Just One Day by Gayle Forman

Bookish Mardi: A Book Review of Just One Day
by Gayle Forman 

". . . all sorts of people take different identities and fall in love." - Gayle Forman

Book / Series:
Just One Day #1

Author: Gayle Forman 

Publisher: Speak

Publication Date: August 20, 2013

First Publication: Jan. 08, 2013

Pages: 369

Format: Trademark Paperback

Source: Bought

Book Summary

Allyson Healyey's life is exactly like her suitcase - packed, planned, ordered. Then on the last day of her three-week post-grduation European tour, she meets Willem. A free-spirited, roving actor, Willem is everything she's not, and when he invites her to abandon her plans and come to Paris with him, Allyson says yes. This uncharacteristic decision leads to a day of risk and romance, liberation and intimacy: 24 hours that will transform Allyson's life. (Source : Goodreads)

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Cee's Musings and Reflections 

After reading my first Gayle Forman series, If I Stay and Where She Went , and knowing that she had another series being released, never did I have any second thoughts of grabbing one. Being able to have  her new books is one thing and getting a signed copy is definitely another. :)

Gayle Forman's Just One Day  signed copy

There are just so much things I'd like to point out in this novel, however I got worried 'coz if I'm way too wordy I'll get you my readers bored. So I'll try my very best not to make this a lengthy one. (But then, if ever I will be, just pardon me so for when I write, I do not stop unless I'll be able to pour out everything that's in my shell, hahahah! )

I'd like to begin with the person behind this novel, Gayle Forman herself. My fondness for this author had gone really intense. It's because she was the very first author who had me crying just by reading those first few pages of her If I Stay . A novel told in the POV of the girl and the sequel was done through the boy's POV. The same style is applied to this new series then that made me think adds up to the total impact of the novel. Her way of making my emotions tapped and stirred is a thing while her ability in presenting her characters as real and complicated with many facets that make me hope to capture them in just a single paragraph is another. Add to that her way of projecting her settings as a must-travel ones is beyond commendable.

Before I actually bought the books, I accidentally read the first book's first page, and it caught me off guard right away.  For over 8 years ( four from my college years and another four from my teaching endeavors) never had I encountered a person who questioned the great Williams Shakepeare's work.

Yes! Through this novel, I was able to visit the epoch when the great William Shakespeare made name. Thanks to Gayle's intellectual and exquisite idea of integrating his plays to her novel. The remarkable Hamlet, Macbeth, Otello as well as the very famour star-crossed lovers, Romeo and Juliet are just a few among those I have befriended again as I was brought to their era.

It's not only in the time of Shakespear did I made a very unforgettabl journey , but also to my dream continent, Europe. If you have seen my instagram post, I've made mention that this novel is the teenage version of Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat Pray Love, and it truly is. It's a perfect fusion of both menu and travelogue described in picture-perfect details along with Allyson's search for her happiness  - her one great and true love.

As I've observed, the novel is prespicuously about "changing identities /pretending-to-be-somebody-else" and the "accidents of fates". Willem, from the book, did change his identities as a result of being an actor which became both advantageous and not. Allyson at the same time did enjoyed the idea of being named after another person given with their resemblant personalities but then later on did regret of what it had brought to her.

I dauntlessly affirm that at some point in our lives we become Willem and Allyson. We are tempted or most of the time we simply just change ourselves (I mean not the positive changes) and pretend to be somebody who we are not just to be able to go with what they say as the "flow". We are then blinded with both temporal and nontemporal stuffs which oftentimes cloud the real us. We become victims of our society's despising eyes that instead of perfoming our real role, we just then accept the mask such society is giving us for us not to be belittled. Sometimes we become subjugated by our comrade's deceiving deeds that though we know for a fact how unlikable they act, we still imitate them for us not to be left out and isolated. The worst part there is when we become enslaved by our own-unsatistfying-selves that no matter how evil we become in the eyes of others, we still continue to soak ourselves with these never-ending dirt for us to SIMPLY quench desires. How pathetic we (because I know I'm not an excemption to these, every single one of us  is prone to be like this may it be consciously or not) get once in awhile.

Now, imagine what will happen to us if we are to continue living not being true to ourselves? Will we just let others judge us for the rest of our lives? Will we just continue letting them label us? Or until when will we be wearing the shoes we don't actually own? Come to think of it! ;)

Another thought that had me pondering after reading the book was this "accidents". Just a little segue, I love how Willem describes life's positive and negative pirouttes as "accidents" wherein Allyson was having confusions as to why but had understood it in the latter part of the novel. I so much admire her way of realizing that these "accidents" are what "miracles" are but took it right away and settled to  having "LIFE" as the most appropriate and perfect way of describing these mentioned accidents.

Every single day in our years of living on earth, we all the time encounter these "miracles", these "accidents". We just don't notice them daily because we have a mind setting that when it comes to such, they always appear to be in huge and obvious ways like withstanding a super typhoon, surviving a vehicular accident, getting cured from cancer or even coming back to life. We sometimes fail to recognize that there are also those daily tidbits of miracles.

Yes, I've only live a quarter of years ( if fortunately I'll be given a hundred to spend) not as much as others have been into, but I have these miracles in both huge and minute : living my second chance here on earth is a thing I'll forever be  thankful for, and that's something I cannot consider as minute. However these other mircles also exist: doing freely the things I love to do, making daily and random walks to breath in the beauty of nature, witnessing sunsets and marvel how great the One above is, meeting and old pal who despite of not seeing for years still remembers me, treasuring memories made with my ex-students who still look for me though I'm no longer their teacher, enjoying the company of good and true friends who never forget to call in both happy and sobber times, seeing and teasing relatives who are always there to help, spending many years with the one I can say I'll be happy to spend my lifetime with, and painting smile on my immediate family's faces despite of our not-so-perfect lives.

See??? These are such priceless miracles which appear to be nonsense but can never be equaled to any awards we gather, the degress we finish, license we get, places we visit, high positions at work we achieve, cars we buy, mansions we build, and money we save. These are just the best yet simple and free miracles that we sometimes fail to realize in our daily living.

But do you know what among these is what I considered as the best??? It's the miracle of "waking up" each day. For it is in this "waking up" that we are given another chance to perform and fulfill what we failed yesterday and to accomplish something that may forever change our lives. It's in this "waking up" that new opportunies will be opened for us. It is in this "waking up" that we are are given another set of beautiful and bountiful things which I believe is why we call it the "present". And it is in this "present" that we might find our lives' real happiness.

And to sum up what I grasped from this novel? Let us not be like Willem and Allyson who did a lot of pretensions before finally realizing and discovering what their real happiness is. Let us not be like them who waited for a year just to be able to digest that with what they call as "accidents" lie their real happiness. Let us grab whatever opportunity we have at hand for we never know, we truly never know what tomorrow might have in store for us. Good thing if we'll be like this couple who was given another chance. What if we won't? Hence, let us not wait for tomorrow to do what we ought to be done, let alone wait for a year to come before we do an act.

Say thanks for the miracles you have now, hold on to chances you receive, meet and enjoy the company of your friends, do the things you like, talk to the people you value, fall in love with that one person who deserves you and spend time with your family, for today is always the best day. And for a piece of advice, Live as if today is your last! ^_^


With these so much contemplations and bluffs  I have, do you think I won't recommend the book? Ohhh, com'on! :))))

Remarkable Lines from the Book 

"All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and entrances;
And one man in his time plays many part . . ."
- William Shakepeare

"What if Shakespeare had it wrong?To be, or not to be: that is the question." But what if Shakespeare - and
 Hamlet - were asking the wrong question? - Allyson 

"What IF the real question is not whether to be, but how to be?" - Allyson

"I feel like I've entered some weird otherworldly space, where anything can happen, where identities can be swapped like shoes. Where those thought dead are alive again. Where everyone gets their happily-ever-afters." - Lulu

"That happens a lot with Shakespeare. The women go after what they want; the men wind up suckered into things." - Willem

". . . it's a nice fairy tale, but that's what it is. A fairy tale." - Willem

". . . lions always go for the weakest gazelle." - Allyson 

". . . the world is divided into two groups: the doers and the watchers. The people things happen to and the rest of us, who just sort of plod on with things." - Allyson 

"It's not about looking for hot guys, but about feelin like a place acknowledge you, winked at you, accepted you." - Allyson

"When you know, you know." - Lulu
"Apparently, when you only have one day, you can say anything and live to tell." - Lulu

"I think maybe travelling is a talent, like whistling or dancing, and some people have it." - Lulu

"Travelling's not something you're good at. It's something you do. Like breathing." - Willem

Photo from Web

"You thought too hard. Same with travel. You can't work too much at it, or it feels like work. You have to surrender yourself to the chaos. To the accidents." - Willem

Photo from Web

Willem: "The little things that happen. Sometimes they're insignificant; other times they change everything." 

Lulu: This sound very Jedi. Can you be more specific?

Willem: A guy picks up a girl hitchhiking in a faraway country. A year later,  she runs out of money and winds up on his doorstep. Six months after that, they get married. Accidents.

"It's not just accidental, just temporary. Until the next accidents sends me somewhere new. That's how life works." - Willem 

"Do you really think that's how it works? That life can change justlikethat?" - Lulu

"I think that everything is happening all the time, but if you don't put yourself in the path of it, you miss it. When you travel, you put yourself in the path out there. It's not always great. Sometimes it's terrible. But other times. . .
it's not so bad." - Willem

"When the sun shines, you let it shine on you." - The Giant

"There is a world of difference between falling  in love and being  in love." - Willem

"You have to fall in love to be in love, but falling in love isn't the same as being in love." - Willem 

Willem: It's something that never comes off, no matter how much you might want it to.

Lulu: You're comparing love to a . . . stain?Willem: Exactly!

"I think it's human nature to keep going when you're ahead, no matter what." - Willem 

"Maybe nobody really quits while they're really ahead." - Willem 

"Times stops for no one." - Allyson's Mom

"Time is like the water: Fluid." - Captain Jack 

"Time doesn't seem fluid to me. It seems real and animate and hard as rock."  - Lulu

"I preferred to experience something rather than obsessively record it." - Allyson 

Lulu: ". . . this is the point of laughter, to spread happiness."

Willem:  "Sometimes you can't know until you know." 

"Tempt fate. See what happens."  - Willem 

"I think you're the sort  of person who finds money on the ground and waves it in the air and asks if anyone has lost it. I think you cry in movies that aren't even sad because you have a soft heart, though you don't let it show. I think you do things that scare you, and that makes you braver than those adrenaline junkies who bungee-jump off bridges." - Willem 

"La beauté est une enchanteresse, et la bonne foi qui s'expose a ses harmes se dissout en sang."
("Beauty is an enchantress, and the good faith that exposes himself to her charms dissolves in blood).  - Much Ado About Nothing

"It's always about accidents."  - Willem

". . . if time can be fluid, then maybe something that is just one day can go on indefinitely." - Lulu

"You forget time does't exist anymore. You gave it to me." - Willem

". . . fear needs no translation. A scream is the same in any language." - Lulu

"It's funny the things you think you're scared of until they're upon you, and then you're not." - Lulu

Photo from Web

"You never know what will last." - Willem

"I wanted him to know that when he felt alone out there in the world. . . I was there too." - Lulu

"We are born in one day. We die in onde day. We change in one day. And we fall in love in one day. Anything can happen in just one day."  - Allyson

Photo from Web

Photo from Web

Photo from Web

"But men are diffrent from women. Their emotions are capricious." - Ms. Foley

"Accidents are the defining force in his life." - Allyson

"It's hard to push a memory down. The hardest. It's why I keep it buried." - Allyson

"I know that I cannot be trusted to discern sincerety from fakery." - Allyson

"Stains are even worse when you're the only one who can see them." - Allyson

". . . people don't change over night." - Melanie

"A day is a day is a day. It means nothing." - Allyson

"Relief is more powerful than shame." - Allyson

"Sometimes the best way to find out what you're supposed to do is by doing the thing you're not supposed to do." - Gretchem

"The Fates. I think that's another word for accidents." - Allyson

"In a field of carefully cultivated weirdness, he's a wildflower, or maybe a weed." - Allyson

"Shakespeare did not write his plays so that you could sit in a library carrel and read them in silence. Playwrights are not novelists. They create works that need to be performed, interpreted. To be interpreted through the ages." - Willem

"No one is who they pretend to be." - All

"But how am I supposed to do that when the one story i really want to tell is the very one I'm supposed to be wiping clean?" - Allyson 

Photo from Web

". . . all sorts of people take on different identities and fall in love." - Allyson

"I don't seem to know how to open up to people without the door being slammed in my face. So I do nothing."   - Allyson

"I have a full life. How can I be this empty? Because of one guy? Because of one  day?" - Allyson

"Willem wasn't Romeo. He was a romeo." - Allyson

"O don't do sports metaphors, but I'm pretty sure baseball  games are generally nine innings." - Dee

Allyson's letter to Willem 

"Do you believe in accidents of the universe? Is nutella chocolate? Is falling in love the same as being in love?" - Allyson

". . . the people we pretend at, they're really in us. That's why we pretend them in the first place." - Dee

"Amazing things happen when you ask for help." - Kali

". . . when you open Pandora's Box, you never know what's gonna fly out." - Dee

"That's the thing about liberation. It comes at a price."  - Allyson

"It is courageous to go into territory unknown." - Madame Lambert

Photo from Web

"Sometimes you can only feel something by its absence. By the empty space it leaves behind." - Allyson

"Stopping when you realize what you have is enough." - Allyson's Mom

"When you lose something, you have to visualize the last place you had it." - Allyson

"Once accidents happen, there's no backtracking." - Allyson

". . . things are rarely what they appear to be." - Allyson

". . .  it's not enough to know that someone is called. You have to know who they are." - Allyson

"I'm the lost one, chasing someone who has no desire to be found." - Allyson

". . . be grateful for what you have instead of yearning for what you think you want." - Allyson's Mom

"Forward momentum. That's my new motto. No regrets. And no going back." - Allyson

"And that's when I understand that I have been stained. Whether I'm still in love with him, whether he was ever in love with me and no matter who he's in love with now, Willem changed my life. He showed me how to get lost , and then I showed myself how to get found." - Allyson

Photo from Web

Photo from Web

Photo from Web

"Maybe accident isn't the right word after all. Maybe miracle is. Or maybe it's not miracle. Maybe this is just life. When you open yourself up to it. When you put yourself in the path of it. When you say yes." - Allyson / Lulu

Thanks for spending your time reading. Hope you did have fun.

Click here for the quotes from the book's sequel, Just One Year. 

- Cee Brensan ^_^