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The Reason I Picked Up the Book, April 14, 2011
This was the first Nicholas Sparks' book I read and I had seen only one of his movies so far(Dear John.) With research I learned Sparks is known as a romance writer and in this book he chose to write about the the darkest side of an unhealthy relationship: abuse, power and control.
Working in the field where related websites warn and inform the public with checklists of "Are you in an abusive relationship?" I love that nothing in the book refers to the subject. There is nothing on the jacket cover or anywhere in the book's summary. I don't know if that was done on purpose or if Sparks' marketing team thought that would chase fans away learning the book focuses on a subject that others "can't relate to."
I digress.
As a survivor now working with victims and understanding how "up and coming" awareness of the subject of Domestic Violence (emotional, physical, mental, psychological, financial, etc.) is, I admit I began reading the book with an "OK, Sparks, show us what you've got!" mentality. What he, in fact, "got" was the characteristics of a woman in fear of her abusive relationship: the hyper vigilance, the oppression, the low self esteem, the need to please her abuser (in this case, her husband) and her eventual need to fly away from a squashed freedom.
And so the story begins with an independent quiet young woman who calls herself Katie who shows up in a small town in North Carolina and starts life over. She moves into a quiet cottage on a dead end gravel road, takes a job as a waitress, fixes up her home, shops at a local market and meets the owner: a widower just a few years older than she. He's got two young children who lost their mother and bring out Katie's sympathy and own mothering instincts. The storeowner and Katie (wfose real name is Erin) eventually fall in love and the "wrench" is thrown in where Erin's husband, a detective, eventually does learn that his wife had used a fake ID to start her life over and just when things start to feel comfortable for Katie, just as she begins to believe she has managed to leave behind her old tragic life he finds her and tries to destroy the happiness and freedom she has created.
(***Please note: In my opinion, Sparks portrays (an unusually) strong victim in my opinion who does not seek out the services of an agency, and somehow she figures out how to leave on her own. I think this example could have benefited more victims and survivors reading this book, because sometimes we tend to internalize what we read. Sparks did capture the fact that it often takes victims much more than once to leave for good, he does show the protagonist flashing back to other times when she did try to leave and how unsuccessful she was.)
The author did a great job of painting Katie's (Erin's) husband to be a psychopath, completely justifying his lies and abusive actions before and after his wife left. This makes the villain completely hated! (Of course not all abusers are psychopaths.)
In Sparks' story, which has also sold the story rights to filmmakers to follow the fate of all his other books:) he's created a villain whose thought processes and actions instill enough fear in the reader to keep those pages turning as readers root for Katie and the safety of those she now loves.
Safe Haven features a supernatural twist at the end. I think it ties the story together nicely since the reader does eventually root for these co-protagonists of the novel to find family in each other since they have each been displaced in different ways.
The supernatural twist might also be a subtle nod from the author that the impossible and unbelievable can be achieved if we desire it enough. Still, Sparks' may be giving an example since Katie is forced to start over far away from her original home, the fact that over 50% of homeless women in the US are fleeing a violent relationship.
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