Monday, 28 January 2013

Just One Day - Gayle Forman


Pages: 369
Publisher: Definitions (Random House)
Release Date: 10th January 2012
Edition: UK paperback, purchased copy

Other Titles by this Author: If I Stay, Where She Went

A whirlwind day in Paris...
A chance at true love...
Heartbreak is waiting just around the corner.

From the author of the international bestseller, If I Stay, comes a poignant and beautiful story of love, loss and learning to live again.

If I Stay and Where She Went captured my heart with Gayle Forman’s beautiful prose and heartbreaking story of love and loss and Just One Day had exactly the same effect.

One of the most unexpected – in the best way – things about Just One Day was the prominence of Shakespeare in the novel. I’ve studied his plays in school since I can remember but I’ve not yet seen one live and the performance of Twelfth Night put on by Guerilla Will is something I’d kill to see, especially in Stratford-upon-Avon! Forman kept the themes and ideas of Shakespeare relevant to so much in the novel and was the perfect thing to run alongside Allyson’s journey.

Just One Day takes a few philosophical and thoughtful turns as “LuLu” and Willem muse on the nature of love and release of travelling and Allyson reacts to loss and doubt. I found it incredible that a single day with a stranger in Paris could have such a large and lasting impact. It left a permanent mark on her opened her up to so many new ideas and experiences that she otherwise would have stayed ignorant of.

This novel gave me serious wanderlust. I haven’t been to many places but I’ve always dreamt of seeing the world and Allyson went to more places in a single year than I’ve been to in my entire life: Paris, Holland, Amsterdam, New York, Miami, Mexico and that’s not including the European tour she went on before the novel started! I want to go somewhere new and exciting so badly. The possibilities, the opportunities, the people...

Once again, I’ve written a pretty vague review but I really don’t want to spoil a single word of this romantic, thoughtful and intensely involving novel.


Sophie 

2 comments:

  1. I have been wanting to read this since I did like Gayle Forman's previous books. I am tempted to get it!

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  2. I've not read any of Gayle Forman's novels but I have heard such great things about them all! This one is one that I seems realyl grand as well. Reviews that don't give much away? Totally more interesting then the ones with too much description!

    Thanks for sharing this great review Sophie, I may have to grab a hold of this book as soon as I can! :D

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