Book Review: One Day by David Nicholls

One Day by David Nicholls

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Review is also available on my site: https://roxannacross.com/2025/08/19/b...

Nicholl’s book, published June 15, 2010, with the audiobook released on July 13, 2010, is available on Amazon in paperback, hardcover, Kindle, or audiobook formats, as well as at your local library through the Libby App. The audiobook narrated by Anna Bentinck delivers the author’s vision of a romance spanning over twenty years between two unlikely characters: Emma Morley and Dexter Mayhew, with great zeal. She captures the characters’ essences and brings them to life, making the listeners wonder why these two even like each other.

The book starts on July 15, 1988. Emma and Dexter are lying in bed, talking, kissing, and arguing about the future, as this is their graduation night and a one-night stand that goes completely wrong. The two strangers who met at a party to hook up don’t do, but they spend a night together nonetheless, and Dexter is thinking of leaving the moment Emma falls asleep, while she’s nervous thinking he might be ‘the one’.

Nicholl’s goes to great effort to show readers and listeners that Emma is a political activist who wants to change the world around her, that she’s bright and has goals for her future. So, why would he make her think such a daft thing after only a few hours? On the other hand, it is easy for the audience to imagine Dexter walking away without looking back; he’s the wealthy, egocentric playboy who worries too much about what people think of him.

The book continues to give readers and listeners a glimpse of Emma and Dexter’s lives every July 15, year after year. Snapshots, like journal entries, and the more we get to know them, the more we have to wonder what they have in common and why they’re even friends. Dexter is traveling the world, sleeping with random women, while Emma is working on D-grade plays, pining for him, writing ten-page letters, and receiving one-word postcards in return. As for their personalities their not likable individuals, Dexter and alcoholic and drug addict and Emma is whiny, insecure, and loves to feels sorry for herself because her life is always a mess, which she does not much effort to try to fix, the only time she seems happy is when she’s fighting for a cause or when she shove’s her taste for good literature like Dostovyesky down Dexter’s throat.

On July 15, 1994, there’s a moment when Emma stands her ground, and finally, we think her pinning is over when she says, “Dexter, I love you so much, so, so much, and I probably always will, I just don’t like you anymore.” Alas, Nicholl’s finds a way to pull Emma back in and drawing her back to Dexter and year after year we get more of the same glimpses into their lives, until finally he puts us out of the misery and makes them come together as a couple, get married and for what to kill of Emma and make Dexter spiral down back into alcohol and drugs. After twenty years, what a cheap way to end this nonsensical romance. Perhaps Nicholl didn’t know any other way to get himself out of his creation, which should have ended in 1994 when Emma walked away.

Nicholl’s idea of giving the audience a story one day at a time over the years is great in theory, and the structure of making each year a chapter works; however, the unlikable characters and the implausibility of the friendship-romance between them are where he loses credibility. Furthermore, the ending is a rip-off of City of Angels, and Emma and Dexter are not likable enough for readers or listeners to care to have that gut-punch effect Nicholl’s was going for. All in all, this is a 2-star read or listen.



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