Reviews

2.5/5. When I read the story’s concept, it really grabbed me and I was very excited to read it. In the end, I didn’t really like it as much as I’d hoped. First of all, I wasn’t a great fan of the main characters.

Initially I really felt for Danny and I really wanted him to be well, and although I kept feeling that way throughout the book, I could also see the self destructive way he was behaving (including his ‘party-hard’ character that he invented for himself). It made me a bit sad, to see him walk into and sometimes even directly cause situations that were so bad for his self esteem. Guy was also not my favourite - to me, it felt like he should have been (and indeed was) very aware how Danny felt, he still strung him along, used pet names and generally didn’t do anything to already make it clear to Danny that he should move on.

The resolution to the book was a little too quickly for me.

Danny goes to some lecture and suddenly, after 20 years, he sees the light and Guy and he resolve everything immediately after? I’m not sure, but that didn’t feel very realistic to me. I did like the way that they resolved it, since it’s not a standard ‘relationship’ ending, but it really came quite too quickly for me.

Other than this, the book was a bit long-ish for me, with scenes that didn’t add really to the story (except made me feel for Danny).

What I did really like was the way that we’re taken through Manchester and specifically through Pride - I’ve never experienced it and I think this must be quite an event. The candle event at the end of Pride also sounded quite special.

I also thought it was interesting and eye-opening to read about the main characters, how it was for them to grow up gay and the hardships they went through.

All in all, I thought the book was quite interesting but there were a few too many things for me that made me not connect with the book as well as I’d hoped.

valkeakuulas's review

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emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

What Matt Cain succeeds in is writing the other main character out of the two main characters very lovable and relatable but I could have lived without the pov of Guy. I do understand that having a dual narrative is there to make the whole concept more functional: Danny being the one closer to the reader and Guy being the somewhat antagonist. (A few times in the modern timeline of 2022 the change of POV became confusing at least for me.) On the whole the jumping between timelines was done very well even though there was a lot of it.

I suppose this was a story of many motifs: longing for love, the idea of love, feeling inferior and body shame, the unsaid codependencies we form for our friends and lovers, the otherness of queer in straight made society. Lots of themes! I dare to say that One Love does also represent a modern gay novel that owes a lot to the previous narratives of queer stories we've read before: not to say it's bad...this field has lots of room.

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