4 out of 5 Macarons for Gayle Forman’s JUST ONE DAY

Posted Feb 28 2013, 9:37 pm in book club, Book Hungry, Gayle Forman, What I'm Reading, YA

This month’s Book Hungry selection was JUST ONE DAY by Gayle Forman and there are some minor spoilers here.

I bought my copy of JUST ONE DAY while at Laurie Crompton Boyle’s launch party for BLAZE – which you must also read, if you haven’t already.

I’m a huge fan of Gayle’s work – my favorite is Where She Went. Just One Day is what I would classify ‘new adult’ – it’s a story about a teen on her first trip abroad who learns ‘anything can happen in just one day.’ We quickly learn main character Allyson is desperate to be who/what she is. The problem is, she has no idea what that looks like. Everything about her is actually her mother pulling the strings – what she collects, what she studies, how she acts, who her friends are. On her last big hurrah before the long flight home, Allyson and her best friend take in a live Shakespeare production performed at a park where Allyson falls hard for an actor named Willem and he invites her to spend the day in Paris with him.

Pause here for a brief parental warning – DON’T TALK TO STRANGERS. DON’T GO TO PARIS WITH A GUY YOU JUST MET. AND FOR HEAVEN’S SAKE, AT LEAST GET THE GUY’S FULL NAME BEFORE YOU DO.

Sorry. The mom in me had a hard time with this part but the part of me who remembers the allure that being away from home held for a girl fresh out of high school was clapping happily. Willem calls Allyson by the name Lulu – in fact, she never does share her real name with him. The pair spend the day in Paris and this is where Gayle’s writing talents shine – few authors make me feel setting the way she can. I adored their adventures, their banter, the way they connected and their dialogue – oh! I want to be stained and trust me – read the novel to understand why this is a really good thing.

But all good things come to an end….  Allyson awakes alone and broke and has to get home. She starts her college freshman year and it just sucks. Her heartbreak over losing Willem without so much as a note is so complete, I worried how far Gayle was going to take this. But luckily, Allyson claws her way out of her despair. She switches courses, makes friends, gets a job – she starts to discover who she is, what she wants and just SHINES. It takes her a year, but she vows to return to Europe to find Willem, where ever he is – which will be the story in JUST ONE YEAR, coming in October. For me, the story fell a bit flat here – I had to wait longer than I wanted for Allyson to stand up to her mother and stop what one of my Bookhungry sisters called “Bella Syndrome.” But once Allyson committed to her plan, I cheered along with her. I loved how her boss made her promise to have a macaron a day while in Paris and swear, I could taste them. And I burst into tears when she finally located Willem.

Read Just One Day but be warned – you’ll want Just One Year, too, but will have to wait – um, almost a year. It’s coming out in October.

Would you spend a day in Paris with a boy you just met? Have you read this book? Did it change your answer? 

1 Comment