Review: Remain - Nicholas Sparks and M. Night Shyamalan

Review: Remain - Nicholas Sparks and M. Night Shyamalan - October 2025

I'll admit it when I heard Nicholas Sparks and M. Night Shyamalan were collaborating on a book, my inner teenage self did a little happy dance. I grew up devouring Sparks' tearjerkers (yes, I ugly-cried through A Walk to Remember), and I'm absolutely obsessed with Shyamalan's deliciously twisted films. The idea of combining Sparks' emotional gut-punches with Shyamalan's mind-bending reveals? Sounds great right,  Or so I thought.

Remain had so much potential, but ultimately landed somewhere in the middle for me a solid, average read that never quite reached the heights I'd hoped for.

The story opens with Tate watching his sister Sylvia die, but not before she does something completely bizarre: she breathes into his mouth. Gross? Yes. Weird? Absolutely. But this is how Tate inherits the ability to see ghosts, which naturally sends him spiraling into a mental breakdown. After some time in a psych ward (as one does), he escapes to Cape Cod to design a house for friends and clear his head.

Enter Wren, the mysterious woman running the B&B where Tate's staying. And here's where the Shyamalan twist comes in Wren's true identity is the book's big reveal, and I'll admit, it got me. I didn't see it coming, which is exactly what you want from an M. Night collaboration.

But here's my issue: this felt overwhelmingly like a Nicholas Sparks novel with only faint whispers of Shyamalan sprinkled throughout. The pacing dragged in places, bogged down by lengthy romantic introspection that felt more The Best of Me than The Sixth Sense. I wanted more weirdness, more atmospheric tension, more of that signature Shyamalan unease.

That said, the ghost-seeing romance gave me serious nostalgia vibes specifically Meg Cabot's Mediator series (not The Princess Diaries, but the one with hunky ghost Jesse!) mixed with Darynda Jones' Charley Davidson books. If you loved those, you'll probably enjoy this.

The silver lining? Jake Gyllenhaal is set to play Tate in the 2026 film adaptation, and honestly, that casting alone has me more excited than the book did. Sometimes the movie really is better than the book.

Final verdict: Worth a read if you're a Nicholas Sparks completist or love paranormal romance, but don't expect equal parts of both authors' genius.

Amazon: https://amzn.to/4iRvV2E