REVIEWING
The Last Song
By Nicholas Sparks
Grand Central Publishing | 390 pages | 24.99
Review By Jessica Lyons
Another Masterpiece from Nicholas Sparks
Nicholas Sparks has done it again. With his latest novel, The Last Song, he constructs a riveting tale centering on the protagonist, Ronnie, a teenage girl who butts heads with her mother and muddles her way through life. She's a magnet for trouble, has given up on playing the music she used to love, and can't seem to recover from her parents' divorce.
Along with her little brother, Jonah, Ronnie leaves her home of New York City to spend the summer with her father in North Carolina, much to her dismay. Ronnie makes no secret of the fact that she has no desire to be there, particularly since she has an ongoing strained relationship with her father.
Although most of the story takes place in North Carolina, it is a pleasant departure to see Sparks leaving his home state to write about characters in a different setting, writing with as much ease and painting a picture that enables readers to easily visualize the characters' surroundings
.In The Last Song, Sparks masterfully weaves the lives of many different characters into a splendid mix, including Ronnie's family and the people she meets during her forced summer in North Carolina. Ronnie interacts with a variety of colorful characters during her visit including Pastor Harris, the volleyball player, Will, bad boy Marcus, and a girl who goes by the name Blaze, just to name a few. Each character is well developed by Sparks, and it is these intermingling characters that drive the story.
Sparks has an easy, flowing, and realistic conversation that he creates between his many different characters. Whether it's a flirtatious conversation between two teenagers or a taunting conversation between siblings, Sparks creates an engaging dialogue, inspiring both belly aching laughter and lachrymose tears, ever moving the reader.
The summer proves to be a transforming one for Ronnie, one in which she is forced to go through a tremendous transformation as she emerges from teenager to an adult.
This story has it all – romance, hardship, family problems and self-discovery. Sparks has made a name for himself by writing books that tug at the heartstrings, and The Last Song is no different. It's an emotional story that pulls one through a wide range of emotions, tantalizingly mysterious to the end, while leaving the reader ultimately satisfied.
The Last Song, like many of Sparks' other novels, such as A Walk to Remember, Message in a Bottle and The Notebook, lends itself to the big screen.
Although I would like to see Sparks leave his comfort zone and stretch from the formula he typically uses, this is a terrific read from an extremely talented author.