A WALK TO REMEMBER

Katie Benson


“When I was seventeen, my life changed forever.” This is how it all starts as 57-year-old Landon Carter goes on describing how in 1958 at Beaufort High School in South Carolina, his life changed forever. In A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks, Landon Carter is one of the cool rich kids, but he still feels he doesn’t really fit in anywhere. Later in the year, Jamie Sullivan, the minister’s daughter, comes along and shows Landon how much fun doing the “right thing” can be. Then, after getting past his first impression and getting to know her, he begins to fall in love with her.


Landon finally has hope for his future, until Jamie drops the secret that she has been hiding from him for seven months. It is a secret that will change both of their lives forever.


In A Walk to Remember, Jamie teaches Landon that God has a plan for everyone and everything. Landon learns to trust people, and God, to know what the right thing is for him to do. Even though Jamie and Landon can’t be together forever, they fall in love anyway. Nicholas Sparks shows us that without love, we have nothing. The book is so emotional, both comic and tragic, that we are even told in the prologue, “First you will smile, and then you will cry-don’t say you haven’t been warned.” And this statement is exactly true as you read this realistic fiction book. Things go back and forth between best and worst for Landon and his future.


Sparks leaves nothing out in this story about the power of love and death. You will not want to put the book down until you find out what Jamie’s secret is and how Landon is able to make everything all right. It makes you realize that you need to pay attention to all of the good things in life and enjoy them to their fullest because you never know how long you will have them. If you enjoy heartfelt stories, which will make you laugh and then cry, then A Walk to Remember is for you.