REMAIN by Nicholas Sparks and M Night Shyamalan

4* When a book has me crying, it's a sign of a good one.

I'm not a fan of NS, so this wasn't sure how his (gleaned from reviews) romantic style would mesh with MNS's paranormal-themed stuff. The answer is, pretty well, actually.

I knew going in that there wouldn't be a HEA unless Tate died/was killed/killed himself, and yes, the ending hurt, making me cry. But, it was the ending that Tate and Wren needed: for him to learn to live and embrace life, and for her to find peace in the afterlife. I was happy to suspend disbelief and not need everything dotted and crossed, because the tale was romantic in its tragedy.

Comeuppance was gotten, satisfyingly so in the case of one killer, and the other perhaps would end up suffering more because they lived. 

The tale deals with mental health, big time, as Tate has suffered for a long time, but it's done without preaching, with 'therapy' from both his late sister Sylvia, and Wren. The 'gift' that Tate inherits from Sylvia sounds as if it's going to be with him for life, stereotypical MNS with 'I see dead people'. And here, too, we have the latter's M.O. of appearing in his own productions, with Oscar being a bigged-up version of the son of immigrants done good. Kind of overblown but it also gave rise to the tale. 

Is this a re-read? Unfortunately not, decent as it was, as it's not truly a romance. A doomed one, yes, which isn't my kind of book. 

ARC courtesy of NetGalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK.

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