Suspense: Nicholas Sparks Style

   In The Last Song Nicholas Sparks builds suspense by foreshadowing events to come. He will put in a sentence or two that will be a little out of place in the story line and make me wonder why the sentence is relevant to what is going on in the chapter. For example, at the end of one of the chapters he talks about how Blaze had to make fireballs for Marcus. Blaze and Marcus are dating and to make a living, Marcus rolls t-shirts into balls and then lights them on fire. During a performance, he will juggle the balls, kick them, and throw them without burning his hands or catching anything else on fire. Blaze and Marcus are ring leaders of a rough crowd, barley surviving and making extra money by stealing. Marcus has always been fascinated by fire and the way it rips through things with so much power and energy.  The last sentence in that chapter said that Blaze didn't realize she was dripping lighter fluid onto the shirt she would wear for the performance later that night. I was wondering why that detail would be put in and inferred that there was a good chance Blaze would catch on fire during the performance.

   Another way Nicholas Sparks builds suspense is by having different people narrate different chapters. Most of the chapters end at a dramatic point in the story, but instead of continuing on in the very next chapter, a different character narrates the next chapter and you have to read two or three more chapters until you pick up the where the previous chapter left off. Ronnie's, the main character, and Will's, her love interest, stories intertwine pretty easily. When Ronnie's dad tells the story his chapters may be every fifth chapter, so you are left waiting to see where his story picks up. This left me trying to guess what was going to happen at the end of each chapter, and made me almost have to keep reading to figure out what was going to happen.

   Both ways of building suspense are cliff hangers and make this book very desirable to read. I read the book in one day because I couldn't put it down. If a book doesn't have any suspense in it, it will not be exciting and no one will read it. Suspense is what makes a book catch you on the edge of your seat and keeps you living in the story. It helps you connect with the characters and creates plot twists. There is no story with out suspense. What other kinds of suspense have you seen in your books?