Kateri Bean: A Walk To Remember

A Walk to Remember
Nicholas Sparks
256 pages
10 out of 10

“A Walk to Remember” is hardly your usual teen romance novel. I read it after seeing the movie, which made my sister, my friends, and I all cry. It’s written by Nicholas Sparks who is a genius when it comes to romances. While the movie was good, the book was much better.

You meet the boy first, Landon Carter, and he’s definitely not a perfect kid. His family has issues, he doesn’t have the best grades or the best friends, and has a habit of getting into trouble. All in all he’s really not a BAD kid, but he certainly has some stuff to work on.
Then there’s Jamie Sullivan, the preacher’s daughter. Jamie carries her Bible with her wherever she goes, wears sweaters and long skirts and always, always, always, does the right thing. Jamie has no friends, gets teased constantly at school (but never gets mad about it), and spends her time helping orphans and other people in need. Jamie seems happy and perfect on the outside, but inside she’s got a troublesome secret.

While adults raise their eyebrows at Landon, they absolutely adore Jamie. The two of them, according to the rules of high school, could never in a thousand years work together even if they wanted to, which they obviously don’t. Jamie had gotten over his last girlfriend but wasn’t looking for a girl like Jamie to replace her. A cheerleader, not a preacher’s daughter, was more what he was looking for. And Jamie wasn’t interested in Landon; her dad wouldn’t even let him in the house, and a boy like him could be nothing but trouble for a girl.

But, when a boy doesn’t have a date for the homecoming dance and all the pretty girls are taken, he can get pretty desperate. That was the situation Landon found himself in, so instead of going alone and having his friends tease him for the rest of year, he decides to ask Jamie to go.

Jamie agrees on one condition. “I’ll go with you, Landon, as long as you promise not to fall in love me.” Landon promises. After all, he’s not interested and clearly neither is she. It’s just a one time deal to help both of them escape the awkwardness of having to go alone. Homecoming was a blast, sort of: Jamie saved Landon from embarrassment and a fist-fight and helped him clean up puke from the bathroom floor, after that Landon has a new respect for Jamie.

In fact, after homecoming, for some reason, Landon can’t get Jamie off his mind. It doesn’t help that Jamie is always so friendly to him and the two of them are stuck in the same drama class.

Even though Landon had promised to never fall in love with her, he finds himself slowly starting to. At first it doesn’t make sense to him, isn’t Jamie the exact opposite of everything he always thought he wanted in a girl? But over time Landon slowly begins to realize he’s changed his mind about a lot of things.

Finally after awhile of denying it, Landon asks Jamie out. She says no. He asks her why and she tells him she’s not allowed to date, but if he wants he could ask her Father’s permission. After gathering up his courage Landon asks her father and gets permission.

After that Landon and Jamie slowly but surely fall head over heels in love. The two figure out that even though all their friends, and even the whole town, don’t approve, none of that matters. Landon slowly finds himself changing into a much better young man thanks to Jamie, and Jamie finds herself actually having fun and enjoying the world.

Just when things couldn’t be any better for Landon, Jamie spills her deepest secret and it changes their lives forever. Reading it will make you think about choices you have made or will make in the future and also make you consider what you would do for the people you love. Would you be willing to give up everything for them?