Maybe One Day: A Poignant YA Novel About a Teenager and Her Best Friend's Leukemia

I don't know what to say about this book except that it is beautifully tragic and amazingly well written. It's definitely sad and tragic but at the same time hopeful and beautiful. I loved the characters of Olvia and Zoe, though I did like Olivia more even though Zoe was kind of the main character. Their friendship is the soul mate kind, not that their IN LOVE but just they were made to be each others best friend and have been forever. This book is all about this friendship and it's ups and down as they face the truth that one of them may die. It's about Zoe trying to be there for her friend even when she herself feels hopeless or when things are looking bad, and Olivia wants to talk about death while Zoe wants to run and hide from it. It's about Zoe learning that there are people outside of the two of them that care about them, about her struggling to be a part of Olivia's family though she always was. About trying to stay together and be there for your friend when you want to fall apart, because they're more important to you than anything else. But also about Zoe learning to live for the both of them. I loved the dance classes and the history of them(Olivia and Zoe) dancing that kinda back dropped the whole thing. Although I felt that Zoe was kinda selfish at some points I did enjoy seeing her grow especially when it came to the dance classes and her realizing that it was okay to just dance for fun even though she might not become a professional and that it was okay for her to live even if Olivia might not. I actually wish that Olivia had been in the book a little more, she was in it a lot and I get that more than anything this book was not only about Olivia and Zoe but about Zoe without Olivia. But while we did get to know her character well I wanted more of them together, more moments like Zoe's birthday and the day when they shaved Olivia's hair off. Secondary character wise I really loved Jake, Olivia's brother, and I liked how Zoe and him seemed to lean on each other at some points and the scene at the party when they get drunk together was one of my favorites but again I wish we had gotten to see more of him, to really see how everything was affecting him and all that. Calvin was a good character I guess, but I didn't feel like the reader got to know him at all, like she hates him and you figure out that he's probably in love with her and she him, and then they make out and then the don't speak for like a month and she hates him, then she thinks she might like him, then she does like him and gets together with him once Olivia says it's okay and then she breaks up with him when Olivia starts to get worse and his kisses don't make her forget everything else anymore and then they're together? I think, I don't know. The whole thing seemed to me that it was just a distraction from Olivia's illness not that Zoe actually had real feelings for him, while you could tell that he actually did like her. But like the whole time their "together" it's just Zoe saying how when he kissed her for a minute she can forget about Olivia, and that's all, so to me it felt like more of a distraction than a real relationship. The book really was good though and the thing that mattered most, the friendship between Olivia and Zoe, was the best parts of the book, you really get to know them and see why their best friends and there are some really sad moments between them, really beautiful moments that make up for anything that could be wrong in this book. I feel that it is really realistic too, because I imagine that if someone I knew, someone I loved, was sick like Olivia I would have the same reaction as Zoe, where all of her thoughts and actions revolve around Olivia, where everything she does comes back to Olivia, I thought their relationship before and during Olivia's illness was all very realistic. Overall I really did love this book but I thought that all of the secondary characters were understated and that the book would have profited from it. I would recommend this to anyone who love YA contemporary and like books that will make you cry and of course if you loved Fault In Our Stars.

Oh my heart... the story of friendship & how that friendship looks when one of them gets a diagnosis of cancer. Having lost my best friend to cancer, this one was hard to read, but one I appreciated because it described feelings I had exactly. What I didn't like about it was just a personal thing - I hate how God was always the 'bad guy' & not really existing anyways to the girls... I was hoping there was going to be a different outcome by the end of the book because it was mentioned so much, but nope. Still believe God couldn't exist because of the tragedy of what happened. I thought that was sad not to offer any hope for young people who may read this.

What an emotionally heartfelt and heartbreaking book this turned out to be, full of so much emotion that the author has wrung out of this tragic story, as I was left ugly crying into the last few pages of this book. I have a love/hate relationship with these kinds of book, I end up so devastated at the end that I feel like I've lost that person as well, and the tragedy of having someone so young be the one diagnosed with cancer is so extremely saddening (not that it's any less sadder if it's an older person, but they've at least got to live a little, when you're sixteen there's not really a whole lot in life yet that you've had the chance to get to do). And always in books like this the heroine/ hero is left lamenting the things that they'll never, ever get a chance to do with their lives, thats when the tears start and I end up a sobbing mess. It also helps to have likeable characters, and you'll certainly find them in this story best-friends Zoe and Olivia, since they met when they were four they've been inseperable ever since, but after Olivia goes to the Doctor with flu-like symptoms and is diagnosed with cancer, we get to see the impact that this news will have on their friendship and their plans for the future. I'm tearing up writing this review just thinking about this book, it's hard to put into words how much this story affected me emotionally , it really made an impact, and I won't be forgetting this book anytime soon. I will definitely be keeping an eye out for other Melissa Kantor releases, her writing is beautifully done and she's a fantastic storyteller. Highly recommended for any contemporary fan.

One of the other reviewers of this book suggested that the comparisons between this book and John Green's The Fault in Our Stars were very unfair to Maybe One Day. Unfair because Green's book was simply better. The reviewer suggested reading Maybe One Day first in order to be able to judge it on it's own merits. I took the advice and read Maybe One Day first. I decided to wait to review it until I read Green's book. I was very moved by this book but expected to be completely blown away by The Fault in Our Stars. What actually happened was that I found myself to be much more invested in Zoe and Olivia's story. After reading both books it was the deep friendship between the two girls that stayed in my thoughts. Obviously my opinions are completely subjective and you really can't go wrong with either book. I just hope that this wonderful, thoughtful, well written book doesn't find itself completely over shadowed by a book that is widely considered one of the best books of 2012. Read this book, it's well worth your time and money!

Loved the book enough to read it all night. Didn't love the overall lack of hope - I thought it would get resolved in the end and peace would win out. Not so much. It's written for youth but there is a lot of cussing and some sexual content as well. For this reason I am withholding the recommend until my 11 and 12 year olds turn 18!

I bought this book on whim after my daughter stated how much she enjoyed reading the other book by Melissa Kantor 'Better Than Perfect'. It turned out that she really wanted the book and was extremely pleased. After reading, she told me the story line and I couldn't help but wonder if it was a bit morbid, but after hearing how much she loved the book, I read a few chapters and very nearly cried when Olivia dies. In all, I was very glad that this book encouraged my daughter to help with cancer foundations and recommend that younger people read the book so they can also be inspired.

Great book could not put it down