The Notebook (The Notebook #1) by Nicholas Sparks
Published July 5th 2004
1 star
*Opens book*
*Reads book*
*Wonders if watching paint dry might actually be more exciting*
*Closes book*
*Yawns*
The Story
We’ve all seen the movie right? So it’s that… but with all the emotion sucked out of it.
(Goodreads Synopsis):
“Set amid the austere beauty of the North Carolina coast, The Notebook begins with the story of Noah Calhoun, a rural Southerner recently returned from the Second World War. Noah is restoring a plantation home to its former glory, and he is haunted by images of the beautiful girl he met fourteen years earlier, a girl he loved like no other. Unable to find her, yet unwilling to forget the summer they spent together, Noah is content to live with only memories…until she unexpectedly returns to his town to see him once again.
Like a puzzle within a puzzle, the story of Noah and Allie is just the beginning. As it unfolds, their tale miraculously becomes something different, with much higher stakes. The result is a deeply moving portrait of love itself, the tender moments and the fundamental changes that affect us all. It is a story of miracles and emotions that will stay with you forever.”
What I Liked
The beauty of lifetime love was represented in this story. The kind of love that leaves you falling in love with that person every day no matter what life brings your way. Like, real life love.
What I Did Not Like
The romance was a snooze fest.
So here’s what I expected from this book…
Lots of inner turmoil and heart-wrenching romantic gestures…. Also, kissing in the rain… sexy tear filled kissing in the rain. Like the kind of ugly emotional kissing where you can’t tell whose tears are whose or where your soul ends and his begins. I expected to be rendered an utter emotional mess by this book!
This is not what I got
I don’t know if it’s Spark’s writing style or the perspective of the story or what. But I felt incredibly detached from everyone and everything in this story. Seriously, I should have been a blubbering mess! I wanted to be heartbroken and feel struggle and longing and pain and really and truly the only emotion I felt was boredom.
It went beyond meh and into the realm of “Please make it stop I can’t handle the extreme nothingness of this book anymore”.
In Conclusion
I would suggest watching the movie and maybe using the book as a doorstop.
A Thousand Lives of Frankie Lovely 
Oh wow.. hehehe… I bought this book for more than 5 years and it’s still sitting on my shelf.. I guess I’m in no hurry to pick it up now per your review 🙂 I’m glad to know the movie is better though 🙂
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Yeah, this wasn’t the best one of his. He has a lot better ones. I personally like The Guardian more. Very sad though, at least I think it was. lol. It’s been a minute since I’ve read it.
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