Remain by Nicholas Sparks and M. Night Shyamalan
Nicholas Sparks has long been known for crafting deeply emotional stories of love, loss and the ties that bind us. With Remain, co-written with M. Night Shyamalan, Sparks steps into unfamiliar territory, blending his signature emotional depth with subtle supernatural suspense. The result is a novel that challenges expectations, combining romance, grief and eerie tension in a way that feels both intimate and unsettling.
The story follows Tate Donovan, a New York architect struggling with depression and the lingering pain of personal loss. Seeking a fresh start, he retreats to a remote bed-and-breakfast in Cape Cod. There he meets Wren, a mysterious woman whose presence is both comforting and disquieting.
As their connection deepens, Tate begins to experience events that blur the boundaries between the living and the spectral. Memories, emotions and the unknown intertwine, leading him to confront questions about love, mortality and the traces we leave behind. All while he strives to uncover the truth behind Wren’s past.
Masters of Heart and Psychological Suspense
Sparks has described Remain as a horror story, a label that might surprise longtime fans. While the novel contains eerie and suspenseful elements, it is far from traditional horror. The tension is psychological, not visceral, and the scares emerge from emotional uncertainty and haunting presences rather than gore or shock.
It is here that M. Night Shyamalan’s influence and expertise become most apparent. Sparks leverages Shyamalan’s mastery of layered suspense to craft a narrative in which unease builds gradually. Readers sense that something is not quite right, even as the emotional core of the story remains grounded in human connection and heartbreak. The supernatural elements are carefully balanced with romance and reflection, making the story eerie without overshadowing its emotional weight.
The partnership between Sparks and Shyamalan is evident in the novel’s pacing and structure. Sparks’s intimate character work provides the emotional anchor, giving readers a reason to care deeply about Tate and Wren. Shyamalan’s influence is seen in the meticulous layering of tension, the subtle foreshadowing and the moments of revelation that feel both surprising and inevitable.
The story moves like a quiet suspense film, with the uncanny woven seamlessly into the ordinary. Fans of both authors will recognize their strengths: Sparks’s ability to evoke empathy and Shyamalan’s skill in creating unease that lingers long after the page is turned.
A Story as Tense as It Is Tender
Thematically, Remain is as much about what we hold onto as it is about what we must release. It explores grief and love in tandem, showing how the past continues to shape us and how human connections can endure beyond conventional understanding. The novel’s supernatural framing amplifies these questions, using the unknown to deepen the emotional stakes. Tate and Wren’s story becomes a meditation on loss, forgiveness and the fragile, haunting beauty of love that remains even when the world feels uncertain.
Sparks’s prose retains the clarity and accessibility his readers expect, yet it is elevated here by a deliberate sense of suspense. Small details — the quiet creak of a floorboard, a fleeting shadow, a sudden realization — build a sense of unease while keeping the focus on the characters’ emotional journeys.
By the final chapters, the story’s tension and tenderness converge, leaving the reader with the lingering sense that love can survive even the eeriest of trials, and that sometimes what remains is more profound than what is lost.
Ultimately, Remain is a novel that defies easy categorization. It is romantic and reflective, eerie and thrilling, grounded in human emotion yet touched by the supernatural. Sparks and Shyamalan have crafted a collaboration that invites readers to feel deeply while questioning the boundaries between life and what lies beyond.
In the end, the novel lives up to its title: love, memory, and connection endure. They remain.
About the Authors:
Nicholas Sparks is the author of 25 books, including Counting Miracles and Dreamland, all of which have been New York Times bestsellers. His books have been published across more than 50 languages with over 150 million copies sold worldwide, and eleven have been adapted into films. He is also the founder of the Nicholas Sparks Foundation, a nonprofit committed to improving cultural and international understanding through global education experiences. He lives in North Carolina.
M. Night Shyamalan is an internationally acclaimed director, screenwriter and actor who has written and produced films such as The Sixth Sense, Signs and Trap. His movies have grossed over $3.3 billion globally, and he’s best known for creating psychological thrillers with supernatural themes. He is the founder of the film and television production company Blinding Edge Pictures. Shyamalan lives in Pennsylvania.
