Book Review: Just One Year by Gayle Forman

Book: Just One Year
Author: Gayle Forman
File Type: Hardcover
Release Date: October 10th, 2013
Publisher: Dutton children's
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

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. . . .

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. 

I have to admit. This entire year, I've been on a reviewing slump. My only explanation is that I haven't felt like reviewing for a while now. I guess it's sad but sometimes you just can't help it.

Then there have also been some books which have just compelled to me pick up my hand and type. They were beautiful. They were honest. They were books I loved and can't get enough. They were books that affected me on the deepest level possible and then there were books that I simply despised.

Just One Year was a beautiful book in my opinion. While I was reading the book, I could just imagine walking through all those places Willem visited. I even had a 'OMG. I HAVE BEEN HERE!' moment when I read about Willem's journey to India. Mumbai is an over-populated vibrant city and Just One Year made me fall in love with that city all over again. I love a novel that has travelling as one its pivotal themes because it evokes this sense of wanderlust in me. It makes me fantasize more and more. It makes me love a place that I haven't had a chance to visit before. It gives me hope that ONE DAY, I would get the chance to visit one of these places and experience that city or town or village. This feeling is another shade of love and I just can't help but thank Gayle Forman for it.

I've felt this slumpi-ness before. I remember reading Code Name Verity and thinking that damn, I just need to write and that ended my slumpi-ness at that point of time. I'm not saying that Just One Year ended that slumpiness for me. I just feel that it was powerful enough to make me want to get up and just write.

Willem's journey was so much like Allyson's and it was also so very different. Willem was this interesting character who majorly pissed us girls off with his 'bye bye' act in Paris. Now that I think about it, Willem was a pretty looney character right from the very beginning. You could clearly see that with his 'I've loved girls but haven't been in love with a girl' theory and you know, lots of other things, like his random wandering and the 'yo! stranger.I flipped you the coin, now lets go on a joy trip to Paris because you want to for JUST ONE DAY.' Don't you see the pattern? Something was wrong Willem. I, as reader, ignored his crap because he was beautiful..and honest..and pretty..and philosophical..and DUTCH. And then I read that sneak peak.

And then, promptly.

I got mad.

Listen Gayle forman, if you think that I love cliffahngers then you're wrong. Because I've been dying. I've been dying to know what happened to Willem and what led him to just disappear like that! *breathes*


It's okay, Gayle. I forgive you. You wrote a beautiful novel.

I loved Willem's journey much more than Allyson's. There was this one phase or rather an entire section in Just One Day when the book just fell flat and it was boring. That was the Allyson in depression time. And it sucked. Now as for Willem? Never a dull moment. This guy was fantastic. His journey was one of self-discovery too but I loved watching him grow. I loved how he settled into his own skin. I loved how he grew. I loved him. I think that Willem is a pretty deep guy. He just needed that direction and I loved how he discovered 'his' direction.

Romance has always been my undoing and Just One Year incorporates a beautiful love story amidst its pages. I love how things come full circle. I love how history unmakes you and how it also, along the way, remakes you. History is forever because in the end, it does repeat itself and I think that THIS was the beauty of Just One Year, it remade every character. I saw most of them in a different light.
Finding yourself and life-changing actions always fascinate me. There are those What ifs I love thinking about. There are those if onlys I love wondering about. I love it. I love this introspection. I think that any book which makes you introspect yourself is an achievement for that book in itself. I wouldn't say that Just One Year would do that for you. Or it may just do that or maybe it already has or probably hasn't. It still is a given that this book year is a visual treat and a certified beauty and in some level or the other, it will touch you.

I leave you with just two words:

double happiness.

Those who've read this book would definitely get it and those who haven't, can be ready to get blown by the entire idea of it.