And the last book I will ever read by Nicholas Sparks. The problem with working in a bookstore is that when a book, whatever book, is constantly placed on your cash counter and shoved in your face your curiosity can’t help but get the better of you. Why is this book a bestseller? What is so great about this book that I am constantly forced to get up and get it for customers?
In this case, this book was The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks. The fact that it was becoming a movie definitely helped sales, the fact that it had Miley Cyrus on the cover (movie edition) still questionable as to whether that helped or hindered sales. Never having read a Nicholas Sparks book myself, I decided that it was time to embrace the dark side.
The book was set up for me to love. I have a thing for teen drama: I love teen movies and I love Family Channel. It’s a sad, but very real, guilty pleasure. And this book was all about the teen drama. The main character, Ronny, was a product of a divorce and very angry at her father as she believed he left her and their family. Because of this betrayal, she stopped playing piano, got in with the “wrong crowd,” became a problem child, and was shipped off with her brother to spend the summer with her father. Obviously she was not happy about this. She spent the first half of the summer miserable, missing her friends, trying to make new friends, getting in with the wrong crowd AGAIN, and fighting with her Dad. The second half of the book she spent getting away from her new friends, falling in love with a boy (who, of course, was so different than her), fixing her relationship with her father, and turning to Jesus (it was at this point that I knew Sparks was not the author for me). It was a fairly predictable read. If you have seen the movie ‘Life as a House’ you have read this book, and the movie is better (it has Hayden Christiansen in it, need I say more?).
I actually really enjoyed the first half of the book, the lead-up to the relationship with the ‘popular, so not her type’ guy is my kind of teen drama. But it became boring in the second half, her switch to the ‘good side’ was too drawn out. And it became annoying constantly watching her make the wrong choices, her life was miserable because she made it that way. It also became extremely religious, and there was this whole baby turtle thing. It was a little too much for me that the birth of baby turtles was a metaphor for Ronny’s ‘transformation’. Sadly, and I am slightly ashamed to admit this, I did cry at the end. Damn you Nicholas Sparks!
It was worth the read though just to experience the Nicholas Sparks effect that has everyone hooked, but now that I have tasted it, I have no desire to go back.
I may not have enjoyed the book, but I still want to see the movie. The teen drama has just too great a pull.
Hey, it’s Chelsea from Coles!
I read The Last Song a while ago, and I cried at the end too 
The religion thing bothered me too but I was willing to let it go. I love dramatic books, and anything with romance in it has me hooked 
The movie is basically identical to the book though. It doesn’t help that the character of Ronnie was pretty much written FOR Miley Cyrus haha
Chelsea you do not have to introduce yourself as Chelsea from Coles. I know who you are! Glad to know I am not the only one who cried at the end… did I mention I was on the Subway at the time. Awkward.
In the movie she even starts to dress preppier when she becomes “good.” The movie WAS better, however, than Dear John. Not hard though.
Life as a House is SO MUCH BETTER.
Don’t we all dress preppier when we go to the ‘good’ side?
Ummm Hayden Christiansen.
I too want to see the movie!!
His movies are always much better than his books. his books are like cotton candy with chocolate syrup on top. TOO EFFIN MUCH. At least, for some unfathomable reason, there are good actors in his movies . (Diane lane and Richard Gere!)
So I had the unfortunate wisdom of renting this movie on a midnight shift at work and it was the worst 90 minutes of my life. Granted Miley Cyrus probably had a lot to do with that. Still, the turtles, the dad DYING (we all know how I feel about lead characters getting killed off) and the whole piano thing was just enough for me to want to throw up in my mouth. At the end, when the light shines through the church windows (symbolizing the spirit of her dead dad) I literally stopped believing in a higher power.
I have read other Sparks books and this one (althought I’ve not read it) I don’t think represents his best stuff. Oh and Miley Cyrus should stick to the Family Channel.
pass it on