Friday, October 18, 2013

Just One Day by Gayle Forman

A breathtaking journey toward self-discovery and true love, from the author of If I Stay. When sheltered American good girl Allyson "LuLu" Healey first meets laid-back Dutch actor Willem De Ruiter at an underground performance of Twelfth Night in England, there’s an undeniable spark. After just one day together, that spark bursts into a flame, or so it seems to Allyson, until the following morning, when she wakes up after a whirlwind day in Paris to discover that Willem has left. Over the next year, Allyson embarks on a journey to come to terms with the narrow confines of her life, and through Shakespeare, travel, and a quest for her almost-true-love, to break free of those confines. Just One Day is the first in a sweepingly romantic duet of novels. Willem’s story—Just One Year—is coming soon!(from Goodreads)

 Flo's Review
Okay, I LOVE If I Stay and Where She Went. I LOVE to travel. And so many people LOVE Just One Day that I basically went in thinking it was going to be my new favorite book.

 ...maybe that was my first mistake. I know I am in the minority here, but I just couldn't connect with this book. I've always had a hard time when I don't like the protagonist or any of the main characters in the story. And I just didn't like Allyson. I understand that she had to start off in one place in order to experience growth over the course of the novel and end up in a better place than where she started. But does that growth have to take forever?! I'm going to be honest -- I didn't make it all the way through the book. I got to page 172 of a 368 page book and she was still hanging on to this thing that happened half a year ago and living a mopey life. She wasn't being at all nice to the people who loved her most -- her parents and her best friend. Still, I can understand. One of my favorite books started off with the character being a complete jerk. (I'm looking at you, Sam Kingston!) But I didn't feel that Allyson was growing at all. She was in the same rut and I just couldn't make myself keep reading to see if she got out of it. I kind of skimmed the second half of the book, and I see that more travel is involved. But even that couldn't motivate me to sit with Allyson any longer.

 On the positive side, the actual Day? Pretty cool. I liked that it wasn't the typical touristy Paris that Willem and Allyson did. They just kind of went with the flow and experienced Paris as it was happening to them.
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3 comments :

  1. JacqueOctober 18, 2013 at 11:23 AM

    I was going to read this in the near future because Just One Year is coming out. I am going to have to move it back down the TBR list.

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  2. KarenOctober 20, 2013 at 2:05 PM

    I almost skipped this review because I always feel awful when people gush about this book - because I did not like it. So yay! We are not alone lol

    For me I felt like Allyson didn't grow at all. And when she finally gets her act together it's all about finding Willem. Who I also didn't like.

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  3. FloOctober 20, 2013 at 7:15 PM

    Karen -- thanks so much for your comment! I really thought I was alone in the world with not liking this book. *breathes sigh of relief*

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