One Day: Now a major Netflix series

The story is quite engaging, with each chapter focusing on the same day of the year and it showcasing where the two main characters, Dexter and Emma, are at their points in life. What they're doing and how they change as time goes on. We see them weave in and out of each other's lives while also seeing how the two of them still have such an impact on each other as the years goes on. It's quite clear that they both deeply care for each other, but they're both at different points in their lives. They both go through quite a few hurdles before finally getting together. That being said, when they do get together, it is satisfying. Dexter is a very complex mess of a character. We get to see what he's like in his twenties and all the ups and downs he goes through, both personally and professionally. There were definitely times when you would question what he was doing sometimes, and the decisions he was making. He does eventually sort his life out and get a form of stability, but it is quite a slow burn. Emma, on the other hand, is the complete opposite. She's someone who just wants to get by in life. She goes through different jobs and experiences different relationships over the years, and none of them seem to satisfy her. Then, eventually, she settles on becoming a successful writer and, like Dexter, even gets some stability in her life. Finally. The last chapter of the book, where it goes back to 1988, was quite heartwarming. The ending to this story I found to be quite bittersweet. The Netflix adaptation I also thought was brilliant. It was a really satisfactory adaptation of the book. The main actors were really great and did an excellent job at portraying these two characters. I do think a couple of episodes could've been longer, and they could've added 2-3 more episodes to really flesh out certain parts of the book. That being said, I really enjoyed reading this book and watching the series. It's certainly up there next to Normal People in terms of love stories and book adaptations.

I bought this book a while back and only just got round to reading it. My daughter having watched the series had already told me what happens but it didn’t spoil my enjoyment in anyway. Emma and Dexter meet at university and over the years their lives are still in some way entwined. I felt sorry for Emma as she is obviously in love with Dex. She has dreams of being a writer and is passionate about so many things in life. Dex on the other hand is a total player. He is handsome, self-centred and thinks life is just one big party. Even then, I could still see the attraction. He is like a little lost boy and I just wanted to mother him. Over the years the pair struggle with real life and their careers. They are almost like passing ships in the night, meeting up every so often or talking over the phone. There is a definite bond there and it was heartwarming to see. I did get frustrated with Dex at times as his life spirals downwards and wanted to give him a good shake. It does have you thinking will they ever get together but in life, sometimes you have to wait for that one person to grow up before you can think of a relationship. One Day was a story that embraced me. It’s a reminder of being young and holding a torch for someone. It covers different topics such as addiction, affairs, un-requited love amongst others. It will certainly pull on the heart strings. It’s very much a bitter sweet read that has a sense of nostalgia to it. This is actually my first book by the author and certainly won’t be my last. Highly compelling!

There is nothing I can say about One Day that hasn't already been mentioned in reviews here. All I can say is that this is a truly moving book that focuses on two lost souls, Em and Dex, over 20 years of their lives after we first meet them at their graduation in 1988. Each chapter is the same day each year so we are treated to a trip down memory lane from 1988 to 2007 and I thought that this was a very clever way to tell the story of their lives. Em is bookish, outwardly controlled but inwardly lost and uncertain about where her life is taking her. Dex is cocky, shallow and arrogant. They appear to be the antithesis of one another but are drawn together and we see how their lives evolve over the next 20 years. Dex could have been a potentially odious character but he is so well written by Nicholls, that even at his worst you just feel immense sadness and pity for him. I loved One Day. It is a truly moving and captivating read. (I sat teary eyed and reflective after finishing it). It is over 400 pages long but only took me just over a week to read all of it. There is hardly anything about this book that I would alter, apart from the ending and once you read it, perhaps you will feel the same way. I must say that I am quite taken aback at some of the negative comments about the book. Yes, everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I found it surprising to read that the characters were unlikeable. Yes, they were flawed and jaded but to me, this is what made the essence of the story even more poignant - You can go through a lot your life trying to impress others whilst ultimately trying to work out who you are when the path of life kind of answers your questions for you. Apologies if you find this a bit too deep but I personally think that One Day is the sort of book that stays with you long after you finish reading it. Anyway, enjoy the book if you choose to buy it.

Dexter and Emma meet on July 15th 1988 on the night of their graduation, young and wondering what the future holds... well, Emma is at least. Dexter would like to stay exactly the way he is now. It's within the first few pages of this book that you are drawn into these 2 characters who seem just like any other 2 students about to go into the big wide world. Dexter is wanting to slip away and make excuses however, despite himself, he doesn't and the next thing you notice is it's a new chapter and the date at the top proclaims it's a whole year later on the same day and we're reading about the same 2 characters and just what has happened since that one day in 1988. The book is set over 20 years and goes by too quickly, just like real life, and everything feels like it's been left too late. Emma and Dexter are so life like and jump right out of the book at you. I wrongly assumed this book would be about 2 people in love and following their lives, this is so very wrong and for the most part of the book you never want them to actually get together, Dexter is too undeserving of Emma. However she hangs onto him, even if just as a friend, and I constantly waited for Dexter to 'brush up' his act and for them to get together, but each new chapter and each new year sees them growing closer apart. I found this book so true to life right until the very end. I read this book in only a matter of days, it's one of those books you think about during the day and simply can't wait to get back into. Despite having finished the book I'm still thinking about Dexter and Emma and that's really got to say something about the quality of this book. This book made me laugh and actually cry, the only book to make me cry since The Time Traveler's Wife! This book is not one to be missed, buy it or borrow it, I am certain that the thoughts of Dex and Em won't leave your mind for days after you have turned that last page.

For a long time I put off reading One Day as I was less than captivated by my brief `Look Inside'. Eventually though I succumbed and read it to see what all the fuss was about. While I can appreciate its strong points, I didn't like it as much as so many other reviewers did. It is well written, from a modern point of view, the characters are strongly drawn, and the dialogue natural. The idea - tracing the lives of two people who come together on their last night at university, through that same date for the next twenty years - is a neat device for relating their respective stories, similar to that used in the '70s play Same Time Next Year, but very differently executed. Somehow though I couldn't warm to the characters. I could see no reason why Emma, who eventually begins to make something of her life, wasted so many years pining after Dexter. Good-looking he may have been, but otherwise he seems to lack any sense of decency or responsibility. He drinks too much, takes drugs, and generally leads a life of reckless profligacy. I had little sympathy for him, and much sympathy with his poor father, to whom he must have been a bitter disappointment. In any other context Dexter's father would have seemed stuffy and snobbish. Until an older friend who is ultra-conservative with a small and a capital c thought the book very good, I had assumed it was the generation difference that made Emma and Dexter's value systems seem so far removed from my own. That I had to keep reading to the end despite my alienation says much about the skill of the author in creating a compelling read. For this reason it is probable worth giving it a try, especially since most reviewers seem to have found it far more rewarding than I did.

WOW, WOW, WOW, this is one of the best books I have ever read! It is unbelievable. I was thinking of reading this book for a whlile before I did and in a way I'm actually glad I waiting, it mean't I didn't have to finish it as soon! It was one of those books that makes you feel sad to be finishing and it very quickly became one of my favourite books. The two main characters, Emma and Dexter have just graduated in 1988 from university and wonder what the future holds and the paths that their lives may take. After four years of university and an infatuation with the handsome Dexter Mayhew, Emma Morley finally has a chance to be alone with him. But all does not go according to plan; Emma having bottled up her true feelings for Dexter for too long. With a large amount of optimism and a dream to do something that will change the world, Emma speaks of a passion and a dream to be involved in the creative arts; whilst Dexter, it seems, will meander through life, travelling and never really settling. Nicholls charts Emma and Dexter’s lives over the next twenty years, each chapter being set on the same day: 15th July – the date of their graduation, with a different year for each chapter. Emma’s initial hopes of changing the world by theatre or writing seem to fizzle out into a string of dead end jobs, whereby Emma becomes the one searching for her path in life. Meanwhile Dexter, who at first appeared to be vague about his future, seems to have things more in order in his life. The book has its darker moments of; death, alcohol abuse, drug problems and sordid love affairs, but these seem to weave into the tapestry of Emma and Dexter’s lives. When Dexter falls from grace, it is always Emma that he turns to first and for a time this is how their friendship functions. Nicholls captures a sense of harsh realism here, yet these problems are subtle suggestions rather than explicitly described. At first the book seemed to be a classic case of ‘will they, won’t they’ get together and a series of missed opportunities; but as I read on I soon came to realise that it was much more. Nicholls possesses the geniality of capturing a mere snapshot of a whole year in someone’s life in just One Day. Yet as you read on, the characters in the novel become two people that you know as well as you would know your friends, after all you are following there lives for 20 years. It is a coming of age story, but one that is set over a much longer period of time. Without giving too much away, the ending is quite surprising – well at least it was to me! It was somewhat disappointing, due to the readers’ connection with the characters that has been established by the end. The novel itself however speaks so clearly of two interwoven lives that set out from university, fresh with ideas of an optimistic future and find that life is not always all you had hoped for. If you haven't read this yet I just have one question for you, why not? No matter what kind of book you usually read I would highly recommend reading this. I don't know why anybody wouldn't enjoy this.

Like many others I read this because of the hype around the Netflix series; it seemed unavoidable. I would need to watch it or be left out of too many conversations; I dislike watching something based on a book without first seeing the source material. So I had to read it. I struggled through the first half which felt like that well worn RomCom yarn. Boy meets girl, they are in denial that they are in love, their individual fortunes wax and wane in perfect asymmetry, they each experience failed relationships in a sequence that ensures they are never both single at the same time, at times they are either each other's best friends or the unspoken tension between them blows them apart. And it is witty, not LOL funny but a nice understated cynical wit mostly spoken in a Yorkshire accent, which worked well for me and probably the main thing that kept me going through the first half. But it all seems to march slowly towards that inevitable conclusion that they will be together at the end… Well that isn’t quite what happens, it wobbles significantly from the standard story (no spoilers if you are interested read it yourself). The most obvious first difference from the standard is that it is spread out over a long time and told through the events of a single day each year. This does give the story from the start an edge, the frustration of their situation hurts more as it just takes so long and you need to do some work filling in the gaps. However the big difference from the standard comes after halfway through when it goes too dark for a light hearted read. One of the protagonist’s life takes a very uncomfortable downward spiral. And then there is the end… No spoilers, other than it is very good. For me it misses 5 stars because the first half just annoyed me. By halfway I had my 2-star review headed “over hyped RomCom” (no question mark) ready in my mind. This may be unfair as that distinct change in tone is one of the qualities but overall a book needs to be sensational to get 5 stars, for me this was merely very good. I have now seen the series and it does the book justice, the body language of the protagonists is exceptional (although I think they needed to make Dex physically age more). Very glad I read it first.

I have finished this book today after starting it on Friday evening, (and due to this book having resentfully) to attend work and various family functions, and now it is early Sunday evening. This afternoon, having a rare uninterrupted day (considering since starting on this short review, I have already been called away twice), I completed the book. Now I am in a strange form of mourning, I have lost two characters that I felt I had come to know and have not felt this sort of a lull since reading Wuthering Heights as a dramatic angst ridden 14 year old. Though this was different as it felt akin to finding two people you instantly clicked with, and the honesty of human relationships. I knew their minds, I cringed with Emma at times and found she had my own annoying habit of scolding herself after saying certain things and that true honesty was there. It sat so well as I am a generation younger than the female protagonist yet I identified, and there was the social commentary that made it impossible not to place these two individuals within any area of Britain and not instantly know someone like them. It is fast paced, it is a terrific idea and it has wonderful humour. The stubborn feminist in me didn't want to admit a male writer knew women so well, I am a former literature student and a bit of a snob in literature and I wanted to find holes in this, as I wanted to cling on to the idiom that all the truly good writers are dead and until a few minutes ago I would have given perhaps a negative review of one element of the book, and then in reading the negative reviews of not being able to identify with the character realised that i was upset as I felt that I had got to know the characters too well and let them effect me. This is truly the best novel of 2010 and I have gone through quite a few this year picking holes in the most of them. I believe that this one sits above the Larsson triology in so many ways - it is intelligent, it is charming and it will draw you in. It does baffle me how people can not identify with such truthful, real characters such as Emma and Dexter but instantly feel akin to a dragon tattooed, psychopath and playboy financial journalist whilst they fit in solving family history around countless cups of coffee and sandwiches in another 'bestseller of the year'