Zoe and her best friend, Olivia, have always had big plans for the future, none of which included Olivia getting sick. Still, Zoe is determined to put on a brave face and be positive for her friend.
Even when she isn’t sure what to say.
Even when Olivia misses months of school.
Even when Zoe starts falling for Calvin, Olivia’s crush.
The one thing that keeps Zoe moving forward is knowing that Olivia will beat this, and everything will go back to the way it was before. It has to. Because the alternative is too terrifying for her to even imagine.
Jaime’s Thoughts
Maybe One Day by Melissa Kantor
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Where do I even start. I don’t cry when I read books – I just don’t. I may feel sad and all melancholy for a bit, but I can count on one hand how many books I’ve read where tears were involved. This is now one of them. If you go into this book expecting it to be a book about cancer, well it’s not…not really. At least it wasn’t for me. Instead, it’s about friendship, it’s about love, it’s about sisterhood and it’s about growing up and dealing with the shitty things that life sends your way. Cancer just happens to be one of those shitty things.
Olivia and Zoe have been best friends since the day Olivia asked for help with a barrette before a dance recital. Thirteen years of growing up together, having each other’s backs and basically becoming sisters have passed. So when Olivia gets a diagnosis that rocks their world, Zoe is determined to be there for her with positivity and support.
It’s hard not to take a book like this personally…to turn page after page and not feel every emotion that these characters are going through because almost all of us know someone who has been affected by cancer. What I found unique about this story was that we see everything from Zoe’s point of view. We see her dealing with and watching her friend be ravaged by something that she can’t do a single thing about, and that has to be one of the hardest things to accept.
What I loved the most about this story was that the bare bones of it, despite everything going on around these characters, is about friendship and how amazing it can be. And how rare is it that we see a YA book that hones in on that instead romance these days. It’s lovely to see a book that focuses on positive relationships and shows us characters who love each other unconditionally, yeah they may get mad at each other, but at the end of the day that doesn’t change their love for each other. It was also amazing to see the support system for these girls. Not only their parents, because they were a big part of it, but the other girls at school. Zoe never really formed that true friendship connection with many other girls but regardless, there wasn’t a mean girl in the bunch, which in itself was refreshing to see. Mia and Stacey and even Emma while secondary characters to the main friendship were absolutely a positive addition to the story, and I especially loved Mia’s tenacity and determination to not let Zoe push her away permanently.
I mentioned the parents above, and I have to say they were wonderfully done here. Zoe’s parents in that they offered Zoe someone to share her frustrations and disappointments with and yet they still were able to give her some good advice “It’s a marathon, not a sprint.” that we saw her use later on. We also got to see quite a bit of Olivia’s parents… the effect from Zoe’s point of view that the illness was having on them, not only as a family, but as a couple. The stress it was having on their relationship and the different thoughts on how best to care for Olivia seen from Zoe’s eyes was enlightening.
And yes, there was a teeny tiny bit of a romance… and I’m not even sure I would call it that, but I have to say that I loved how patient and understanding Calvin was with Zoe. At times she may have been using him as an outlet to forget all the bad things going on, but I have to commend the maturity that he was written with, because despite Zoe being all over the place emotionally, he never really gives up on her and if it came down to it, he would and will be there for her in a heartbeat when she needs him. And I think Kantor uses that to show us that life goes on, the world continues to spin and things continue to happen even though all we may want to do is freeze time and stop to cherish everything we’ve had, I just wish that she had pushed herself to let Calvin in a bit more. However, we would have missed Zoe’s character growth had she done that… her realizations that there is hope for some happiness and a future and it’s okay to lean on others when you need to are wonderful to see.
If you love raw, emotional, realistic coming of age stories I can’t stress enough that you need to pick this book up. The writing is wonderfully done, the story flows naturally and at a wonderful pace and you will be incredibly moved by this friendship and the relationships Kantor has created within. Maybe One Day is a sad but beautiful story that I’m positive will be on my top reads of 2014 list when the end of the year rolls around.
Thank you to Harpercollins/Harperteen for the advance copy in exchange for my honest thoughts.
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