DELOS SANTOS, ANGEL CASCAYAN

Due Date: February 22, 2019 5:00 PM

Requirement #/Title: No. 1, Reaction
Subject: Novel
Title: Safe Haven
Author: Nicholas Sparks

A Reaction Paper about the Novel

‘’Safe Haven’’
INTRODUCTION (SUMMARY)
Safe Haven (New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2010), a
romantic drama thriller novel made by one of the best-selling authors of
all time, Nicholas Sparks. It follows a story of Katie, a mysterious young
woman with a dark past who suddenly appears in the small town of
Southport, North Carolina. She started to work as a waitress at a seafood
restaurant hoping for a new start. Although she is very determined to
avoid having personal relationships with other people and eager to keep
herself away from the townspeople, she soon became friends with her
plainspoken neighbor, Jo. She knew that moment, that her self-imposed
isolation couldn’t last forever.
In the first weeks of staying, Katie had no other things to do except
to work, shop, and walk around the town; some of the customers of the
restaurant starts to recognize her. Other than that, she hated to admit that
she was enjoying every second of Jo’s company. For some reason, she
felt that there was more to Jo than met the eye. One day, when Katie
stepped out of the house and into the sunshine she thought to herself
‘’this is home’’. She knew that she was getting comfortable of living
there and that scared her because of her strong belief that being
comfortable meant she might lower her guard down.
Having almost no food in the kitchen she decided to go to the
town’s general store where she met Alex, the widowed store owner.
When Katie was getting all she needed, Alex can’t help himself stare at
her and when she was in the register he realized that she was way more
beautiful up close and he knew that moment he already fell for her. Alex
has been very kind to Katie every time she would go to the store. For this
reason, Katie finds herself instantly drawn to him.
As the story unfolds, Alex and his two kids, Kristen and Josh grow
extremely fond of Katie and vice versa. They once decided to go to the
coastal town of Long Beach, where Katie found herself completely
relaxed for the first time in many years. She was having as much fun as
the kids. At the same time, the connection between Katie and Alex grew
stronger and soon develop a romantic relationship, which Jo extremely
encourages. However, the story takes a sharp turn; when the dark secret
she carries continuous to haunt her, and she is forced to open up her
tragic past to Alex where she told him about Kevin, her husband.
Kevin was an alcoholic and abusive husband. He constantly
violently beats his wife Erin, Katie’s real name. One minute he would be
romantic, and loving; the next, he would snap and beat her over small
things. He would promise every time that he’d stop but it only got worse
after that. After the continuous violence she experienced, Erin finally got
the courage to escape from him so she flee to a new town and created a
new identity based on the dead daughter of a neighbor who resembled
her.
Katie was on the verge of crying as she finished her story, she was
afraid of the possibility that Alex would leave her after knowing the truth.
However, He made sure that she knows that there’s nothing can change
his feelings for her and that he accept her with all the baggage that she
brings along with her.
Meanwhile, Kevin became worse in his addiction of alcohol and
his rage became intensified. Being obsessed in finding Erin, he eventually
traces her when she’s in Alex’s house, caring for Alex’s children. He
grew mad and hopes to kill both of his ex-wife and her new lover. He sets
the house on fire waking up Katie from her dream. As soon as she
realized what’s happening she bolted off the coach and helped Kristen
and Josh get out of the house. In order to protect the kids, she had to give
them a chance to run so she forced herself to smile and act as if she love
and miss Kevin. Her plan worked out and she got closer to Kevin so she
immediately shove the gun away from his hand and grabbed him while
the children run for their lives. Alex finds his children and takes them to
Katie’s house, then he drove back to his house where he finds Kevin
attacking Katie. Alex hits Kevin, causing him to drop the gun and Katie
immediately grabs the gun yet Kevin got away. When Katie finds out that
Alex took the kids to her house, she became terrified because she knew
Kevin would go there and hurt them. Afraid of what’s going to happen,
they drove fast to Katie’s house, finding Kevin attempting to break in.
Kevin attacks both Alex and Katie, they both struggle and the gun fires,
hitting Kevin in the stomach which killed him.
After recovering from what happened, Alex reveals an unopened
letter from Carly, his late wife. He gave it to Katie and asked her to read
it. With the letter in her hand, she goes home but first she decided to pay
Jo a visit yet a shocking truth suddenly revealed. She found Jo’s home
looks abandoned. Her place was full of cobwebs and it hadn’t been
cleaned for years, they were no curtains, entry mats, and wind chime
which Jo hanged. She became more confuse as she climbed onto the
porch. She remembered Jo talking about her improvement on her cottage,
and complaining about having to paint and clean all day. A dozen random
details suddenly flashed in her mind and that’s when she realized Jo had
never been there at all.
Katie stumbled back to her house, still can’t believe what
happened. She shook her head and decides to start reading the letter that
Alex gave her. While reading the letter, she sees that it is signed by
‘’Carly Jo’’ whom her friends called Jo. She realizes that Jo, her friend
was not whom she thought she was. She also discovered that the person
who had been there all along for her was the spirit of her lover’s ex-wife
Carly, looking after Alex beyond the grave and making sure that he found
someone who will be with him throughout his life. In the letter, Jo asks
Katie to look after Alex and his children. As soon as she finished reading,
she glanced towards Jo’s house and are very shocked to see lights inside
and sees Jo waving farewell to her from the window. But then, when she
blinked and looks again, the lights were gone and the place still looks
abandoned yet Katie knew what she saw. Jo moved on as she finally
fulfill her purpose and, Alex and Katie begins to start their happily ever
after with the kids.
(DESCRIPTION)
Safe Haven is a novel exploring the themes of love, secrets, loss,
and what it truly means to be safe and feel safe. It’s a novel for the people
who are afraid of opening their hearts to love again because they were
hurt before. It was another hit novel made by Nicholas Sparks, who is one
of the most successful romance writers in American history. All of his
eighteen novels and two nonfiction books have been New York Times
bestsellers, with over 105 million copies sold worldwide, in more than 50
languages. Being one of the highly recommended novels of Sparks, series
of questions started to go through my mind before I started reading it. Is it
indeed worth it as what the others said? Is it completely different from
any other book of Sparks or is it just like the rest?
BODY
The novel centers the life of Katie, as she tries to hide from her
abusive husband. Basically, she had a hard past that continuous to haunts
her. She hopes to find a safe place as what the title means. The first part
of the story started slow. We don’t know yet any of Katie’s past and we
simply follow the beginning of her journey of new life at a small town of
North Carolina. It was sort of a drag since I already know what to expect
in such way that most of the beginnings of the story which the author
would set the tone of the story, introduces the characters as who’s good,
bad, and the one we should watch out for.
Katie first met Jo, a nosy yet fun neighbor. I loved her and their
friendship where they would drink tea while sharing what happened
throughout their day, it was a friendship goal and Jo is the best friend that
we all want to have. Then, she met Alex, a loving father to his two kids.
One thing that I like about Alex is how dedicated he is to his children. He
is a hardworking father who only wants the best for his children. He is the
most kindhearted, selfless, sweetest, and perfect man a girl could ever ask
for. You can clearly see how sincere he is with his love for Katie because
he shows it through his words and actions.
Then again as the story passes by, I already knew somehow Alex
would end up with Katie just like any other ordinary love story though I
just didn’t expect what happened next. What caught my attention is when
her background is slowly revealed, their past lives, the secrets, and the
issues are gradually introduced, which I loved. I began to feel sorry for
what happened to her and also started to fear for her as the new life she
made could be taken away in any moment. Her journey kept me glued to
the page and the way she’s opening up her past to Alex and to the kids is
beautiful. It showed how strong and amazing she is.
All the characters are very likeable, with the exception of one. I
despise Katie’s psycho ex-husband Kevin, who is abusive and are
obsessed with her. I hated the fact the he doesn’t see what he’s doing
wrong and the way Sparks decided to show Kevin’s thought processes are
absolutely terrifying. Furthermore, when the danger comes as Kevin
finally found her, it had my heart racing just by reading it. It frightens me
as I was very eager to know what will happen to Katie and Alex. I was
afraid that they may not have their happily ever after. Finally, the battle
for freedom and happiness is over and after they have recovered, I
thought it was the end of it but I was wrong. I was so shocked reading the
very end of it as I honestly didn’t see it coming at all. I could barely
contain myself, hence the overall journey of reading the Safe Haven is
very enjoyable and the ending is deeply satisfying, it was simple,
realistic, and full of emotions.
After reading it, for me there are things that made the novel
interesting. First was the theme, in the novel it clearly shows the affection
or the love between the characters. For instance, the scene where Alex
saved Josh from drowning and Kristen witnessing the accident was left
alone crying at the side, when Katie noticed it she rushed towards her and
tries to calm the panic and fear Kristen felt. At that time, we can clearly
shows the affection given even though there is no relationship between
them during that time. Second is the characters, it’s amazing how Sparks
describe their physical condition, social circumstances, and even their
psychological conditions which made me clearly imagine the character.
In addition, I love how they have different characteristics to one another,
it made everyone unique.
On the other hand, the plot was slightly confusing because Sparks
used flash forward and flashback such as the scene of Katie when she still
lives with Kevin and then suddenly she goes back again when she lives in
Southport. But, even though the story is still interesting and beautiful.
Personally, I also love that the title is ‘’Safe Haven’’ as we can
have our own interpretation about it. It could be your hometown or any
place and even perhaps the arms of the man you love, where you feel
loved and secured. My favorite line from the novel was ‘’I truly believe
that while love can hurt, love can also heal”, We know that sometimes if
love breaks us, that if some relationships might not end the way we want,
it causes us to fear the future ahead of us and fear to love again, but the
line made me realize that love is not all about hurting because as love
might be the reason for pain, don’t forget that it’s also the solution to
everything.
CONCLUSION
 Safe Haven deserve to be one of the best-sellers of Nicholas
Sparks. It’s a novel that tells us about love and life. Sparks is really
indeed a wonderful writer as you can see truth in his writing. Therefore, I
believe that Safe Haven deserves more praise, the plot twist was
incredible as no one see it coming so if you’re looking for a good
heartwarming story I would deeply recommend it to everyone. In
addition, I strongly recommend this novel to those who are afraid of
taking chances and to those who wish to add spark to their lives. To the
readers, here are some advices based on what I’ve learned in the novel.
First, you should never be afraid to create a new beginning in your life
even if life throws you challenges. Second, remember that even if love
hurts, it can also heal. Next, if you’re being abused by someone, it’s
important to establish a safety plan first and then seek legal or court
advocate’s help. Lastly, always have a courage to stand up for yourself.