I don't know who I am. Or maybe I do know who I am and I just don't want to be her anymore." - Gayle Forman, Just One Day
HELLO, FRIENDS! Guess what book I finally finished in time for a Wednesday review??
This was another reread for me--ever since reading An Age of License (which was...a really long time ago lol whoops), I've had this massive travel bug. Since there aren't any major trips on the horizon (yet..hint hint wink wink nudge wink), the only logical thing that could satisfy it was...another book about travel!
Except not really, because all it did was make me want to travel more. Oh, well.
I normally find that, by the time I get around to reading a book for a second time, I've forgotten how much I initially enjoyed it. This time, though, I think I actually enjoyed it...more? When I read it for the first time back in 2014 (coincidentally, also the last time I was in Disney World....I THINK THIS IS A SIGN), I gave it a four star rating on Goodreads. Once I finished it up on the bus the other day, I didn't hesitate before giving it a solid 5/5. So what changed?
My perception of the story, that's what.
Okay, so let's back up a bit. Just One Day is the first of three components to one larger overall story--the other two are Just One Year, a companion novel to Just One Day, and Just One Night, a novella that serves as the sequel and conclusion to both. When I first read Just One Day, I didn't own Just One Year, and I'm 95% sure that Just One Night hadn't even been ANNOUNCED yet.
Let me tell you, though--the book is so much better when you look at it as part of a larger story.
Just One Day follows Allyson Healey, a recent high school graduate on a Teen Tour! in Europe with her best friend, with plans to head to university and study pre-med in the fall. On her last day of the tour, she meets Willem, a Dutch boy who acts in an amateur, outdoor production of The Twelfth Night. He offers to take her to Paris for a day (get it? Just one...you get it), and she accepts. In that one day, Allyson learns more about herself, life, and love than she ever thought possible. The book continues after the conclusion of that day, as Allyson struggles to relate the person she became in Paris back to the person she's always been at home.
The timeline in the book spans for one year, and Just One Year follows a similar timeline, telling Willem's own sequence of events as he also comes to terms with the events of that day. It ends mere moments after its predecessor, leaving Just One Night to conclude their story once and for all. For the purposes of this review, though, I'm going to try and look exclusively at Just One Day.
The best thing that this book has going for it is Allyson's personal growth through it all. She meets so many new people and learns so much and it's just so damn relateable, both as a teenager and a 20-something. I appreciated the fact that her year-long search wasn't just for Willem, but for Lulu--for the girl she felt she became that day. Watching her shift as she tried new things and stepped out of her comfort zone was the most enjoyable part of the whole story.
Forman does a really good job crafting her characters, too. Not only Allyson and Willem, but Dee and Melanie and Wren were portrayed in very unique and realistic ways. Even though they weren't focused on too much, Forman did an excellent job of expressing them in such a way that you know that there's more to them than we're able to see in this story alone. I feel like all three of these characters could fill novels with stories of their own.
The only exception, I felt, were Allyson's roommates. Kali, Jenn, and Kendra felt more like filler characters than anything. Unlike the others, I didn't feel like I knew them at all--they just fell flat on the paper, which is especially disappointing considering the colourful personalities of some of the other side characters.
NOW. If you decide to read this book (or even if you already have), I must insist that you GO READ JUST ONE YEAR. While I thoroughly enjoyed this book and all it has to offer, it never fully answers the questions that Allyson and the reader poses after the day in Paris ends. Just One Year does--and the ending is SO MUCH MORE SATISFYING when you actually have these answers! Without them, this book just barely falls short, which is especially frustrating, considering how much extra story you still have to get through to finally figure out what happens oh my god.
I hope to do a review of Just One Year--and maybe even Just One Night--sometime in the future, so stay tuned for that!
Have you read this week's book? Let me know what you thought in the comments!
Until later,
- Justyne
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