Customer Reviews

Message in a Bottle

5 star:		(212)
4 star:		(88)
3 star:		(36)
2 star:		(45)
1 star:		(103)

 

 

I am a pretty big fan of Nicholas Sparks books and when I saw the book at a thrift store,I grabbed it up excitedly(it's not everyday you can find something you actually want to read in a second hand shop.) I read through it in just a couple nights. However, I was quite disapointed with Sparks writing style and at the beginning of the book, I was almost convinced that he had seen "Sleepless in Seattle" a few too many times. The plot does not seem to develop very well, the "trips" to and from Boston/North Carolina never added anything new. I also really did not like the ending. However, I would still recommend it to somebody who likes to read love stories, as it is entertaining and quite romantic/sad.And my own message, although it may not be in a bottle, is to any readers who pick "Message In A Bottle" as their first Nicholas Sparks novel to read: Stick in there! Pick up The Notebook, A Walk To Remember or The Guardian! Mr Sparks shows his true talent in these books!

After finishing Message in A Bottle, I thought I must have a heart of stone. I did not cry once. The story itself was unrealistic, the dialogue was stupid and cliched. It's disappointing really because I felt absolutely no connection between the two main characters, Theresa and Garret, other than lust and desperation to have a real relationship after being alone for such a long time. They are not cute as Sparks intended during moments of flirting (she slyly did this, she coyly smiled, etc)...it's not cute, disgusting to read, really.

The only redeeming quality about this novel is Catherine. I could actually feel this longing and true love between Catherine and Garret. They truly loved each other and their love was real, which is probably why it was so hard for me to accept Theresa and Garret's love...yeah, I know that's exactly what the story is about, the moral - We can all move on. T & G's love showed Theresa that we can all move on. And people can, however much I don't believe in it. But Sparks just doesn't make it believable.

The whole time I was semi-disgusted with Theresa. Why did she never tell Garret about the letters? Come on, now really...even if I were so bold as to do what she did, I would have told him about finding the letters sooner. Disgusting. Ugh. I was rooting for Catherine the whole time. And the only parts I enjoyed in the novel were Garret's flashback of him and Catherine.

I have rambled for the most part, but this novel really didn't live up to what I expected.

The letters written by Garrett Blake to Catherine broke my heart. They were incredibly powerful and emotional. With every word, you felt the love,sorrow,and longing he had for his wife. I cried so hard when I read this book. Be prepared with a box of tissues because you'll need them. Fantastic,moving,emotional book by Nicholas Sparks. Just incredible.

I should qualify that I've never actually read a Harlequin Romance, but I feel now like I have.
It reads as though it were written by a very earnest 19-year-old, who's aced every creative writing class in his high school, and is currently taking more in junior college. A 19-year-old who's watched so many movies that he's filled the novel with cinematic cuts that fill romantic movies, but are just confusing and jarring on the page.
The dialog is pretty clumsy as well: does ANYONE know a twelve-year-old who'd actually say "He's pretty cool. For a grownup." Most of the dialog between the lovers is the flirty nonsense that's fun when you say it, but you'd be completely embarrassed to hear yourself saying. And, it does nothing to advance the plot.
And, much of the action and observations just don't make a bit of sense:
"He was an expert sailor, and an even better swimmer." Better than expert, huh?
The protagonist, Teresa, is an experienced newspaper reporter, but looks on with awe as her boss figures out how to call another newspaper to get some local information. (Never covered that in journalism school. I guess.)
"The winds were strong and steady, but weren't yet unpredictable." (are steady winds ever unpredictable?)
"Show, don't tell" is the oldest bit of writing advice there is. But he relies on telling, telling us that "as she talked, she became more excited" rather than showing us.
The book is full of constructions like "somehow she knew" or "something told him." The point of a novel about psychological development is to have some insight about how she knew, what told him. It's harder than falling back on those clichés, but that's what good writing is all about.
He seems to be completely unaware of the past perfect form, and when you might use it. He mixes his metaphors ("the storm was "gathering steam, like a slowly burning fuse, ready to explode.") fails to keep verb-object agreement, just hurtles on, captivated by his muse.
The odd thing is that this book was published after his "The Notebooks" which was a New York Times best-seller, and actually had some interesting insights about the tragedy of Alzheimer's Disease. I can only conclude that he wrote this book years before, and dug out the manuscript when his publisher needed a follow-up. But geez, people, are editors that expensive? (During the dramatic storm scene, the expert sailor counts the seconds between lightning and thunder - two and a half minutes, 25 miles. Wow - on this side of the country, it's only five seconds per mile!)
I guess I made the mistake of reading this book shortly after "White Oleander" a first novel as razor-sharp and moving as this one is soft-focused and lachrymose. But as someone, perhaps Abraham Lincoln is supposed to have said, "for those who like this sort of thing, this is the sort of thing they'll like."

Keep the Kleenex handy when you read this book.

Theresa Orsburn, a divorced single mother and newspaper columnist, discovers a letter in a bottle on the beach while vacationing in Cape Cod. Theresa shows it to her editor/friend. The incredible love that is evident in the letter moves them so much that they decide to print it in Theresa's column. Through that, she discovers two other letters from Garrett to Catherine.

Jaded from her divorce, Theresa is very curious about a man who could feel such deep love and write such letters, so she sets out to discover more about him.

She finds Garrett, who is a dive instructor in North Carolina, and meets him in person. They make in instant connection and fall in love. The story of their time together made me wish I could find something like that at least once in my life. I wish the ending had been different, but it makes a point that is important to both Garrett and Theresa.

I'll read more Nicholas Sparks books in the future.

Wow this book is so amazing i can't believe that it was written by a guy. Call me sterotypical but before i read this book, i thought that guy's basically couldn't write romance novels.

This book isn't one of the typical, trashy romance novels either. It's excellent and tasteful. Even if they're usually some what predictable, that factor can be overlooked.

I would say buy this book and all of his other books too. If you read this and like it, I'd recomend A walk to Remember. The movie is awsoeme too.

For the people who have read this book. I love Garrett!

This was a terrible book. The dialogue was cliched, the characters uninteresting and trite. It was so obvious Sparks was trying to appeal to a mostly female audience. The only good thing was the plot premise, but then it turned into predictable mush, even worse than a Mary Higgins Clark novel. The only thing that kept me reading is I wanted to see if it sucked all the way to the end, and it surely did. It is depressing that so many folks here thought this was such a great book -- either they don't read very often or I've overestimated the intelligence of the average reader. How this ever got published, or even made it past the first cut is amazing. Total fluff.

This is what it takes to be successful today in America? It's the equivalent of some so-called rap artist becoming a millioniare that can't even sing or play an instrument. Sad.

I enjoyed the book "Message in a Bottle" by Nicholas Sparks. In the story the main character Theresa is running along the beach and finds a message in a bottle. Theresa is a single parent looking for love. After she finds the letter she falls in love with the writer, whose name is Garrett. When Theresa tells her best friend Deanna, she leads Theresa on a very exciting adventure with lots of bumps along the way. Theresa is not able to tell Garrett the real reason she goes to meet him! Theresa has to lie for a long time, and when she tells Garrett the truth he gets mad. I thought the book was very good. It was way differant from Sparks other books. I would recommend this book. It is easy reading and very romantic.

This book was without a doubt one of Nicholas Sparks' best books. It is a book about a deep love, one that seemes so out of reach while being completely possible at the same time. Garrett is my favorite character out of all of Sparks' books because he has such real feelings about his wife and you can just feel how hard it has been for him to move on. It is an amazing book that you just have to read. One note: the movie version of this starring Kevin Costner and Robin Wright-Penn was not very good. When you finish reading the book, however, you have to watch the movie for the simple fact that Kevin Costner IS Garrett. He plays the most perfect version of Garrett that it is actually worth the $4.00 rental fee.

When the cable show "Dinner and a Movie" showed the movie version of this book, their recipe of the week was "Tear Jerky". Quite appropriate; this book is nothing but a weep-fest.
Here's a thought: Maybe Theresa can get together with Landon from "A Walk to Remember".