This One Time with Julia

by David Lampson

Joe's twin brother, Alvin, disappeared. And with him went Joe's tenuous grip on real life. The rest of it: the road trip, the maybe-murder, the burned-down house--all of that came later.

At eighteen, Joe is stuck in limbo. Directionless and simple, he blows through his inheritance playing poker and eats only cheeseburgers, pizza, and guacamole. Then his twin brother, Alvin, disappears--and Julia, Alvin's tempestuous girlfriend, takes Joe on a whirlwind road trip from L.A. to Tennessee. There, he's thrust into the dysfunctional dynamic of her wealthy family. For the first time, Joe has a job. He has a suit he wears every day. And he's in love with a crazy, beautiful girl who only talks honestly in her sleep. Joe's so blinded by his seductive new life that he almost misses the truth about what happened to his twin...

Maybe Joe can't grow up--but he can love.

Genres: Young Adult, Romance, Contemporary, Fiction, Mystery, Humor, Teen

232 pages, Paperback

First published February 2, 2012

Reviews

[Sushi ReadsBooks · Rating 1 out of 5]

This One Time with Julia is the most fucked up book I've ever had the chance to read.

She popped his zit.
Kissed the spot.
And broke up with him because he licked her last cookie.
Everyone in this book is crazy.
Even Joe.
Literally crazy.

Literally.

There is no plot. The characters are brainless beings who just float around during the course of this book giggling, kissing, being criminals and killing each other. Nobody talks like these people. Not even those homeless people at intersections that keep talking to themselves.

And there's a bonus. The ending will make you question your existence. I swear by it. It will make you tear the walls down in your own house.

I guarantee that you that much.

Go ahead and read it. But don't say I didn't warn you.

[Mr. McCarthy · Rating 1 out of 5]

There’s just not much to this book. The problem with a character as bland and one-dimensional as Joe is that he is bland and one-dimensional. Joe has no depth; he seems to have no mental or emotional level to access except that of extreme passivity. I’m not saying there is necessarily something wrong with a character who has no agency and simply lets the world act on him, instead of him acting on it—but that kind of character simply cannot carry a novel. The same critique applies to both brothers, who are one-dimensional and robotic. If I were an extremely generous reader, I’d give Lampson credit for creating this strange cast of flat characters on purpose to make some sort of comment on the way that we perceive other people. But I don’t think that was it—I think it just wasn’t a very good book. I will admit, I had some interest in the relationship between Joe and Julia. I was curious to see whether or not either could change the other in some meaningful way. And while you could potential argue that (SPOILER!) the murder at the end does represent some growth for Joe, it’s not enough for me. It was a quick enough read and some parts were engaging, there just was not enough depth to the narrative and not enough style in the prose to carry this novel.

[John · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was a s**tshow. What a waste of time.

[Reut · Rating 5 out of 5]

Originally reviewed on reutreads, a young adult book blog.

I honestly don't know what to say about this book.

It's quite brilliant. I absolutely loved it.

Admittedly, I was going to deduct a star for the ending. While a bit profound, the ending of This One Time With Julia is abrupt, not really giving any closure.

But then I remember Alvin. And Houston. And Ms. Delancey. I remember Joe's signature and then Alvin again. I remember Julia--who is not the Manic Pixie Dream Girl the summary suggests. I remember breakfast and I remember Marcus--oh, Marcus. I remember the phone and the cheeseburgers and the chicken sandwiches. And so I give it five stars.

Highly recommended.

[Tiffany · Rating 2 out of 5]

I kept waiting for this book to get better, more intense, pull me in. By the end that never happened. Easy read.

[Kait · Rating 3 out of 5]

This One Time With Julia is one of the strangest books I have ever read and I do not mean that in a good way. Half the time I didn't have a clue what was going on and when I finished the book I was left wondering what the heck the point of the book was.

Joe is a very weird boy. He is 18-years-old but he can't read, has very little education, he lives on his older brother's couch, and he is very naive. I almost wondered at times of he had some mental issues but it was never mentioned. Joe's brothers, Alvin and Marcus, were not in the book very much but I did not like either. Alvin took advantage of Joe and Marcus was just plain mean to him. As for Julia, she was manipulative and really nothing special. I did not like her at all.

The plot never really went anywhere. Honestly there seemed to be no point to the book. There really wasn't a conclusion, the story just ended. I'm still left wondering where the actual ending was.

Overall, This One Time With Julia is not a book I would recommend. Some people may enjoy it but it honestly made no sense to me. Definitely get this one from the library if you are at all interested.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

For all of you who like weird books, this one is for you! Joe isn't the brightest boy in the bunch--he'd rather gamble than learn to read or be lazy instead of be productive. He might be LD or have Asberger's or something else, but no one has cared enough to find out for him. His twin brother Alvin likes that Joe never changes, but Alvin isn't the most mentally stable kid in town either.

When Alvin disappears, Joe escapes with Alvin's ex-girlfriend and basically takes his place as pool boy. Joe falls in love (he thinks), but he isn't exactly sure what is going on with Julia's family or Alvin.

I'm really surprised Joe is able to feed himself or survive in his world--he seems so completely out of it. From the front cover, the reader thinks Joe is gorgeous, but he seems so dense that he doesn't seem able to function. It's always difficult to read about characters that are difficult to understand, and Joe, Alvin, and Julia are just not in my world. Thankfully!

[Jonathan Maas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Part Norwood, part Forrest Gump, all fun!

Great book, just a unique voice. The protagonist isn't your conventional hero by any means, but there is just something about him that keeps you from putting the book down. I might not want to hire him as my pool boy, but I wouldn't mind playing a few rounds of basketball against him.

The book has brilliant shades of (sub) urban surrealism, and reminds me of the (also brilliant) Boy Genius by Yongsoo Park.

Any case brilliant! Leaves me wanting more!

[Shanyn]

What the?

Full Review: http://chickloveslit.com/2012/02/revi...

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Weird, and not necissarily very good, but when in the mood for weird, it certainly works.

[Thia Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.8 stars

Hmmm.... Not your average love story.

I am not really sure what to say about this book. Looking at the reviews I thought it was going to be boring and all over the place, but as strange as this book was I actually enjoyed it. I don't think there was one character that was 100% sane (but then again, who is?). Everyone was disfunctional and there are minor twists that I wasn't even expecting because I didn't expect this book to have a mystery element to it (I was pleasantly surprised). At first, I didn't understand Joe's character because he seemed like he had a learning/mental disability, but as the story went on I realized he did and that made it so much easy to understand his character better. What everyone else's excuse was? I don't know.

My main complaint about this book is the ending. It felt like the author got tired of writing and just couldn't come up with a way to wrap it up without adding another 100 pages and gave up. The ending felt like a fragment sentence---incomplete. All he had to do was add a short epilogue so the reader wouldn't feel cheated in the end. But whatever.

Anyway, the more I think about it, I don't even know what I just read, but I enjoyed the weird-"tilt"-ness of it.

Content: 1 sex scene (cause we gotta have atleast 1--smh), but not graphic & some kissing in bed.
Language: Some, but not too much...

[Hazel Leu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Honestly, really enjoyed this book. It was quite weird though. It took me about 1 hour to read and I was taking my time.

What I loved... the characters especially Joe. Julia was alright and Alvin was just hardly mentioned I felt to even consider a true character.

What I hated... Marcus. You'll have to read it to understand why I didn't like him. Also you can see that I did not give this book 5 stars because was annoyed by the ending.

It's no surprise that the book has a three star average rating, I will definitely be reading more from this author in the near future.

[Liz · Rating 2 out of 5]

weird..pointless words I would agree to describe this book. Most of the time reading this book you are thinking to yourself huh? or what?I also wondered what was wrong with the main character. I'm giving it two stars because I did read the whole book quite quickly.It's a short book.I got it at a library sale.You fill up your bag and pay a $1. I will not be keeping it and plan to pass it on to another library. Some people seemed to love this book.I am not one of them.

[Sheila Samuelson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating: 3 Stars!!
Review:
I wasnt sure what to expect since this was my first time reading a book by this author.

At first i loved this story til Julia kept going back and forth between Joe and Alvin which is why i rated this book 3 stars.

It bothered me that she kept doing that and than one of them wanted to file for divorce from Julia yet she still loves him which was abit odd to me.

I will check out other books by this author but this one just wasnt for me!!!

[Nina Test · Rating 3 out of 5]

I went into the book blind, and wasn't at all what I was expecting. This story wasn't actually that bad. It took me by surprise at some points. The only thing I wish was changed was the ending. I wish it added more onto it...like what happened to Joe after this entire stream of events?
I wouldnt reread but it wasn't bad

[Brandi · Rating 2 out of 5]

I almost didn't finish this book, but after letting it sit for 10 months I finally picked it up and finished it. This book is a very easy read. However, it is a very weird plot that I don't think was fully developed. I think the author had a lot of great ways he could have expanded, but instead the book just jumped from one weird moment to another.

[Neteja Robinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is definitely not the book you want to pick up if you want something intellectually challenging, or something that even makes sense 😂. Buuutttttt if you want something, light, weird, and you just need to get out of a reading slump, pick this up. It's strange and will have you shook.

[Emma · Rating 2 out of 5]

Such a weird book!

[Andrea Larson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Waste. I paid 99c for it so not a huge waste. I just had to see it through to see if there was a point.

[Karleigh V · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very, VERY interesting read. This book was a lot different that most of my reads, but nevertheless I enjoyed it. I considered it a rollercoaster of emotions.

[Virginia Karin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Would give zero stars.

[Allison Joyce · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had a really hard time remembering that the main character is 18 years old, everyone else in the story were just horrible people.

[Andrea Green · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not worth the .99 I paid. What was the point of this? 224 pages that had no substance to it. Do not recommend

[Ina Vainohullu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Der 18-jährige Joe lebt in seiner eigenen kleinen Welt, die jedoch tief erschüttert wird, als sein Zwillingsbruder Alvin spurlos verschwindet und dessen Freundin Julia bei ihm auftaucht. Julia bittet ihn um Hilfe und so macht sich Joe auf und stürzt in das größte Abenteuer seines Lebens.

Auf dieser einzigartigen Reise findet der zurückgebliebene junge Mann nicht nur seine große Liebe, sondern er findet auch heraus was tatsächlich mit seinem Bruder passiert ist und er lernt Dinge von denen er nicht einmal geträumt hätte....



Meinung:


Wer hier, wie ich, mit einer süßen jugendlichen Lovestory rechnet, der tritt leider in die sprichwörtliche "Klappentextfalle", denn an diesem Buch ist nichts normal und auch "süß" trifft es eher weniger !

David Lampson schreibt mit einer erfrischenden Nüchternheit und erschafft ein geniales, auf Papier gebrachtes Independent-Roadmovie. Kreativ, wahnwitzig, komisch und völlig schräg.
Er zaubert surreale Szenen und schickt den Leser auf eine verrückte Reise mit unvorhersehbaren Wendungen. Die Geschichte hält den Leser in Atem, man weiß nie was als Nächstes passiert und gerade das ist unglaublich aufregend und zwingt dich schier zum Weiterlesen.

Die Geschichte wird aus der Sicht von Joe erzählt. Und ach, ich mag ihn ! Er ist der wohl einfachste, naivste Hauptprotagonist, den ich in letzter Zeit kennengelernt habe. Er ist glücklich mit seinem Leben, nimmt jedes Ereignis so wie es kommt und legt selbst in den schlimmsten Momenten noch eine stoische Gelassenheit an den Tag. Vieles hat er in seinem Leben einfach nicht gelernt und deshalb vermisst er es auch nicht. Er ist zufrieden damit, sich ausschließlich von Cheeseburgern zu ernähren und jeden Tag sein Geld zu verpokern. Doch als Julia in sein Leben tritt, da ändert sich für ihn alles.

Julia ging irgendwie komplett an mir vorbei. Ich finde sie recht blass und obwohl sie ein wichtiger Teil der Geschichte ist, steht sie für mich doch eher im Hintergrund.
Ähnlich erging es mir mit Alvin, dem Auslöser für diese Wahnsinns-Reise, der immer wieder als Joe's Hirngespinst erscheint und von Vision zu Vision jünger wird. Obwohl er so wichtig ist, kriege ich ihn nicht wirklich zu fassen. Und je mehr ich vom Leben der Brüder erfahre, desto weniger kann ich ihn leiden !!!

Anders ist das bei Joe's älterem Bruder Marcus. Zunächst empfand ich ihn als sehr unangenehmen Charakter. Auf sich selbst fixiert, seinem Bruder gegenüber grob oder gar gleichgültig. Doch wenn man zwischen den Zeilen liest, dann versteht man sein Verhalten, seinen Hass auf Alvin und warum er immer wieder versucht Joe einzubläuen sich besser von Alvin fernzuhalten. Er versteckt es gut, doch wenn man genau hinsieht, dann erkennt man, das da hinter der rüden Fassade ein sehr verletzter allein gelassener Marcus steckt, der sich um Joe sorgt und nur das Beste für ihn will.

Auch wenn nicht alle Charaktere für mich gleich greifbar sind, so sind sie doch alle mit viel Liebe erschaffen, zwar nicht wirklich authentisch, aber trotzdem sehr überzeugend.

Das Ende ist eine bunte Mischung aus verschiedensten Emotionen und lässt eine Menge Platz zum Weiterdenken und Spekulieren. Das Buch war, aufgrund seiner Andersartigkeit, ein absolutes Lesevergnügen.

Fazit:

Eine Geschichte mit jeder Menge künstlerischer Eigenheiten. Verwirrend, schräg, aber absolut gut !

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although the cover and the book blurb might make some readers think this title is about a joyful road trip taken by two madcap teens falling in love, it's far from that. In many respects, it's a story about madness, living on the edge, and self-absorption as well as individuals who are morally bankrupt. I don't know who I felt sorrier for among this whole lot. Joe and Alvin are twin brothers living in California whose parents disappeared when they were quite young. After leaving Los Angeles with Julia after falling in love with her on the beach, he reappears in Joe's life with a dog and a suitcase full of cash. Before they can make good on their plans to sail around the world, Alvin disappears again, and Julia persuades Joe to head to Tennessee with her. Her family owns a couple of hotels where she is sure he can find work. Joe has been sheltered all of his life and is unable to read or to eat anything other than pizza or cheeseburgers. Once Julia has remade him and provided a nice suit, he applies for and gets a job at the family hotel. It becomes pretty clear that Julia is playing him, and once he takes the action he thinks she wants him to take, there is no turning back. He returns to California with nothing. I vacillating between loving and hating Joe's innocence since it made it so easy for others to take advantage of him, and I wondered about Houston, Julia's brother, as well. Did he have any idea of what Joe might do or what ideas Julia might plant in his head? Discussing who is to blame here would certainly be intriguing. One thing that I know is this: I never want to meet any of these characters in real life. They are too scary and too careless with the lives and emotions of those around them for me. I wanted to know more about why Julia talks in her sleep about breakfast all the time and what will happen to Joe in the end. I couldn't help but think about Daisy in The Great Gatsby when I read this title. Yikes! This one was deeply disturbing.

[Brina · Rating 1 out of 5]

Als ich zum ersten Mal von "Vom Finden der Liebe und anderen Dingen" erfahren habe, war ich auf dieses Buch sehr gespannt und habe gehofft, dass mich das Buch so richtig umhauen könnte, aber leider war dies nicht der Fall.

Dabei war die Grundidee an sich gar nicht mal schlecht: Joe und Alvin klangen auf den ersten Blick sehr vielversprechend und ich wollte unbedingt mehr über die ungleichen Brüder erfahren, aber leider wurde die Geschichte für mich immer mehr zur Qual, da der Schreibstil alles andere als prickelnd war. Die Charaktere wurden leider alles andere als sympathisch beschrieben und auch die Gedanken und Gefühle der Figuren wurden nicht unbedingt authentisch übermittelt, sondern es wirkte alles zu bemüht und dadurch viel zu aufgesetzt. Es scheint fast so, als wollte der Autor seine Charaktere ganz bewusst unsympathisch und stets gelangweilt darstellen.

"Vom Finden der Liebe und anderen Dingen" wird aus der Sicht von Joe erzählt. Normalerweise mag ich Geschichten aus der Ich-Perspektive, da dies mich immer der Figur näher gebracht hat, bei Joe war dies jedoch anders, denn seine naive Art hat mir gar nicht zugesagt, was jedoch daran liegt, dass er ein sehr spezieller Mensch ist, auf den man sich einfach einlassen muss - und dies konnte ich nicht.

Dazu finde ich die Kurzbeschreibung alles andere als gelungen, denn das Buch hält nicht, was es verspricht. Alles wird relativ schwammig erzählt, was am Ende jedoch eher anders erscheint.

Ich wollte diesem Buch wirklich eine Chance geben, aber leider hat es mich nicht fesseln können. Unsympathische Charaktere und ein träger, viel zu aufgesetzter Schreibstil haben dazu geführt, dass ich das Buch nach gerade einmal 160 Seiten abgebrochen habe.

[Somer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well this was a strange little book… To be honest, if I hadn’t been reading it for the Debut Author’s ARC Tour I don’t think I would have finished it. I am glad that I did finish it, because it grew on me…a little anyway. The story is told by Joe. It doesn’t take long to realize that Joe is different. Joe is the only character I sort of liked. He was sweet and quirky. The other characters were downright strange and awful! Neither of Joe’s brothers really cared about him. Julia was just too self centered, flighty and annoying. Julia’s brother Houston was plain old creepy.

At times the story is told in present tense, while other times Joe is telling a story that already occurred. Then we have the presence of his brother Alvin, who appears often, but it took me a while to realize he was dead. To me the story was just not believable at all. It was hard to follow at times. I wasn’t really invested in the characters. I will say towards the end I did want to find out what exactly happened to Alvin, but it wasn’t too surprising.

Then we have the ending. I will quote you the exact words that came out of my mouth as I closed this book “Huh!?”. I know, profound, isn’t it!

I don’t really like to compare books, but the entire time I read this book I kept thinking of Imaginary Girls. It just had that same vibe, except with brothers. While this book wasn’t for me I’m sure some of you would really enjoy it. I did enjoy the mysteriousness of the book as well as the “whodunnit” aspect.

[Danielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Umm...
I JUST finished this book and...
It was certainly not what I was expecting and I'm not going to go too deep into what happened. I went in thinking that it would be a John Green-esque road trip with a quirky coming-of age aspect mixed together with some mystery and intrigue. This book was no such thing. In fact, Joe, the main character, was almost always disconnected from his surroundings, which made reading it a surreal, disjointed experience. And the fact that we weren't shown the very large plot until the very end of the novel was unusual, to say the least. But that was due to Joe's strange way of absorbing information. Not that he can't absorb, it's that he can only review what he's learned when he talks to the ghost of his dead brother, Alvin. I don't know how I feel about this book and maybe I shouldn't have written a review so soon after finishing it.

All I know is that life is filled with impossible thing that I can't understand. And this book may be one of them.

[Ashleigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this in, I think, about Dec 2012 when I did a stint with a publisher and I got to read the slush pile from agents. At the time, I absolutely loved this novella and highly recommended it in my "notes". Obviously that recommendation held precisely no weight given I was just the work experience girl, but it did stick with me.
It's a relationship dynamics story of jealousy and greed from the POV of a simpleton who can't comprehend anything beyond face value, leaving the reader to discover and understand the motives and true goings-on that Alvin can't understand.
It ended on a poignant note, basically concluding - I think - that ignorance is truly bliss. TOTWJ was an interesting, literary-style piece and at the time I thoroughly enjoyed it. For some reason it popped into my head just now and, bada-bing, here it is on Goodreads. So here's me, giving my two cents. Better late than never right?
Definitely recommended.

[Zariah · Rating 3 out of 5]

The description of this book is misleading.I believed it would be about a road trip but it sure is not. The book was an easy read and like any other book you are able to enter the characters world, not sure if many would like this world. The story line was not interesting, many boring events, but I kept reading because I enjoyed Joe and wanted to know how his life turned out. I loved the relationship between brothers in this book. I enjoyed the other characters such as Julia's mother and sister but Julia and her brother i disliked. The "romantic" scenes were very odd! it was different to read it from a characters view this way. I believe many would hate this book just because of how misleading the description is!! therefore they are not prepared for what it is really about. You know I did like this book, possibly because of how different it was.