Jumanji

CRITIQUE PAPER

Nicholas Sparks novel The Lucky One, tells the love story of an ex-military man known as Thibault who mysteriously ends up connecting with a woman he walked across the US to meet for the first time. While Thubault was in Iraq, a picture of a woman blew across his path and as he came to realize that this picture had brought him great luck, and saved his life, he felt compelled towards the woman in the picture.

Unsure of what it meant, he eventually decides to journey his way to meet Elizabeth, a divorcee with an incredibly bright son. Her ex-husband is the small town policeman that would make Barney Fife seem well-put-together. Elizabeth has been incredibly unlucky in love and has decided her fate is to take care of her Grandmother who recently had a stroke, her son, and her Grandmother’s kennel. Thibault takes up a hired-help job at the kennel in order to interact with Elizabeth, but her ex-husband has his eye on the newcomer who makes him uncomfortable from the onset.

The Lucky One had some great elements to it, and could have actually dipped into a little more of a mystical realm and still held some solid ground in reality. The plot was intriguing up until a point, but never felt as sophisticated as it could be; constantly setting up great lead-ins and then lead-outs would often fall short. The three main characters divided up the chapters so that whoever the chapter was named after was to be the point of view that chapter was read from. At times, when I was reading certain events by one character, I wanted to hear it from the perspective of another one of the characters. I felt Thibault’s inner conflict was sometimes passed over for Elizabeth’s confusions, or speculations.

The book was highly enjoyable though. Just towards the end the characters felt very frustrating as some acted incredibly rash and unlike their previous personality profile; it almost felt as though I was reading a different book altogether. By the time the book finished,...