Maybe One Day - Melissa Kantor

Blurb

A person's whole life, she's lucky to have one or two real friends. Friends who are like family.

But when your best friend is diagnosed with a terminal illness, what happens next might not be what you expect. Through sixteen-year-old Zoe and her best friend Olivia, discover the bittersweet tragedy of a new 'normal'.

A heartbreaking story of two best friends facing the hardest future of all - a future without each other.

My Review

Firstly, yes, I did know what I was getting into when I picked up Maybe One Day and I did cry. A lot. Oh man, I sobbed. I don't even care. It's the way with cancer books or 'sick lit' or whatever you want to call it. There's just something I love about being thrust so totally into another person's life that I weep like it's really happening.

From the get go I fell in love with Zoe and Olivia. They're realistic and relatable and flawed and excellent. And so was their relationship. It mirrored that of a real friendship. They were best-friends-forever, of course, but they still bickered and argued and sometimes didn't totally understand each other just like in real life. But this just made it all the more heartbreaking for me. 

I loved Zoe, I really did. There were times where I felt she might annoy some readers but she was definitely on the same level as me. I found myself choosing what she chose and understanding her thought patterns and decisions. It probably helped that Maybe One Day was written in my favourite way, the way I myself write most of the time. First person, past tense. I just fell into it and lived there.

There were times when it got to real and I thought I might have to put it down. I didn't want to imagine myself in anything anywhere near this situation. Not a chance. But there was something morbidly fascinating that made me continue. The thing was, I couldn't make myself feel better by telling myself it wasn't real because these things do happen and are happening.

I cried in short bursts, little and often, contemplating how cruel life is the whole way through. Cancer stories from the point of view of someone not suffering from cancer have a whole different level. One I - and I think most people - relate to on a very primal, human level that makes us all sit and wonder that we're even here at all.

I just sat and read and read and read and read, hardly moving from the spot I was sitting in. 350 pages in a day, which was almost the entire thing. Yes, it's safe to say, I enjoyed it.

Evaluation

Overall 10/10

Would I recommend it? Yes, if you want a good cry.

Would I look up the author? Yes, but nothing took my fancy.

Maybe One Day was an easy, heartbreaking read I knew I'd love.

Molly Looby

Author / Ghostwriter / Editor / Blogger / Reviewer / Wrimo / Movellian / ZA Ready

molly.looby@hotmail.com