Book Review | Just One Year | Gayle Forman

Title: Just One Year
Author: Gayle Forman (web | twitter)
Series: Just One Day #2
Genre: Contemporary YA
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Publisher: Dutton Children’s
Release date: October 10, 2013
Source: Own it

Summary: Before you find out how their story ends, remember how it began….

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. . . .

The romantic, emotional companion to Just One Day, this is a story of the choices we make and the accidents that happen—and the happiness we can find when the two intersect.

JUST ONE YEAR by Gayle Forman is the companion/sequel that I have been DROOLING for since I finished JUST ONE DAY in January. Like, seriously, drooling. The story of Willem and Lulu (or Allyson) and their magical, passionate, intense day in Paris was actually about way more than one day. We saw Allyson grow and understand herself and so many other excellent things. Willem’s story in JUST ONE YEAR features more of the same kind of growth and change and discovery. And, depending on how you look at it, a little bit of fate as well. And, apparently, the divulsion of the fact that Willem is John Mayer’s doppelganger. Who knew. For real, though, getting to spend a year with Willem was mostly a really great experience.

Willem is firmly in the spotlight of JUST ONE YEAR. When we met him for one day in JUST ONE DAY, it was clear that there were things about him that we didn’t know, but over the course of this book, Gayle Forman shows us what has been making him tick. We begin with Willem in the hospital in Paris the morning after his day with Lulu and we follow him–back to The Netherlands, to India, Mexico, across Europe–over the course of a year as he begins to deal with the recent death of his father, his distant mother, and his feelings for Lulu and what their one day meant to him.

The Willem from JUST ONE YEAR is a more contemplative beast than the one who blazed into Lulu’s life in JUST ONE DAY. At least he seemed that way to me. I always thought he was charming and mysterious and carefree, and I guess he still is those things. But being in his head gave me a completely different perspective–as it should–and so he became instead introspective and sad and lonely. His father has died, his mother left Amsterdam and hasn’t been in contact with Willem in FOREVER, and even when Willem moved in with his old school friends, he just seemed lost. There was a part of me who thought the Willem from JUST ONE DAY was maybe trouble. Maybe not a good guy to date or fall in love with because he seemed so inconstant and too much of a wanderer. But the JUST ONE YEAR Willem just made me want to smother him with hugs. I felt for him and his uncertain future, and cheered when that future slowly becomes clearer.

While Willem’s feelings for Lulu are a constant presence, Gayle Forman gives him the same treatment that Allyson got. We don’t have a character who is wrapped up in their relationship, no matter how intense. Willem has lots of things to come to grips with on his own, and so I thought the more important relationship in JUST ONE YEAR was between Willem and his mother, Yael. They are cut from the same cloth as far as I could tell, more interested in running from things than reaching out to each other. They are not dealing with the death of their father and husband, respectively, very well. They both seemed to rely on him for connecting and so now are missing their link to one another.

I had some mixed feelings about Yael.  Willem didn’t go out of his way to reach out to her, so he’s certainly got some share of the blame, but I always tend to find greater fault with the parents who kind of desert their kids, and so Yael seemed selfish in that way to me. It was nice, then, to see Willem and his mother begin to sort through their issues.

If I had to make one complaint about JUST ONE YEAR, though, it would be the ending. I was really hoping for MORE. You know? I’m trying not be a spoiler, friends, so I’ll say that while I thought it was cool the way Gayle Forman ending JUST ONE YEAR, and I was glad with the general direction of things, the closer I got to the end of my arc, the more worried I became that THINGS weren’t going to happen. And I felt that those THINGS I was hoping for were missing. Still, all in all, I enjoyed spending time with Willem.

Gayle Forman is soooo good at creating real relationships and characters who are more than their significant others. Willem and Allyson are so layered and flawed. It makes their growth so satisfying and their relationship seem so POSSIBLE. Like, they must be real people. If I had to pick a favorite of the two books, I’d say that JUST ONE DAY is my favorite, but Willem makes me want to hug him through his pain and that is a BIG plus. JUST ONE YEAR was so worthy of my pining away for it.

Check out some other reviews of Just One Year by Gayle Forman!

Judith @ Paper Riot: “I am convinced that it’s a good novel, but I didn’t like it like I thought I would, and that was a huge disappointment.”

Jess @ Gone With the Word: “Gayle Forman has given us such a unique pair of books. I loved this. I loved how parallel they were.”

Hannah @ So Obsessed With: “Just One Year was emotional, lovely, authentic… It’s a journey with a character that I know I’ll be taking over and over again because I can already see many rereads in my future.”