Scan barcode
A review by reuben_surrender
Just One Year by Gayle Forman
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.