Powerful Points of View

By Felicia R.

Just as many other love stories, Safe Haven, written by Nicholas Sparks is use in third person omniscient. If I was asked, I would say that this narrative mode is my most liked, because it mainly focuses on one character's point of view, but there is enough included from other character's points of view to spice things up a bit. It's rarely used nowadays, but in my personal opinion, Nicholas Sparks is a very powerful writer. He makes it so the reader can see anything he wants…which is exactly how it is while reading his novels.

To my surprise, a story with third person omniscient was easier to understand than I thought. I didn't really think it would flow too well if it kept jumping around from perspective to perspective. Even though most of the story was in Katie's perspective, I also saw through the eyes of Alex and Kevin, the new boyfriend and the soon to be ex-husband. It was a nice twist, being able to see through the eyes of different characters.

Safe Haven is the story of a scared young woman who runs away from her home and her husband to hide from his abuse. She makes it to a small town called Southport, in North Carolina. She thought she'd be safe there, but little did she know, her husband found her. She could never call the police on him, because he was the police, in the town of Dorchester, Massachusetts. Katie begins her new life with a man named Alex, and his two young children, whom Katie becomes their mother figure, after they lost theirs to sickness. When Kevin tracks her down, she thought it would be the end for her, and everyone she loved in Southport. When things go South, Katie learns that just maybe everything will be alright.

Sparks used other character's point of view it seems, only when a major part happened, like when Alex and Katie had met, foreshadowing what was to come in the future. Or at the end, when Kevin tracked Katie down. It was a very intriguing twist that kept me glued to the book. You can read into Kevin's thoughts with the use of third person omniscient, looking farther into the background of the story. You can almost read his thoughts like they are your own. He debates back and forth whether he loves her or he hates her. He wants to take her home and keep her there, but at the same time he wants to kill her and be done with her. The point of this narrative mode is so the reader can understand who the wrong person is here, who the antagonist and protagonists are.

As Alex learns more and more about Katie, so does the reader. Through the plot, we learn about Katie's past, receiving more and more information on how she got where she ended up. As most stories, the big picture was at the end. All of the events that led up to the major event in the end, made it that much more interesting. I didn't feel like the story dragged or anything at any point I was reading it. I kept wanting to know more. The author's use of words and description caused me to see vividly, as if I were part of the story. As I said before, Nicholas Sparks is a very powerful author.

Sparks has a way with words, he always knows how to just make you feel the emotion there. Fans of authors like himself are even recommending him, and comparing his wonderful novels to those of others that should be recognized. One fan quoted, "Sebastian Cole did an AMAZING job with this book. It is a great love story with real life characters and real life problems. He reminds me of Nicholas Sparks with his ability to play on your heart strings throughout the entire book." — (Kelani at Amazon.) This reader couldn't have said it any better!

Sparks follows a pattern in his works, whether it's love, to redemption, to loss. I have not read one work by him that I was not impressed with. I would read his novels over and over again. His words play out in my mind like so vividly, it's amazing.  Sparks was asked in an interview, "Now you've established a particular style you're known for, do you think you'll work on anything completely different and surprise us in the future?" (Ryan Gosling). His response was, "Probably not in the novel world. I'm happy writing what I write. Certainly with television or my film production company, I can explore other worlds. For instance, I'm developing a Western. That's a lot of fun to work on. I'm comfortable writing what I write and exploring these extra worlds in different mediums." I love that he is an author that can stick with one medium in his writing, but play around when it comes to films. I enjoy watching his works come to life, not only in my head, but on the big screen as well.