Review: Just One Day and Just One Year by Gayle Forman

Publisher: Penguin
Published: January 8/October 10, 2013
Pages: 369/336
Source: Borrowed
Rating: 5 Stars

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.

In short: Just One Day resonated SO deeply with me that my love for Gayle Forman has reached a whole new level.

I loved If I Stay and Where She Went by Gayle Forman. I wasn't BLOWN AWAY by them like some people are, but I really did love Gayle Forman's beautiful prose and expert handling of the emotionally intense subject matter. Now, Just One Day on the other hand - WOAH. Just One Day resonated SO deeply with me that at times it was like Gayle was plucking thoughts and feelings that I've had in my life right from my head and putting them down in words, albeit much more eloquently and meaningfully than I could ever manage to in my head. I never quite felt that way with If I Stay, as much as I did love it.

It wasn't immediate love when I first began Just One Day. Of course I fell right into Gayle Forman's effortless writing and genuine characters right away, but it wasn't until I was most of the way through the book that I realized where the story and character arcs were going and how much it meant to me that Gayle was taking the route much less traveled. I had thought Just One Day was going to be another book about a girl "finding herself" in Europe with the help of a cute boy. But in reality, that cute boy is MIA for the rest of the book after the beginning. And then the girl does something remarkable: she "finds herself" on her own/with help from some good friends and WITHOUT the help of the cute boy, and she realizes she's made of tougher stuff.

I wasn't as in love with Just One Year as I was with Just One Day just simply because Willem's story wasn't as relatable to me as Allyson's. But the final moment of Just One Year got me GOOD because I can never resist a good coming-full-circle ending and this one was just perfection. I was already appreciative of Gayle Forman's writing from If I Stay, but Just One Day has taken me to a whole new level of LOVE for this woman and her profoundly meaningful stories. Just so much love.

Other Reviews:
Artsy Musings of a Bibliophile
Reading In Winter
YA Book Queen

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Review: If I Stay and Where She Went by Gayle Forman

Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
Published: January 1, 2009/April 1, 2011
Pages: 201/264
Source: Gifted
Rating: 4 Stars

Synopsis for If I Stay:

Choices. Seventeen-year-old Mia is faced with some tough ones: Stay true to her first love—music—even if it means losing her boyfriend and leaving her family and friends behind?

Then one February morning Mia goes for a drive with her family, and in an instant, everything changes. Suddenly, all the choices are gone, except one. And it's the only one that matters.

In short: If I Stay and Where She Went are beautifully poignant reads with many great character building moments thanks to Gayle Forman's expert handling of emotionally intense situations.

Due to the imminent movie adaptation release, If I Stay and its sequel Where She Went by Gayle Forman were bumped up my insanely long TBR list, though they have both been on my radar for many years now after receiving a ton of praise in the book blogging community. Now I'm sure you all know by now that contemporary isn't usually my thing, but I have been known to enjoy books in the genre from time to time and thankfully this was the case with this Gayle Forman duology.

Of course, "enjoy" may not be the right word choice for a book that ripped your guts out. Perhaps "appreciate" is more apt. If I Stay tells the story of Mia, whom, after a critical car accident with her family, ends up in a coma with a choice. Either she can stay in a world where she's lost nearly everything or she can go to the next great beyond. Where She Went then tells Mia's boyfriend Adam's side of the story in the aftermath of Mia's decision. Neither book deals with easy subject matters, but in both the emotional repercussions are dealt with remarkably well. The drama is genuine, not forced, and I absolutely appreciated Gayle Forman's expert handling of tough situations and questions.

There is not much in the way of plot in either If I Stay or Where She Went as the bulk of the story line in both novels takes place in the form of flashbacks. In this case, the plot is the sacrifice paid for the many excellent character building moments spread throughout. We barely see Mia's family before the accident and yet Gayle Forman is somehow able to forge not only a believable bond between family members, but also a connection between the family and the reader, making the read that much more poignant. I felt like I knew what made these characters tick and yet they weren't entirely predictable either. They were complex and real and absolutely my favourite thing about Gayle Forman's writing.

My second favourite thing about Gayle Forman's writing is her clear appreciation and understanding of music and the effect that it has on people. Music plays a huge part in the If I Stay duology as both the driving force behind Mia and Adam's connection and their division. It occurs to me that I don't get to read many books in which music is such a key component and I would like to do so more often because I really loved that. I think the music and poignancy and thoughtful questions behind If I Stay have the potential to make a truly beautiful movie, but the jury's still out on whether it will play out as I hope. I really hope the movie doesn't disappoint!

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