One day?

[beguilingeyes]

Is it just me? did anyone else hate this book? I've read it twice now and really didn't like it very much.
SPOILER ALERT
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He's horrible to her all her life and then we're supposed to feel sorry for him?

I was and do remain baffled by its popularity.

I read it years ago, can't really remember it, tried to watch it on Netflix and gave up, don't understand the hype.

I hated it too. I don't understand its popularity and won't be watching it on Netflix. I couldn't get through the previous film, either.

I've not read it but I did watch the film years ago and I remember nothing other than Anne Hathaway getting knocked off her bike.

I searched for One Day and only this thread came up. I've been listening to Zoe Ball's breakfast show and people are phoning in sobbing about the Netflix series "I'm a broken woman", "whatever you do don't watch it you'll need help", "I needed to call my friend for support" I mean what's wrong with some people? Is it attention seeking or feeling a need to be part of something collectively?

I didn't like it, certainly not one I'd waste time re-reading or watching dramatised.

I remember it being the only book I've ever thrown at a wall on finishing it.

I love it. Book, film and series.

I didn't like the book, I'm not even sure I finished it which would be very unusual for me. I loved the recent series.

I really feel like I should read it again now just to remember it!
I think it was a good book but can't really remember any more detail! It must have been years ago I read it!

I prefer Versions of Us

That was excellent.

I totally get your point but I think it has aged and that Dexter was participating in the lad culture of the day, the lad culture that everyone, including the women, just accepted. So it’s not aged well perhaps. But I loved it as I grew up in the same era and really identified with Emma.

I read it through to the bitter end, then gave it to a charity shop for some other poor sap to suffer it. I'm not one to give away books lightly; I need to be really really sure I won't pick it up again in 20 years' time first. It's put me off even looking at any subsequent novels.

I don’t think you would like the book if you were not their age. The whole 90s thing is really significant. The way young people were in the 90s was just like this. Lots of friends with benefits type stuff and an innocence before phones etc. unless you find your own story in between the pages somewhere then I admit it would be a pretty banal book and agree the ending sucks. But it does have merit just for nostalgia.

Yes I didn't understand all the hype with it either. I tried it once and thought it was very sloppily written, there were details that didn't tie up. Like the age of Dexter's mum in relation to his sister. If the author can't be bothered I definitely can't! Maybe he's become a bit complacent due to success.

I think I've quite liked other things he's written though.

Then with the film all I remember is Anne Hathaway's wavering accent. Things like that can throw you out of the story.

Don't watch the new Mandy Patinkin crime thing then...we spent the whole first episode trying to work out what the accent was supposed to be (British).

Agreed. I love it in all formats, but then fictional Emma and Dexter graduated 4 years before me. I totally relate to the music, fashions, lifestyles etc.

I didn't love the book either. I found both Dexter and Emma more irritating than endearing on the page, and so The Event left no mark in me whatsoever. I caught the first twenty minutes of the film one evening and it didn't improve matters.

I have however just watched the netflix adaptation and thought it was alright. Dexter is still dickish, but as other Mumsnet threads on the show demonstrate, the world is very forgiving towards rich pretty boys. I thought netflix Emma however was more nuanced, and her growth was better defined. Still not amazing, but good enough.

I'm almost precisely the age of Dexter and Emma, and it was still a big old no from me.

Read it on holday years ago, I loved it even though I was years older than the protagonists. Never thought Anne Hathaway was right, so didn't see the film, and not sure whether I want to see the series as I've heard mixed reviews.

I've not read the book but have seen the end of the film and that ending is shit, the wrong person dies. If Emma had lived then while I still wouldn't have read the book I might well have watched the film. But woman screwed over romanctically by shit man is a story we do not need a other version of, and definitely not as a 'tragic' romance aimed at women. See also Benjamin Button, Time Traveller's Wife, and Captain Corelli's Mandolin.

I enjoyed the book, but the commercial success still confounds me. His best one is Starter for Ten. I thought the film of One Day was generally enjoyable and the more successful of the two adaptations, if a bit rushed. The casting of Emma in the Netflix TV series was a bit shit - she's all wrong for the part.

I thought the book was ok, but nothing special.
His basic message is the Emma makes Dexter a better person and he kind of bashes that message home quite a lot in the latter part of the book.

I preferred the film. I thought it worked better as a film. Haven't watched the TV series yet.

I am struggling a bit with the Netflix series and hated Anne Hathaway in the film. I didn’t like the ending as wonder why women have to die (so they don’t get old and ugly?).

I do quite like this Emma though (Netflix). I’m on episode 10 and may leave it here as don’t want to deal with the end.

I’ve just watched it and am furious at the crap ending. What was the point of all the years of yearning only for them to get a year or so together and then poof, she’s run over.

Death is an over used trope in my view to enable to author to leave a dark stamp on your memory, forever. It’s a deliberate ploy to be memorable but it ends up backfiring because you hate them, not love them for it.

JK Rowling did it at the end and His Dark Materials was horribly bleak though I’m more forgiving of these two because overall theirs was a positive message.

This story was just mini tragedy after mini tragedy at every episode. I come away wanting to rattle the pair of them. And the author too. The human condition is not prone to optimism anyway, we don’t need more crap endings. Life’s shit enough thank you very much.

It’s only redeeming features were the very well captured sense of nostalgia it brought me, I was at uni in the 90s and the soundtrack to match was like going in a time maching and the superb acting, the actors did a great job.

It feels a bit stuck in the past, like Love Actually for its excessively patient female so bowled over by the male charm/ego that she’d wait 20 years. Not very realistic in today’s world.

3/10