Whether you’ve read his books or seen the multiple movie adaptations, almost every girl has faced the “Nicholas Sparks Effect” at least once. Whether it be locking yourself in your room on a Friday night to finish the last pages of “Dear John” (while all of your friends are out partying), or simply relaxing with some popcorn and our favorite sibling to watch The Notebook, most of us have encountered more than one romantically impossible Nicholas Sparks scenario that we’ve fantasized about. But along with Nicholas Sparks’ impeccable taste in romance, we can’t help but partially hate him for creating unrealistic expectations in our significant others.
1. It’s all about the book and movie covers
If you’ve ever seen a Nicholas Sparks novel, then you’ve probably recognized the iconic covers. Every novel portrays a happy, in-love couple with a breathtaking backdrop. Whether it be sunsets, rain, beaches or lighthouses, Nicholas Sparks has taken it into his own hands to engrave it in our brains.
2. You compare your own relationships to fictional ones
Once you start reading the story, you end up comparing all of your past relationships to these impossible scenarios. Better yet, you promise yourself that your next summer romance will be exactly like Ronnie’s from “The Last Song.” I mean in “The Notebook” Noah wrote Allie 365 letters (one for each day of the year), and then you compare it to your life, where the guy can’t take 30 seconds out of his day to text you back. And let’s not forget the fact that in Dear John, John sold his fathers entire extremely valuable coin collection just to help Savannah pay for her husband’s treatment. I mean really? No guy I’ve ever met would do that.
3. Every story’s setting is romantic
All of the stories take place in perfect small towns that just so happen to have more action or romance than any town or city I’ve ever been to combined. Not to mention, every sunset or sunrise is worthy of being photographed and winning a Pulitzer prize. Of course all of these places are close to water. Because we all know we are going to go on a date where the guy is rowing through a river filled with thousands of ducks surrounding us just waiting to be fed, or better yet to go on an awesome date where we will go scuba diving in an aquarium and then climb an impossibly tall tree to write “forever” on it.
4. Why is everyone unexplainable handsome?
Lastly, all of Sparks’ male characters are depicted as unexplainably handsome. Not just normal “walking in the street and passes you by” handsome, I’m talking “non existant drop-dead gorgeous handsome.” Who isn’t going to swoon when they put a half naked male model on the screen in front of you in one of the most romantic scenarios. If only Nicholas Sparks could tell us where to find these guys. But no, I’m sorry, that isn’t included with the price of the book. Again, we are only left with the opportunity to stare and watch the movies a thousand times until you manage the strength to convince yourself the guy isn’t that good of a man, and the guy in your writing class has “much more to offer.”
All in all I believe we have all developed an intense love-hate relationship with Nicholas Sparks. Although his stories are impossibly perfect (heartbreak and all) we all want them to happen to us, thus ruining any real relationship we ever actually have and setting are relationship standards incredibly high. Even though these stories are far from realistic, they are every girl’s best source of entertainment. Plus we all love the fact, that maybe, just maybe, there is a chance that we will experience the impossible.