Review: One Day by David Nicholls

After years of listening to all the hype about this novel, when I came across a copy in my local library I was excited to see what all the fuss was about.  The basis of this novel is an intriguing one; what happens if you revisit two characters on the same day every year, beginning on the eve of their graduation. This plot device is a clever concept as it shows how much, or indeed how little, life can change in the space of a year. Twenty years are covered in the narrative, and the characters' lives are condensed into what are essentially a series of snapshots leaving readers to fill in the gaps as to what else has happened that year.  The narrative voice shifts between the first person perspective of both Emma and Dexter. This encourages the reader to become involved in their lives, to will Dexter to stop being an idiot and for Emma to get her act together.  You should be warned by the unconventional structure that this is in no way a typical romance, and the ending took me very much by surprise!  I had high expectations of this novel given it's rave reviews, and filling the inside cover with tweets praising the book only served to build it up even more. However I was left feeling a little disappointed; it was not what I was expecting at all, and the whole thing felt kind of flat. I had no empathy for either of the characters and I'm still cross about the ending. 3/5 stars: All in all the novel is a great concept, but it is a little too drawn out and the characters are difficult to warm to.