Just One Year by Gayle Forman

I rate this YA novel 4 out of 5

Willem has woken up in the hospital, his memory coming back to him in patches, his body hurt and there is only one thing that he can't get out of his head: he must find Lulu. He left her alone and now he must get back to her. But things never seem to work out as expected, and just like the accident of her appearance in his life, another accident renders her gone. Now Willem is left with nothing a name that he gave her, with no way to find her and explain. He tries to go back to his life the way it was before Lulu, but there is no going back, because that one day with her changed him in ways he is only just beginning to understand. And so Willem sets off on a quest to find her again, if only to see her one last time. But instead of finding Lulu, he might just find himself.

In Just One Year Allyson and Willem's story continues, picking up from where the two separated and showing his side of the story. As it goes for most of Forman's books I was swept away with the storytelling of it. It did not take me long to finish this book, no more than a few days at most. I was sucked in just as I was with the first. I found it interesting, and slightly agonizing at some points and overall I would definitely say it was worth reading and finishing the series.

I did not become as attached or emotional over Willem's journey as I did Allyson. Perhaps I saw more of myself in Allyson and likened my own journey to things she experienced and found in herself. Maybe I couldn't really love Willem because of his player-esque attitude, which bothered me for a lot of the book and dampened my romantic vision of life. Granted, it was a pretty realistic portrait for a guy with a personality and a lifestyle such as his, and he does get better as the book progresses. However, it still made him slightly harder for me find empathetic and get close to. This could be just me though.

*SPOILERS* PROCEED WITH CAUTION

I really liked the book overall but I was slightly disappointed in the ending. I am greedy reader and I wanted more than that. I finished Just One Day leaving Allyson walking through his door and zoomed through Just One Year to find out what happened next, only for it to get a few feet further. I get the poetic symbolism of the kiss. And I also really liked the full circle of the double happiness that stitched the whole story together. I wish there had been n epilogue, something to seal the deal. I have plenty of an imagination, and it isn't like I can't imagine for myself that everything works out between them, but sometimes it is nice reading it..

Just One Day by Gayle Forman

I rate this novel 5 out of 5

Allyson has never been the adventurous type. She is content to sit back and let her parents guide her along the ride and tell her what will maker happy. But when she is given the chance to open the door, step through as someone else, Lulu, not Allyson, her whole world changes. After Lulu, Allyson isn't sure anymore who she is. Lulu? Allyson? Someone else entirely? All she does know is that the answers she seeks lay back in Paris where it all started, just one day, one year ago.

I don't know what I had expected from this novel. The inside cover intrigued me. I have read Forman's other YA series If I Stay and the sequel Where She Went, but it has been three or four years. I remember them both being enthralling, and very emotional, but somehow I forgot what it was really like reading Forman's novels.

It's like a roller coaster ride you can't get off. Her stories suck the reader in seamlessly. I was not reading about Allyson, I was her. I felt her story and her pain. I was on this journey too. I started this book and when it got going I just could not stop. I was up until 4:30 am reading it, and I was thanking God that my work was cancelled for the next day because of weather or I don't know what I would have done, because there was no stopping.

The most wonderful part about it was that the excitement and adventure weren't what kept me reading. It was Allyson. The rich feeling that came from her, the perfect way that Forman relayed her struggle without it seeming whiney or overdramatic. I was a freshman in collage again, feeling empty and left out because I didn't fit into the college experience like I was supposed to. I was feeling that deep sense of loss and humiliation that comes with being duped by someone you thought cared, or even the pure relief that comes with things working themselves out again even after it feels like you messed up beyond all return. Somehow between all those pages and inked words Forman found a conduit to the human experience and relays it with a clarity and truthfulness that leaves the reader breathless and wanting more.

Perhaps my background with travel and study abroad made a difference in how close I felt to Allyson's experience, but I feel that Forman has given the reader something we can all identify with. We have all been lost I think, we have all lost things we didn't think we could get back. And whether or not we recovered or ever righted our footing, or our world, I think we can imagine what it would be like to find ourselves and even what we thought irredeemably lost. The relief, the freedom, the joy of life: that was what I found in these pages.

I highly recommend this novel, and any of Forman's work really, to any and all readers. This novel doesn't just reveal Allyson's story, but shows that it is never ever too late to try and live.