I feel like I should open this review with a disclaimer: I studied French language and culture from primary school through to university, I have been fortunate enough to travel to France several times, and I have worked with a French organisation for several years. It almost certainly meant that I read This One is Ours with a more critical eye than another reader might have, and that has almost certainly informed my review.
With that being said, I broadly enjoyed following the literal and personal journey of 16-year-old Sofie as she spends six months in Paris, exploring the different culture and foreign city, and asking questions about who she wants to be as a global citizen. Reading this amid the travel bans which arose as a consequence of COVID-19 was a really nice way to travel while being more or less stuck in my home for an extended period of time.
Funnily, I actually felt a though the characteristics of Paris as a city were underplayed; I would have really delighted in a more detailed description of the grandes boulevards, or the individual characters and characteristics of the various bridges which span the Seine. Towards the end of the story, Sofie muses about the way the city’s distinctive layout and architecture was created by Haussman in the mid-19th Century when the entire city underwent massive changes to make it more generally liveable, but that is more or less the extent of the description of the city. Probably the most significant description of the physical environment is of the Belleville area where Sofie’s host family lives, and where her school is situated. I did appreciate that it offered a counter-narrative to the beauty and grace that is commonly associated with Paris (certainly in my own experience of first travelling to Paris when I was 11, I was shocked by the fact that there were ugly buildings in the middle of this city which was supposed to contain beauty and graceful architecture wherever one turned). However, I think description of the other areas could have been included as well in order to fully portray the myriad shades of Paris as the multifaceted, complex city which Sofie discovers it to be. It felt like a bit of a shame, especially given the recent prominence in stories of city-as-character. With that being said, the character of Paris is explored and is present, but it is informed largely by the character and behaviour of the people, rather than the buildings. Like I said at the start of this review, I’m fully willing to acknowledge that this view is informed by my own experience of travel and study, and it didn’t hugely detract from the way the story unfolded.
In fact, I actually really enjoyed the portrayal of the French people and culture – some of the observations about cultural behaviours were hysterically accurate. O’Donnell said that she has spent time in France, and has French friends, and the specific mannerisms she portrays are entirely on-point.
As Sofie, an aspiring artist, immerses herself in the language, food (the descriptions of the food were great), and culture of the French, she examines who she wants to be as a person, and as an artist. What I enjoyed the most about the story was the questions Sofie asked herself about what kind of future she wanted to be part of creating. Her struggle as she came to terms with the complexities of being a good global actor was really well portrayed. In fact, her desire to be part of creating a greener future and its seeming contradiction with fact that her very presence in Paris, where her awareness of truly global issues is being created, caused greenhouse emissions through her flight there was one of the most nuanced depictions of that moral conundrum that I think I’ve ever encountered. While Sofie’s relationship with the gorgeous Olivier felt as though it was a bit abrupt in its progress, I particularly enjoyed how it developed, and how it served to drive Sofie’s personal growth.
The greatest weakness of This One is Ours is perhaps that it could have used another 10,000 words to flesh out those sections of the story which I identified above as being a little underdeveloped. It’s an enjoyable read that is truly YA in that it examines the questions we must face as we move towards adulthood about who we want to be, and what kind of world we want to help forge. In addition, it captures the wonderment of truly exploring and being immersed in another culture, and how that experience can lead us to so powerfully interrogate our own worldviews and assumptions.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
Sixteen-year-old Sofie is a dreamer, an artist and a romantic. So when she goes on exchange to Paris, she is expecting magnificent adventures of the heart and mind. Yet France isn’t what she imagined. It’s cold and grey, and she finds speaking another language exhausting. Sofie’s more homesick than lovesick.
But then her host sister, Delphine, and fellow artist Olivier show her a different side of Paris, and Sofie starts to question her ideas of art, beauty and meaning. Of everything. There’s truth in what her best friend, Crow, has been saying all along: the world is in crisis and people need to take notice.
But what can one girl do? Will Sofie be able to find the courage to fight for change?
This One is Ours is a call to action for anyone who feels helpless about the state of the world, as well as an ode to all the tiny beautifuls that make it worth saving.
