A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks

I have to admit something, before I start the book review. This is one of those rare occasions where I saw the movie first. So I actually read the book long after the movie came out. I loved the movie, and I didn't know that the story was based off a novel until I encountered it for the first time, shortly after I finished high school. I love both the movie and the book in their different ways.

The first thing to note about this story is the way it is told. Landon Carter, the narrator does not sugar coat anything, and his honesty makes him a reliable narrator for the story. We see the world through a very interesting lens. A small town, with history after history. Everyone knows each other, and Landon has known Jamie since he first started gong to school.  But he doesn't really know her, at all. This story is a powerful one because it goes beyond just a love story, or a high school sweetheart tale. It is about discovering who you are, in the sense of learning who someone else really is. It's also about overcoming adversity. Adversity of the most shocking kind. Another important layer of the tale is what it means to truly live. Landon thinks, especially at the beginning of the book, that his life is difficult, and painful. He also thinks that Jamie lives on cloud nine and is apparently the perfect saint. As he gets to know Jamie, what she actually does, and the deep secret she's hidden, he begins to understand that life is not as simple or straightforward as he makes it out to be. Beyond the first impression or the everyday judgements is another story, one you can't even imagine that makes up the person you believe you know.
he first time I read this book, I fell in love with Landon. His voice was so different from anything I had ever read. His constant opinion throughout the book evolves and changes once he starts getting closer to Jamie. He grows up, as he constantly says in the book, and it's Jamie and her story that helped him learn who he is. The second time I read this book, I discovered something powerful about the way people connect. Their paths cross, sometimes by coincidence, but other times both were drawn to the other without an awareness of it. On my third reading, I discovered an interesting coping mechanism that Jamie uses, that I never noticed before.
I recommend this book to teenagers especially, but really anyone, especially someone who faces a lot of adversity, regardless of its shape or form. This book has a lot to offer about love, trust and faith in others and yourself.