Maybe One Day

by Melissa Kantor

"Zoe thought that being cut from her ballet program was the worst thing that could happen, but when her best friend Olivia is diagnosed with a life-threatening disease, Zoe quickly learns that not being able to dance is the least of her problems"--

When Zoe's best friend Olivia is diagnosed with a life-threatening disease, Zoe quickly learns that not being able to dance is the least of her problems. The plot contains profanity, sexual situations.

• ISBN10: 0062279203
• ISBN13: 9780062279200
• Publish Date: 18 February 2014
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Imprint: Collins
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 400
• Language: English

Reviews

[Sam@WLABB]

Rating: 4.5 Stars

Several years ago, I started reading this book as I was wandering around a B&N. I always wanted to get my hands on a copy at some point, and I am glad I did.

This book was utterly heartbreaking, as books featuring children with cancer tend to be, but I guess I am grateful, that this wasn't her story. The story was told from the point of view of the best friend, Zoe, and I experienced all her pain, grief, and loss as she watched her lifelong best friend wage war with cancer. It was difficult at times to read this book, but then the friendship would come back into focus, and that really was the heart of this story. I cried many tears, but was thankful for the lovely ending Kantor gave me. It made me cry, but it also made me hopeful.

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[Angie]

Maybe One Day would have been much more enjoyable if it weren't for the narrator. I really just did not like Zoe, and would have preferred to have anyone else tell this story but her. Olivia, her best friend who is dying from cancer, would have been a great choice, and would have made for a stronger emotional connection. However, as it is, I couldn't connect with Zoe at all, and she's definitely not the type of person I would want to be around. I do enjoy unlikeable characters when they make sense, but she didn't. It was hard to care about her situation when every other thought she has was mean, dumb, or just nonsense.

I first suspected that Zoe was going to be a problem when she was told that Olivia has leukemia and her almost immediately reaction is "What's leukemia?" Seriously, she has no idea what it is other than it's deadly. I didn't expect her to know all of the details, but at 17 years old, at the very least she should know it's a type of cancer. Then after learning that it's cancer, she goes on this rant about the medical system and how cancer was cured but they prefer to give treatments that make the patients a different kind of sick while curing the cancer. Is she for real? I get that she was upset that her BFF is dying, and maybe said a few things that she didn't mean, but that did not seem like what was happening. Zoe is completely clueless.

There's also a bit of a focus on ballet in Maybe One Day. Zoe and Olivia had danced together their whole lives until recently. Olivia went on to teach a dance class at a rec center for underprivileged kids, but when she gets too sick, Zoe steps in for her. Zoe had cut ballet completely out her life, so she's a bit uncomfortable at first, but eventually settles into teaching these girls the basics. However, on more than one occasion, she has these interior monologues about how she can tell none of those girls would ever make it in a real dance academy, and that they're all horrible. She's totally missing the fact that those little girls are there to stay safe and out of trouble, and have something they enjoy doing for at least one day of the week. It may be their only opportunity to dance, rather than them trying to make it big. What in the world is her problem?!

Maybe One Day does have a bit of romance, but it's barely worth mentioning. However, the way it was presented did bother me. First of all, Calvin has zero personality since he doesn't get any page time. He goes from being an absolute asshole in Zoe's eyes to being the most amazing guy that she wants to be with. Their relationship only served as a way to make Zoe and Olivia fight, since Zoe lied about it to protect her dying friend's feelings. I did love that Olivia was upset because Zoe kept it from her out of pity rather than her wanting Calvin for herself. But Calvin was just a plot device that Zoe spent too much time obsessing over.

I wanted to like Maybe One Day more, but Zoe is just not a character I could bring myself to care about. This isn't really a bad book. There's a lot of good ideas here, but they're just ruined by a crappy main character. I also had a couple of concerns about how Olivia's treatment was presented in the beginning. I'm not sure, but I doubt anyone starts chemo minutes after getting their blood results. Shouldn't there be more discussions and paper work? Also, they kept referring to her chemo as "medicine" which made it sound very juvenile, but maybe that was for Zoe's benefit since she didn't know what leukemia was and chemo was probably too foreign a concept for her.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.

[Ashley]

Nose Graze — Young Adult book reviews

I almost didn't read Maybe One Day, and oh my god that would have been a massive mistake! I think my problem was that I like romance books, and this is not a romance; it's about friendship. Those kinds of books usually don't get me as excited as romances. Then I just woke up one day a few weeks later and was like, "Wait a minute.. this book sounds good!" So I downloaded it and read it. THANK GOODNESS FOR WEIRDLY IMPULSIVE THOUGHTS!!!

Maybe One Day has one of those best friend relationships that I'm always jealous of. The best friend you do everything with, the one you call about anything and everything, the one you share dreams with, the one who you visit so often that their house is your second home.. I want one of those friendships! I was so incredibly envious of Olivia and Zoe. Usually I don't get this obsessed over friendships (I save that for the romances!) but man, this one totally pulled me in! I wanted it for myself!

As I'm sure you can imagine, Maybe One Day is a definite tear-jerker. That's something you should expect from the synopsis alone, and it definitely pulls though. Towards the end it was a little awkward for me because I was reading in Starbucks but I felt like I wanted to start bawling so I kept trying to blink back tears, to the point where I was blinking so much that I could barely read! *BLINK BLINK BLINK* I will not cry I will not cry I will not cry *BLINK BLINK BLINK*

There are some things you worry about. And then there are some things you don't worry about. You don't worry about them because they're too awful to contemplate worrying about.

Even though a lot of Maybe One Day is just living day to day without tons of drama/excitement/twists/turns, I was never bored. In the context of the story, I really enjoyed the day-to-day set up of it. I think it worked really well for an illness, because that's definitely something you have to keep dealing with, and it keeps affecting you.

There is a tiny bit of a romance in Maybe One Day (as noted in the synopsis) but it's definitely not a focus. It's a side plot, and I'm really glad for that, because the friendship is what dominates this story and that's how it should be!

This book left me with so much to think about. There are a lot of messages about death, afterlife, God, dreams, and futures (or lack thereof). I think it touched on a really strong and emotional topic but without being cheesy or lame (especially about the afterlife parts). Seeing a teenager having to think about those things literally crushed my soul! Maybe One Day will leave you a broken, sobbing mess.

"We're not going to be dancers, but one day our lives are going to be amazing, Zoe. Totally amazing."

I don't know about you guys, but sometimes I love a good cry book. Maybe One Day is an excellent cry book, but it's also so much more than that! It will emotionally own you and I promise it will haunt your thoughts for weeks to come!

"Life is Long."
"Not always," I reminded her.