Remain by Nicholas Sparks with m. night shyamalan
Can you believe these two wrote a book together! Lol
When I saw the news that Sparks and Shyamalan were working together I immediately texted my mom and my sister. My family has always really enjoyed Shyamalan’s movies (we not talking about Avatar), I remember when my mom rented “Lady in the Water” and I became obsessed! This was in the era of my life when I wanted to be an actor or director when I grew up. I loved finding movies that had storytelling aspects that were totally new to me. I rewatched Shyamalan’s movies over and over, I wrote essays about them, and they inspired my own writing. For Sparks I remember watching The Notebook and my mom telling me it was based off a book. Again I was fascinated and read the book.
So here we are many years later and the worlds are colliding?! Sign me up!
Remain is a supernatural love story. The book is out now and a movie is in the works. It is not an adaptation but will exist in this world. I’m very curious of this project as a whole. I liked the book but it certainly is not a favorite of mine, most of my enjoyment of it came with reading it with my mom and sister.
The book follows Tate, a trust fund architect who is building his billionaire buddy’s 12 bedroom home in Cape Cod. Tate is staying in an older historical home in the small town. His first morning in the house a woman is in the living room doing yoga. He is surprised because according to his friend and the home’s caretakers he is the only person staying in the house. But the woman insists that she lives there.
As the story carries on we learn that yes this woman is a ghost,Tate is able to see her and communicate with her but he doesn’t know why. He starts to suspect it has something to do with what his late sister told him. She had a conversation with him telling him that she sees spirits and if he opens his heart for love maybe this gift will bless him too.
In the balance of building a 12 bedroom home and trying to grapple with seeing a ghost Tate focuses hard on learning how this woman, Wren, died.
The book then goes a very cozy mystery route of an amateur sleuth, it was interesting but also kinda odd. This random man running around town yelling at other men “WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER”(not a direct quote but it matches the vibes).
Aside from the super sleuthing, the book talks a lot about grief which I think it very valuable. Grief is such a personal thing and each person processes grief differently. I think stories that are really upfront about it are important because someone else could read this and find comfort and relatability For me personally I did not find that comfort or relatability.
I had other moments that annoyed me while reading. Like billionaire Oscar being an asshat the entire book! This man got 4 kids and don’t wanna show up and be a father! And any time he can disrespect his wife he takes it.🙄 I hated his character.
I think if you enjoyed this book or the idea of a ghost murder mystery is intriguing I would recommend the Gethsemane Brown series, first book is Murder in G Major by Alexia Gordon. I went to google the authors name and just found out it’s apparently also a tv show!
Happy ghostie reading.
