A review by papilooonglegs
Dreamland by Nicholas Sparks

emotional lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

I love Nicholas Sparks but I feel like this is the worst of his works that I’ve read so far (I have not read everything by him). It seems that the more books Sparks writes, the faster these characters fall in love; and the same can be said for Dreamland. I personally like it when the relationship develops a little more naturally. One of the first things we find out is that the main character is 25, around my age, and the way he is written makes it feel like he is closer to middle age. I understand that he had to take on a lot of responsibility but it still doesn’t feel like I’m reading from a 25 year olds point of view. It was also confusing to go back and forth between the two plots with no context. It pretty much felt like reading two separate books until the last quarter of the book. Finally, it was clear that Sparks is very out of touch with a lot of the topics in this book, not only the out of character 25 year old but as well as social media and how people act when their loved one has a mental illness especially someone with a past history of suicide attempts (i.e. gun safety). Overall I’m going to be cautious in the future when reading Sparks latest works.
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