Just One Year, by Gayle Forman (Just One Day #2)

Synopsis:

When he opens his eyes, Willem doesn’t know where in the world he is—Prague or Dubrovnik or back in Amsterdam. All he knows is that he is once again alone, and that he needs to find a girl named Lulu. They shared one magical day in Paris, and something about that day—that girl—makes Willem wonder if they aren’t fated to be together. He travels all over the world, from Mexico to India, hoping to reconnect with her. But as months go by and Lulu remains elusive, Willem starts to question if the hand of fate is as strong as he’d thought. . . .

While I was really, really excited to see the story from Willem’s point of view, this one was sort of a disappointment. I expected Willem to be much more of a deep character, one of those I love and will always remember, but, even if there were many things in his life that seemed to be trying to help him become one, the way he acted was too… shallow? I don’t know how to find the right word. The first example of awful behavior in my opinion is the fact that he didn’t even ask Lulu for her real name. Really? And then when they are pushed apart by another accident, he decides all he wants to do is find her?

I loved the way he travelled the world looking for Allyson, from Mexico to India. But I’m not a fan of the way he treats women in general, all there in his way to Lulu, important and useless at the same time. His mother was an interesting character, with a beautiful name and love story as background, and then mysterious attitude in her relationship with Willem. I like Kate, but I don’t think her relationship with Willem is realistic. Meeting in Mexico, and then talking again months later and with all that trust and like they knew themselves since forever? Sort of weird, but nice. Willem meets so many people during his journey, and he grows sort of attached to everyone. Everyone that seems distant (his mom, his uncle) at first, ends up perfectly happy with him. The ending is too perfect. When he gives up, finds something to do, fixes his relationship with friends and family, Allyson suddenly appears. And they kiss. Out of nowhere.

Don’t get me wrong, I love these books. A lot. I’m really grateful to Gayle Forman for writing them. But these cannot end like this! After a year, they find each other. And then what?? I need to know. I really need to know. I see myself in a couple of years acting like TFIOS Hazel and Gus and sending letters to the author for answers. But it’s also a good ending; it makes me think that the purpose of the story isn’t them as a couple, them loving each other, but all the accidents that happen and bring them together or apart, all the small things that happen in life, coincidences and all, that change the path we follow. 

Just One Day, by Gayle Forman (Just One Day #1)

Synopsis:

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.

This book was the best thing I’ve run into for a long, long while. I fell in love with it in the third page, when my mind had processed how beautiful Gayle Forman’s writing is. Even in the first scene, where Allyson and Melanie are just waiting there in line to see a play, everything was told really naturally, really gracefully and with complete honesty. And that’s the kind of writing that I enjoy reading the most.

About the characters... the secondary characters, meaning everyone who’s not Allyson or Willem, were pretty strong in the novel, allowing the main characters to express themselves with other people who reflected different characteristics of theirs. Céline was a part of Willem that he didn’t show to Allyson (or Lulu), just like her friends, both Melanie and the ones she met at university, and her family helped developing the character. Since the story was focused on Allyson, Willem was sort of an unknown character to us readers; we only knew what Allyson knew, which was interesting. He remained sort of a mystery throughout the whole novel, and that’s why the second book in the bilogy is about him, about his life and his feelings.

The story didn’t have much of a plot, since it was mainly about finding that guy Allyson spent a day with. But I like the idea. I don’t think it’s feasible in real life, I mean, it’s only one day; that many things and feelings and obsession happening in a day? I find it beautiful that she spends a full year looking for him, but I don’t see it that realistic. But the thing about the book, how I interpret it, is that the important thing is not the stuff that happens, meaning the action is not the main thing. It’s a story about hope, memories, love, and, above everything else, accidents.