Review: Just One Day by Gayle Forman

Blurb: A whirlwind day in Paris... A chance at true love... Heartbreak is waiting just around the corner.
(That's one explanatory blurb, right there.)

What I thought: I don't know what it is about Gayle Forman's books. The writing is good but not great. The story/idea/plot/whatever is fine. It should end up being an average-to-all-right book. But Just One Day was really good (and by good, I mean I really enjoyed it. I don't mean that despite everything I just said, it turned out to be amazing, and I just can't stop talking about it and all people everywhere should read it).

It did take me a while to get into, just like If I Stay and Where She Went. In the beginning, Allyson annoyed me because of her passivity and Melanie annoyed me because of her me-ness (which is, as of now, a word, and I expect it to be in the OED by Christmas), and you kind of wonder when the story actually starts.
And then Willem turns up, and he seems like SUCH A DICK. Not at first, I mean, but a few pages after he's introduced. I was thinking, okay, nothing happened, and now she's dropped all of the nothing to go off with this guy who kinda sucks. Great. 

HOWEVER. Willem turns out to be kind of awesome. But still kind of a dick. Which is actually kind of nice (kind of, kind of, kind of). Refreshing. But still a bit annoying. Arghhh...

I did think that the story had parts in it that were very like some other books I've read. Although, goldfish that I am, I've now forgotten what those bits were. Got to write reviews closer to when I actually finish the book... Anyway. I do remember thinking that some parts were a bit Anna And The French Kiss, and also some other stuff which, guess what, I don't remember.

But the thing is, all of that really didn't matter. I read an article in my school magazine a few days ago about film critics, and there was a bit about how it doesn't matter if there are slight plot gaps or whatever, if the story makes you forget about them or just not care. If the story is better than it's failings. Which I think Just One Day is. Despite all of the things that could have been better or different, or the parts that annoyed me, it was one of those books that you just can't stop thinking about. For me, that goes for all of Gayle Forman's books that I've read so far. I don't know how she does it.


Rate: 7/10