Nicholas Sparks See Me Review
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Nicholas Sparks has always inspired me with is ability to craft gorgeous, emotional tales of love, friendship, strength, courage, and growth. From The Notebook to The Choice to The Longest Ride, he has created couples who inspire and remind us that love is magical.
Thus, when I picked up See Me, I was thrilled at the prospect of falling in love with another couple. I was anxious to delve into another one of his masterpieces, to connect and relate to characters who made me believe in the power of love.
However, after reading See Me, I am sad to say I was severely let down.
See Me chronicles the love story of Maria and Collin. Maria is a lawyer and Collin a college student/aspiring teacher/amateur fighter. Individually, the characters are pretty relatable and even likable. However, the chemistry was severely lacking in their story. I felt like their connection was lacking the spark, passion, and depth of other couples Sparks writes about. I just never felt like they were truly in love, even up through the end. There was a severe lack of development perhaps because of the nature of the book’s conflict. I didn’t fall in love with Maria and Collin as a couple, so I never really invested in their love story. Furthermore, I felt that their love story was overshadowed by other events in the story.
I also never really fell completely in love with Collin. Usually, I adore the male protagonists in Sparks’ books. Collin, while attractive and likable, wasn’t anything special. I felt like he lacked quirks and memorability. He was too much of the “typical” character, and I didn’t feel like he had anything too special about him. His only major quirk was that he said “Okay” a lot…which was pretty dull. Hazel Grace and Augustus Waters’ “Okay then?” was adorable. Collin’s okay just felt cold.
The overall plot and conflict of the book was also lacking the emotional appeal of some of his other works. Sparks writes best when writing about heart-wrenching tragedy. While there were glimmers of the heartbreak in this novel, I never felt like Sparks actually got to the emotional depth needed to make this book memorable. The main conflict is that Maria is being stalked, which I found overdone and predictable. I also just didn’t find the book that suspenseful or exciting. Not enough happened. I was to about page 200 when I realized nothing major was really happening.
Overall, this book was very lengthy without a lot of memorable action happening. I also felt like it lacked the beautiful writing of some of Sparks’ earlier works.
I will always be a major fan of Nicholas Sparks. I think he is an exceptionally talented writer and story teller. This book, however, does not highlight Sparks’ full writing potential. I left See Me feeling disappointed, not because of his lack of skill but because of the fact he didn’t showcase it completely with this book.
