The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud

Title: The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud
Author: Ben Sherwood
Year Published: 2004

Pages: 277

Publisher: Picador
Price: Rp. 85.000 (Times Bookstore)

This is the first book and movie review for my personal project: I Saw It, I Read It.
I loovveeee Zac Efron. That's why, i chose to read and watch Charlie St. Cloud first. Hehe.

Charlie was 15 when the accident that took his younger brother's life happened. Sam was 12 at that time. It happened after Charlie illegally borrowed their neighbor's car and drove it to a baseball match.

The scene of the accident.. There was a truck behind Sam

Since the accident, Charlie was able to see spirits. Sam's spirit and also other spirits. He could talk and interact with them. Charlie, when he and Sam were in the in-between-world (Charlie were there for a few minutes before the paramedics shocked him to live again) made a promise that he wouldn't let Sam alone. So, every evening he would see Sam and playing catch a ball with him. If Charlie broke his promise and didn't meet Sam in the evening, Sam would slowly fade away and then disappear.


Charlie and Sam's spirit practicing base ball

 Thirteen years had passed and Charlie was working on a cemetery. He never left Marblehead because of Sam and the cemetery was the right place for him to stay because the meeting point of him and Sam was in the forest inside the cemetery area. One day, Charlie met Tess Carol, a famous female sailor, when she was visiting her father's grave and both quickly fell in love with each other. But then, coincidentally, Tess met Sam and able to see and talk to him, which means that Tess was also a spirit. Tess realized that she was also a spirit when she looked at the sea and couldn't find her reflection.

The scene where Tess found she was a spirit. In the movie, it was
when she looked at the store's glass

The news came that Tess' boat, Querencia, was lost in the sea during hurricane when Tess was sailing alone and they hadn't found Tess' body. Charlie believed that Tess was still alive and her body was waiting for someone to find her. Charlie then tried to find Tess' body and prove that the girl he loved was still alive, although that means that he couldn't be back to the cemetery on time to meet Sam. Was Tess already died? If she was still alive, would she remember Charlie, a guy whom she fell in love with when she was a spirit? Would Charlie sacrifice his brother for the girl he loved?


I LOOOOVE this book so much.
I love St Cloud brothers. I love Tess. And I love the story so much. It is so romantic and magical.
By reading the story, I can feel that Charlie still felt guilty for making his brother died. That's why he couldn't move on and let Sam crossover although actually Sam was feeling okay with it and ready to crossover at any time. But he chose to stay for his brother. I love how they loved each other. Really sweet.
Sam might be 12 and forever would be 12, but as a spirit, he also had a mature way of thinking. He didn't envy Tess because Charlie had fallen in love with her. In fact, he helped Tess to be with Charlie. And the ending... OMG!! I love what happened to Sam at the ending!!
I also love the chemistry of Tess and Charlie. I don't think that Tess was originally a romantic character. She was a tomboy and an adventurer. She's a risktaker. But when she met Charlie and suddenly felt connected with him.. Aaww... So sweet.
Well, this book is perfect in my opinion.

And now, talking about the movie.. Well.. Despite of Zac Efron whom I love so much (since I watched him on Hairspray), I have to say that the movie was very disappointing. So many differences with the book. So many characters that were different with the book. For example, Fabio Ferrente's character. He was a fireman who saved the St Cloud brothers. In the book, he was supposed to die on duty but in the movie, he was still alive when he met grown up Charlie and then died because of cancer. And then, Sam's character. In the book, he was a lovable young boy, very cheerful and love his brother so much but in the movie he became a spoiled and pushy little brother. Too childish. Charlie was also portrayed as a sailor before the accident happened in the movie while in the book, he was not. But I have to admit that the scenery was beautiful and i love the cemetery so much. It feels like in the botanical garden instead of cemetery. I also love that they didn't remove the geese scene in the movie because it was hillarious.

Overall, this is a nice book. It taught us that no matter what happened, it happened for a good reason and we have to keep moving on to be able to know what the good reason is.

VERY VERY RECOMMENDED!!