intelligent as you let them be.

In the end I did feel for some of his characters. He does have a way of making emotions rise with in you (especially if you are of the female variety) I ended up crying at the end of the story because if he can do one thing it's write tragedy. However I think he knows he can write a tragedy so well so he does it over and over and over and over again.

I guess if you like books that are easy to read, have a love plot and will make you cry, you would get into his book. If you don't stay away!


This is just my opinion. If you are a Sparks fan more power to you. His writing isn't really my cup of tea.

Yours Truly~ grrrl in green