Just One Day (Just One Day)

by Gayle Forman

From the New York Times bestselling author of If I Stay

Allyson Healey's life is exactly like her suitcase—packed, planned, ordered. Then on the last day of her three-week post-graduation European tour, she meets Willem. A free-spirited, roving actor, Willem is everything she’s not, and when he invites her to abandon her plans and come to Paris with him, Allyson says yes. This uncharacteristic decision leads to a day of risk and romance, liberation and intimacy: 24 hours that will transform Allyson’s life.
 
A book about love, heartbreak, travel, identity, and the “accidents” of fate, Just One Day shows us how sometimes in order to get found, you first have to get lost. . . and how often the people we are seeking are much closer than we know.
 The first in a sweepingly romantic duet of novels. Willem’s story—Just One Year—is coming soon!

• ISBN10: 0142422959
• ISBN13: 9780142422953
• Publish Date: 20 August 2013 (first published 1 January 2013)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Speak
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 416
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780142422953

Reviews

[Ashley]

Nose Graze — Young Adult book reviews

A letter to the main character, Allyson:

Dear Allyson,

You and I got off on the wrong foot. I didn't like how you were complaining about your parents' graduation gift to you: a trip through Europe. You kept complaining about the trip, and the touristy things you were doing.. and it made you seem a bit selfish. I understand that there are sometimes places you don't want to go, or trips you don't want to take.. believe me, I've been there. But I still didn't like the way you came across. (And how dare your mother buy you a nice new watch for graduation as well.)

I'm glad you enjoyed the first part of your trip to Paris with Willem. It was a bit sketchy and irresponsible for you to hop on a train with some guy you didn't even know (and let him buy your ticket), but whatever. I'll let that go. I'm glad you didn't get sold into sex slavery, even if I wasn't crazy about you as a person at this point.

Anyway, back to my point...

It seems like you had a decent time in Paris. I personally think you trip sounded a bit boring. I too have spent "just one day" in Paris and I had a blast. Maybe it's stuck up of me to say, but I think my day was better than yours. You went to Paris and did... nothing. You went on a canal ride and slept in the park. I guess that's cool. I get that you're not into touristy things, but I still find it a bit silly that you didn't have a more proper look around Paris. Sure the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower are "things tourists do", but they're interesting and fun for a reason.

I totally couldn't relate to you falling for Willem though. What did you see in him? The fact that he wouldn't really tell you anything about himself? Does that make him mysteriously sexy or something? I totally didn't see that. I didn't find him charming or funny, which are two key things I'd look for first. I never liked him.. he never made me fall for him. So when you started thinking about loving him after just one day, I rolled my eyes. I'm sorry, maybe that's rude, but I couldn't help it. There was at least one eye roll.

Maybe two.

I don't care how strong your connection is or how many "moments" you have.. you're not going to love a guy after a day.

But, what really got on my nerves was how you acted AFTER this one day. You were pathetic. I was actually embarrassed for you. If I were you, I would have written off this Paris adventure as a bad day and forgotten about it.. but instead, you let this one day (which ended horribly) completely own you. It consumed your life. You were depressed, boring, weak, and kept thinking about Willem—oh Willem! Why? Why does he dominate your thoughts? He wasn't that special. The only thing I really learned about him was that he was a player who talked to a lot of girls (and possibly did more with a lot of said girls). So why did you let him take over your life? Why did you refuse to make friends or see guys or have fun? Why did you sleep over 10 hours a night and mope around all year?

Things did pick up when you finally got on your feet. I liked it when you got your ass kicked into gear and you started to shape up your life. I like that you kind of said "screw you" to expectations and changed up your college classes—that was a good move. But, I still found it pathetic how you were determined to find Willem again. I just can't relate this at all. I tried to understand why you were so desperate to find him. I guess I get that the "not knowing" part would be frustrating.. but still.. Why is Willem so special? I keep thinking back to that. Why is he so deserving of all this attention? I didn't like him enough to be able to relate to your determination here.

When you went traveling again, I liked that. I thought your travels were more interesting this time around. I liked some of the people you met (like Wren—was that her name? I kind of forget). But, just when I thought the ending might follow through with a learning experience or something on self-exploration, it all came back to Willem. I guess I should have expected that, given that this is a romance book so obviously the romance is going to dominate it.. but I hated how you were so close to saying "screw him" and moving on with your life, and then you went crawling back to him. I was mad at you for doing that, probably because I spent most of the book despising Willem. I'm sure there's some kind of explanation and he's probably not as bad of a guy as the book led me to believe.. but it doesn't change the fact that I still never fell for him, and that I found it pathetic how you sobbed over him for a year after only knowing him for one day.

You did learn a lot this year and you have come a long way. I'm proud of you for finally following your own path and your own dreams, and I think it's pretty cool and brave that you went traveling around Europe on your own. But Willem... really? I do not like him. Maybe you're even relieved to hear that because it means I won't try to steal him from you (he's all yours..). I just still can't understand why you're so obsessed with him. It left me with a severe lack of connection and understanding. But mostly I hated your reaction to him and how you let him (and that one day) completely dominate a year of your life. Maybe I just have a hard time believing that you can spend an entire year thinking about just one day over and over again. If I were your friends, I would be annoyed with you constantly obsessing over this "trip to Paris" and "this guy you met once".

But for your sake, I do hope that Willem isn't really a cheating player.

All the best,
Ashley

Perfect. Gayle Forman never disappoints. This book is so amazing, the writing is beautiful, there are so many good characters, and Forman writes awesome stories that are just captivating and so emotionally involving. Seriously amazing.

[ellieroth]

Reseña Publicada en: El Extraño Gato del Cuento

(Actualizado: 18-10-2013)

Me tomó mucho tiempo pensar en las palabras adecuadas para empezarles a hablar de este maravilloso libro, aún no las encuentro.

Les puedo hablar de los suspiros que mi gato daba cada vez que lo dejaba caer o lo empujaba cuando terminaba de leer un párrafo y simplemente tenía que pararme a sacar toda la emoción que cada palabra me daba. O como esas mismas emociones me alentaban a leer a mi velocidad máxima y a la vez me pedían disminuir para disfrutarlas más tiempo.

Just One Day, es un libro para vivir, un libro para mancharse. Uno en el cual no debes detenerte a pensar en el tiempo, porque en este momento, mientras leemos, el tiempo no nos pertenece, no existe. Un libro que te llevará a una resaca literaria de las fuertes. Es de los que, al menos a mí, me hizo preguntarme que infiernos he hecho con mi vida, por qué la he dejado estancada, y como hasta ahora sigo esperando el después.

Los pesonajes, Allyson, Dee, Mel... Willem, las mismas situaciones, los paisajes que nunca he visto, absolutamente todo calza a la perfección. Y como mencioné: las emociones. Hay tantas, tan variadas, un gesto, una acción, todo me hizo sentirme parte del libro.

Allyson "Lulu" es grandiosa, no tiene superpoderes, no salvará al mundo, pero se salva a ella misma de algo que ni siquiera sabía. Personalmente me inspira mucho. En los momentos en que quizá en cualquier otro libro un personaje como el de ella podría parecer débil, Gayle (Oh, grandiosa Gayle, ¿Por qué no nos habíamos conocido todavía?) te cuenta su historia de una manera tan "fácil" y con eso me refiero a que conectas con el personaje inmediatamente. Y logra ver a estas maravillosas personas a su alrededor, aquellas de las cuales tenía tanto miedo ver, Dee, amo a Dee, un personaje complejo, demasiado querible.

Y por supuesto Willem. ¿Quién eres? ¿Dónde estás? Y sobre todo ¿Por qué? ¿Qué está mal? ¿Qué escondes? Déjala cuidarte. Es todo lo que puedo decir de él, es lo que sentí en el libro, todo el dolor, la emoción y la incertidumbre.

Si no quedó claro, Just One Day se ha vuelto uno de mis libros favoritos. Un libro que nos enseña como bien lo dice Dee, a no suponer las cosas y saber esperar una respuesta, y sobre todo dejarse llevar por los accidentes. Una completa joya literaria, si no lo has leído, no sé que esperas, este libro te enseñará a amar para luego romperte el corazón.

Reseña Completa: : El Extraño Gato del Cuento

**************************

Primeros pensamientos (18 - 09 - 2013)

Demasiadas emociones, no dormí por leer, me perdí todo un día por leer. Tuve que parar casi en cada párrafo porque simplemente:

[Amanda]

4.5

October is too far away to wait for the conclusion of Allyson and Willem's story. Just One Day is one of those books that leave you in a state of repeating the same words over and over again. (Wow. Just wow. Guys, this book! Wow.) Gayle Forman's books always seem to leave me in this state, as if there are simply no words to adequately capture the experience of reading her books. Just One Day is no different--giving me images and impressions and feelings, but no words. (Except "Wow." I seem to like that one a lot right now.)

Europe--Paris, mostly--comes alive in Just One Day. I've never been to Paris, but this book manages to bring the old world feel of Europe into its pages. Just One Day is somehow fundamentally Europe, and I found myself reliving my experience there (in Germany, not France, but easily comparable, I think). Going to Paris with Allyson made me want to go back. For the adventures. For the atmosphere. For Europe. Any book that can re-create such a setting is gold. (Daughter of Smoke and Bone elicited similar feelings for me, though about Prague specifically rather than Europe as a whole. Still. If you loved the setting in Daughter of Smoke and Bone--though a completely different genre--Just One Day has the same attention to detail.)

But Just One Day is more than a book with a fabulous setting--it has a story. Not just a story, but a story. (The synopsis states this is a book about self-discovery. And it is.) Just One Day is what coming of age, self-discovery type books should be. Allyson is a character who is so easy to relate to--being the good girl, the reliable one who doesn't take risks: I get that. I saw so much of myself in Allyson that it was impossible not to get drawn up in her world, her heartbreak, and the changes in her life. I GET IT. That's why this book works so well.

It is clear--SO VERY CLEAR--that the story of Allyson and Willem is far from over. I remarked to my boyfriend upon finishing Just One Day that I needed the next book RIGHT THAT VERY MOMENT, and he looked at me and said I should read one of the other hundred books I own. I speared him with a withering glance and primly informed him, "It doesn't work that way." And it doesn't. There is no number of unread books on my shelves that would make it easier to wait for Just One Year.

[lizarodz]

I wish there were words to express how outstandingly-awesome this book is. I know that the year has barely started and it might be premature to say that this is the best book of 2013, but I can safely say that it is one of the best books that I’ve ever read and that it will remain a favorite for years to come. You might think that I’m exaggerating, but I truly fell in love with the story and the characters, I hope you do too.

I put Just One Day on hold at my local library at the beginning of the year and was pleasantly surprised when I was notified that it was waiting for me. I proceeded to devour the book as fast as I could. What an amazing journey it has been! Just One Day is many things rolled into one; it is a romance, a tale of self-discovery and a journal of an incredible ‘road trip’. Allyson is infuriating at times because she is full of doubts and insecurities, but this is due to her upbringing (more about that later). In trying to please her mother and be the best daughter she could be, she forgot who she was and how to be happy. Her encounter, her time with Willem was brief but it had a profound effect on her life. At first I was really upset that she seemed to listen to everyone else’s advice and opinions instead of following her heart and forming her own opinions. As I said, all the angst and even the depression that she went through were necessary for her to really see what her life had become and how to fix it. I was immensely happy that Allyson grows so much in the span of a year. At the end she became “Lulu”, a more confident and carefree person. I think I see a little bit of my 18-year-old myself in Allyson.

Willem deserves his own paragraph. Although Just One Day is Allyson’s story, we get the gift of knowing Willem for one day, which of course is not enough (don’t worry, we get a whole book from Willem’s POV soon!). Willem’s philosophy about life and accidents resonates with me and with Allyson; the biggest problem is that he was so carefree that it made it nearly impossible for them to find each other after their one day together. Even though all the evidence pointed to a deceitful young man, I just couldn’t reconcile Willem with that image and was quite upset that Allyson believed the worst so easily. Oh, and we share a mutual love for Nutella!

On to Allyson’s parents and more specifically her overbearing mother. Now, I’m a mother of three and my aspiration in that difficult role is to raise my boys to be independent, self-sufficient, honest, happy, and ambitious individuals. The goal is to prepare them to choose their own path equipped with the best tools I can provide for them. However, this is not the case with Allyson’s mom. She leaves no room for guessing, for exploration, for individualism at all, therefore, poor Allyson doesn’t know how to do anything for herself. That, people is a tragedy!

I adore Dee, the first friend that Allyson ever made on her own because he is not afraid to be who he is and he opened his heart to Allyson. I didn’t care much for Melanie, I think she encouraged Allyson to be stagnant on her growth, when she spend a lot of time finding herself. We meet many memorable characters through Allyson’s journey that are good, bad, gentle, wise, and more.

From having read If I Stay (although Where She Went is still waiting on my shelved to be picked up), I knew that any book from Gayle Forman was destined to be amazing and I was not disappointed, if anything she surpassed my expectations. The story is simple, a couple meets and travels to Paris for just one day, they separate after an unexpected event (not yet totally explained) and the girl spends a year dealing with the consequences of the encounter, and later trying to find said boy. Oh, but the story is so much more. The writing is exquisite, lyrical and picturesque. The settings go from Pennsylvania, to New York, Boston, Paris, Amsterdam, and England and each place was amazing, especially Paris.

Overall, Just One Day is an outstanding story, I hope you love it as I did and accompany me in the wait for Just One Year, Willem’s story due out in October of this year.

Here are some quotes: (they might be a bit spilery, so read at your own risk)

“It’s something that never comes off, no matter how much you might want to” [Willem describing what love is]

“When he finally kisses my mouth, everything goes oddly quiet, like the moment of silence between lighting and thunder. One Mississippi. Two Mississippi. Three Mississippi. Four Mississippi. Five Mississippi.
Bang.” – Allyson

“… that whole day, being with William, being Lulu, it made me realize that all my life I’ve been living in a small, square room, with no windows and no doors. Then someone came along and showed me there was a door in the room. One that I’d never even seen before. Then he open it more me. ..” – Allyson

“No it doesn’t. You’re just trying on different identities, like everyone in those Shakespeare plays. And the people we pretend at, they’re already in us. That’s why we pretend them in the first place” – Dee talking to Allyson

About the cover: The cover is gorgeous! The back cover has a sidewalk with little tables and chairs, charming.

[Kelly]

Thoroughly enjoyed Just One Day, and couldn't put it down towards the end. Allyson is a good girl, well organised, a hard working student just trying to make her parents proud. Willem is a mystery, we only learn snippets of his life, but never who he really is. Not forthcoming with any information, so when Allyson and Willem sleep together, I'm mentally yelling 'No one is going to buy the cow when they are getting the milk for free love'. My inner monologue is apparently my mother with her outdated views on sexuality. Anyway, maybe I'm missing the point, I mean, can you really fall in love with someone after only one day?

I can understand the connection, but is it really just the concept of having someone change your life, or the circumstances in which he left that morning. I'm not sure how anyone could live up to that.

Really enjoyed it, it was riveting (especially in the last third) and couldn't put it down. Can't wait for the companion book, as told from Willem's point of view after that year of seperation.

[Linda]

This book was... delighting! I can't really think of a different word to describe it, it made me happy, it made me want to travel, and in a way, it made me want to be 18 again.

This and other reviews can be found at (un)Conventional Bookviews.

Just One Day is the story of Allyson, who finally decides to take a chance, do something she wants to do and go with the flow.