Book Review: A Walk To Remember by Nicholas Sparks

“It was, I remembered thinking, the most difficult walk anyone ever had to make. In every way, a walk to remember.”

Published in 1999, A Walk To Remember by Nicholas Sparks follows Landon Carter who looks back at his last year at Beaufort High. It was 1958, and Landon had already dated a girl or two. He even swore that he had once been in love. Certainly the last person in town he thought he’d fall for was Jamie Sullivan, the daughter of the town’s Baptist minister. A quiet girl who always carried a Bible with her schoolbooks, Jamie seemed content living in a world apart from the other teens. She took care of her widowed father, rescued hurt animals, and helped out at the local orphanage. No boy had ever asked her out. Landon would never have dreamed of it. Then a twist of fate made Jamie his partner for the homecoming dance, and Landon Carter’s life would never be the same.

Rating:

I’ve always been a really big fan of the film adaptation of this book so I was really looking forward to finally reading the book. And straight away, Landon’s beautifully descriptive and emotive narrative pulled me right into the story.

Touching and beautifully sweet, A Walk To Remember is an unforgettable story at only 170 pages long, as Landon looks back at the most memorable year of his life. I always know that a Sparks book/adaptation is going to pack an emotional punch, and this has always been one of my favourite love stories.

The book didn’t make me cry (the film does every time!), but that’s maybe because I always knew the outcome. But it did fill me a bittersweet happiness to finally read a story that I have already loved for years, to get to know Landon and Jamie better, and to finally understand the meaning behind the title!! I need to go and watch the film again now! It will be a while before I stop thinking about this couple.

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