Books Are Better Than the Movies... Usually

My favorite movie of all time is The Last Song. Some of you may know this movie, and know that it's based off of the novel by the famous Nicolas Sparks. It's not as well-known as some of his other book-to-movie adaptations, such as The Notebook and A Walk to Remember, but yet, it is one of my favorites. Now this is controversial, but I actually watched the movie long before I ever read the book. If I'm being honest, I didn't even know it was a book first when I watched the movie when it released a decade ago. When I did finally find out that the movie was based on a novel, it become a goal of mine to one day read it, even though I knew I wasn't a fan of Nicolas Sparks' writing style from my previous endeavors into his other novels.

To say that I was underwhelmed doesn't begin to describe my feelings toward the novel version of my favorite movie. The book just seemed to lack the same spark that the movie did. I'm not sure if I just had high expectations, or that watching it play out on screen was better, or just that I didn't like Sparks' writing, but I did not necessarily enjoy the book. The characters were off, lacking that same turmoil and layers that the actors provided and built. Overall, I only gave the book 3/5 stars on Goodreads. I wasn't expecting to love the novel as much as I loved the movie, but I was expecting to enjoy it...

I hate to say it, but in the case of The Last Song, the movie was better than the book.