Released as a short, under-100-page teaser to Aprilynne Pike’s Life After Theft, One Day More captures months of Kimberlee Schaffer’s story, all the way up until the very first scene of the novel, in her perspective. 

Kimberlee leads a model life in the eyes of everyone around her. She keeps up her grades but doesn’t stress about them—with her parents’ money and influence, getting into a good college doesn’t concern her—and is at every single social event or party. 

But nothing is as perfect as it seems. Often lonely, Kimberlee repeatedly references a hatred for Thursdays. Thursdays, she’s almost completely on her own. After a family therapist suggested that keeping her parents’ marriage strong was the best thing that they could do for Kimberlee, Thursdays became their days to strengthen their marriage through weekly date nights that robbed Kimberlee from her parents even more than usual. Her frequent underage drinking, partying, and even the neglect from her parents wasn’t the biggest issue, however. 

Kimberlee is a kleptomaniac, and at first, that means compulsively stealing anything she wants. But by the start of the book, her habits have gone completely out of control. She steals anything she can, useless things that she would never want, and worse: things she doesn’t even remember taking. The suffocating desire to steal, to have the things she doesn’t, fuels her. 

Her obsession with stealing is consuming her life, and with the building suspense of the book, there’s a sense that she’ll be forced to make a decision about it soon. She might be more entitled and not the most easily-likeable character, but it’s easy to sympathize with her situation of neglect and loneliness. 

Reading in her perspective was interesting, especially as Life After Theft isn’t narrated by Kimberly. Not only are readers given an inside look into her background and everything that might’ve shaped her as a person, but the detailed look at what kleptomania was like for her was intriguing, and again, helped readers sympathize more with her. 

One Day More is an engaging, unfortunate story with serious themes and a surprising, dark, cliffhanger ending. Although it might not be the most necessary plot-wise, it’s a short read that feels like an extended prologue and effectively captivates readers’ attention for Life After Theft.