Review: "One Day, Hard and Clear" by Anne Baldo

One Day, Hard and Clear by Anne Baldo
Published June 2026 via Rare Machines
★★★★

Lucy and Sami are best friends in the early 2000s, dreaming of bigger and better things, dreaming of Paris. They assume, then, that their friendship will stay the same forever, even as everything else changes around them. But things rarely work out that way.

One Day, Hard and Clear follows Lucy and Sami—mostly Sami—as they grow up and drift apart. Sami is infatuated with her sometimes boyfriend, True, even as they body slip in and out of other relationships. I wanted to know if my body would always feel like a live wire next to his, she says. If I would one day forget how I used to fall asleep up against his big back and finally feel anchored to the world. (loc. 328*)

I like a coming-of-age story, and that's just what we have here. Circumstances dictate a lot of Lucy and Sami's choices—they both imagine a world full of possibilities, at least at first, but it's clear that Lucy will simply have more resources to pursue things she wants to pursue, and also that there are limitations even before they get out of the gate.

"Young man" was a compliment, an honour, but even then I knew "young lady" was different, cool and corrective. You only heard it when you were doing something wrong. (loc. 466)

The book moves further through time than I initially expected—I'd thought it might stay in 2004 (so strange that my high school years have become historical fiction), but instead it moves forward and forward again. Sami has a burst of initiative relatively early on, moving away and trying to have an adventure, but, well, things change, and after that she seems largely to take life as it comes to her, accepting the hands she's dealt.

I looked at Bodie, wondering when the moment "I've chosen you right now" mutated somehow into "forever." By then I'd realized what we were, two broken fingers taped together, a busted buddy system. (loc. 757)

I wouldn't have minded a bit more of Lucy's life, for contrast and to see how much their paths truly diverge or don't (is Lucy happy, by the end?), but I liked how real this felt—no great choices or big declarations, just life moving forward and friendship morphing over time.

*Quotes are from an ARC and may not be final.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.