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letical's review against another edition
3.0
Maybe 3.5 stars?
I think the only reason I kept reading was bc I just wanted to get to the end especially after Just One Day. Speaking of the ending…How did it just end like that!?!? Ahhh I need more than that!
Still liked it, but was kind of meh. Willem is cool though & I liked seeing him grow in his own way & see how that one day with Lulu affected him.
I think the only reason I kept reading was bc I just wanted to get to the end especially after Just One Day. Speaking of the ending…How did it just end like that!?!? Ahhh I need more than that!
Still liked it, but was kind of meh. Willem is cool though & I liked seeing him grow in his own way & see how that one day with Lulu affected him.
witchqueen76's review against another edition
4.0
4.5 stars. I loved this book. I only knocked off half a star because of the 2 sentence ending! I wanted more! After not being keen on Willem in Just One Day... Well I loved him this! It was like he was a totally new character. I understand that he has issues that were responsible for the way he acted in JOD but I just can't see him the first book's Willem! They are totally different, like night and day!
cathyatratedreads's review against another edition
4.0
4.5 stars, really. I just so enjoyed this. Forman has such a way with words and a way of making her characters real and true and their discoveries about themselves and the world around them equally real and true. I love taking the journey with them. But since it's been about one year since I read Just One Day, I feel like I have to go back and read it again. I'm sure I'd enjoy it just as well.
Read my full review, including a rating for content, at RatedReads.com: https://ratedreads.com/just-one-year-young-adult-book-review/
Read my full review, including a rating for content, at RatedReads.com: https://ratedreads.com/just-one-year-young-adult-book-review/
janaybrazier's review against another edition
2.0
I really wanted to like this book because I really enjoyed 'Just One Day', but unfortunately this fell short for me. I just found myself a little bored and all I kept thinking was that I could have got by just reading the first book. I thought I'd like the closure of knowing what happened to swollen during the time Allyson spent looking for him, but now I think about it, I don't mind the mystery of it. The writing was still very well done and it was an interesting journey, but it just wasn't for me. Sorry.
bibliophile1019's review against another edition
5.0
Gayle Forman knocks it out of the park again with her retelling of Just One Day from Willem's perspective!
In Just One Day, Allyson thought Willem was perfect, a free spirit who loved life and had adventures. In Just One Year, we find out that is not necessarily the case. He was prompted to invite Allyson to Paris not just because he thought she was cute, but because he did not want to go home to Holland. He has a messy relationship with his mother, his father is dead, and he was kicked out of school. When he defends the young girls in the park from the skinheads and then tries to push Allyson away, we see that it is because he does not want attachments. But while he is recovering the hospital from being beaten by the skinheads on his way to get Allyson breakfast the morning she thought he abandoned her, we see something in him start to shift. In Just One Year, Willem has a similar journey to Allyson, trying to find her while ultimately finding himself.
I highly suggest that you reread Just One Day before reading this novel so that you can get the true impact of just how close Allyson and Willem were to finding each so many times. It's almost painful, but it shows Forman's supreme story-telling ability.
Many people argued that Willem was a stock character in Just One Day, and he was. This book provides all the backstory you need to understand why he is the way he is, and how he is perhaps more in need of finding himself than Allyson was.
This is truly a wonderful, intelligent love story for the modern teenager.
In Just One Day, Allyson thought Willem was perfect, a free spirit who loved life and had adventures. In Just One Year, we find out that is not necessarily the case. He was prompted to invite Allyson to Paris not just because he thought she was cute, but because he did not want to go home to Holland. He has a messy relationship with his mother, his father is dead, and he was kicked out of school. When he defends the young girls in the park from the skinheads and then tries to push Allyson away, we see that it is because he does not want attachments. But while he is recovering the hospital from being beaten by the skinheads on his way to get Allyson breakfast the morning she thought he abandoned her, we see something in him start to shift. In Just One Year, Willem has a similar journey to Allyson, trying to find her while ultimately finding himself.
I highly suggest that you reread Just One Day before reading this novel so that you can get the true impact of just how close Allyson and Willem were to finding each so many times. It's almost painful, but it shows Forman's supreme story-telling ability.
Many people argued that Willem was a stock character in Just One Day, and he was. This book provides all the backstory you need to understand why he is the way he is, and how he is perhaps more in need of finding himself than Allyson was.
This is truly a wonderful, intelligent love story for the modern teenager.
zee5017's review against another edition
5.0
I loved the book. I really think it should have a sequel that tells us all about their future.
filipamaria82's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
sapphron's review against another edition
The appeal of the first novel in this duology ("Just One Day") was Allyson's personal journey of breaking out of her shell. Here in the sequel, the past year that Allyson was growing we follow Willem trying to find himself. But he's just no where near as compelling. His life is already so aspirational that his rock bottom is the average person's dream. I have no interest in following along, not fully because he doesn't face much adversary, but because the writing just isn't strong enough when Foreman isn't focusing on being inspiring.
blebbing's review against another edition
4.0
Both of these books (Just One Day and Just One Year) were good but I liked the second better. Willem's story just has more oomph than Allison's.
reuben_surrender's review against another edition
3.0
First some background on me - I got into Gayle Forman because Goodreads recommended her series (If I Stay/Where She Went) to me, which I totally love. Part of the reason because I'm a musician who had been on several national tours so I can understand how Adam feels when he is on tour. I continued reading Forman's next series (Just One Day / Just One Year) and have to say that this particularly series never quite captured the emotional context for me. I think it boils down to the difference between the two series.
In If I Stay, the books were about reconciliation. It's about two people who are very different in nature, finding common ground, falling in love and breaking up. And then reconciling their differences and coming back together again - this time stronger, and better. It's the work of two people with two different opinions and living two different lives and trying to make it work for them.
In Just One Day, the books are not about reconciliation. They are about self-exploration. It's the story about Williem who had a chance opportunity to meet with Allyson for a day, and thinking about opportunities lost for an entire year. It quickly became into a whine-fest of a trust-fund baby who pines for the one that got away. The views are very one-sided as bumped from friend to friend, lover to lover until he finally finds Allyson again. I'm willing to bet that if this happens in real life, if Williem continues with Allyson they would break up very quickly. Because Williem spent the entire book learning about who he is; Allyson spent the first book learning about who she is. But they both never really learned who they BOTH together are. Which was what made the If I Stay series spectacular.
In If I Stay, the books were about reconciliation. It's about two people who are very different in nature, finding common ground, falling in love and breaking up. And then reconciling their differences and coming back together again - this time stronger, and better. It's the work of two people with two different opinions and living two different lives and trying to make it work for them.
In Just One Day, the books are not about reconciliation. They are about self-exploration. It's the story about Williem who had a chance opportunity to meet with Allyson for a day, and thinking about opportunities lost for an entire year. It quickly became into a whine-fest of a trust-fund baby who pines for the one that got away. The views are very one-sided as bumped from friend to friend, lover to lover until he finally finds Allyson again. I'm willing to bet that if this happens in real life, if Williem continues with Allyson they would break up very quickly. Because Williem spent the entire book learning about who he is; Allyson spent the first book learning about who she is. But they both never really learned who they BOTH together are. Which was what made the If I Stay series spectacular.