Mallory+W

=Mallory W's 9th Grade Book Review=



media type="file" key="malloryw-bookreview-0910.mp3" width="240" height="20"

While some books draw people in, others often lose the audiences’ focus. However, “Dear John” by Nicholas Sparks was quite a shock, in my opinion. Many people believe that Nicholas Sparks’ books are just sappy and full of love, but this tragic novel is not like the rest. This book describes the journey of two lovers struggling to keep their relationship together, while obstacles block their way. Like many novels, “Dear John” had its goods and bads, but it was generally an enjoyable book. I would recommend it to anybody.

First off, there were several things that I admired about this novel. The descriptive details written throughout the book made the story line easy to read and come alive. Also, the feelings of each character towards each other was very affectionate and believable as well. At some points, I was so focused in with the book that I felt as if I were one of the characters in the story. The plot was extremely heartbreaking and cry-worthy, but incredibly motivating at the same time. In addition, the novel was very realistic because it contained some unexpected happenings. Another aspect that I truly enjoyed about “Dear John” was the quality of the character’s believability. Many books have unrealistic characters, that have no realistic actions, but this was not the case in this novel. I even imagined myself being one of the characters while I was reading. John has a love for Savannah like no other relationship, and the quality of the writing shows it through their actions. In my opinion, this story line is perfect for girls because of how the book describes the love that John and Savannah share.

Even though "Dear John" was mostly an enjoyable book, there were a few things I did not like about this book. First off, the story line was very slow in the beginning because Spark described the details a little too much in detail, and the novel included some dull parts. Since the story line was very predictable and easy to quess what was going to happen next, many exciting moments of the story were not as exciting as they should have been. Even though the plot was very well described, I felt myself forgetting most of what was going on. One example of this is when Spark's is describing John's journey in the war. There were many long, boring pages on this matter, and I felt as if I did not need to know all of the information. Such extended passages got in the way of my enjoying the flow of the story, and I wish it were otherwise in this book.

Even though “Dear John” had some bad parts within its pages, overall it was a very satisfying book. I would definitely recommend this book for anyone who enjoy reading Nicholas Sparks’ novels, or any novels that include romance and tragedy.