That's Normal's Boozy Book Club discussion

HAVE YOU GUYS GOTTEN YOUR WILLEM FIX YET? Just One Year came out last week, and it's one of our optional reads this month. If you haven't read Gayle Forman's Just One Day, you have to read it first. GO FORTH AND DISCUSS European guys.

I finished Just One Day this morning and now I'm on to Just One Year. And I just got to the part about the postcards! Gah!

I don't know entirely what to say about JOD. I'm trying to imagine one day changing the whole trajectory of my life. I feel so proud of Allyson for taking charge and finding the strength she had within. And it all started with Willem. As much as I enjoyed the first part of the book with him, I think I liked the second and third parts more where Allyson was floundering (and we met Dee!) and then the triumph of her European return.

I really like this author though. I felt like I was going through every emotion with Allyson. I'm also very glad I didn't have to wait between book 1 to book 2!

Okay, guys...my first post in this book club. I was incredibly disappointed in this book. I rated it more stars because I appreciate the way G. Forman turns a phrase. But after loving Just One Day, the follow-up I'd waited months to get my hands on just fell flat. Willem's growth was compelling enough, but I wanted to understand what Lulu's role in that change was beyond the vague mentions Willem occasionally threw out. Sure, she was pretty and seemed to stir something inside you. How is that affecting your decisions now? How exactly did she make you feel, and do you still feel it? I think he never really figured it out completely; he started to realize he wasn't going after random girls anymore because he believed he could one day feel something different, but I am unconvinced that he's fully synthesized it before Allyson walked through his door. I'm thinking of revising my initial rating because days after finishing the book, it's still irking me that the readers didn't get to see the growth in action...does Willem find that once he's got Lulu, he tires of her as he did with all the other girls? What happens once the mystery wears off and you learn more about a person? I would have liked to see some development of his potential transformation through some forward action.

Courtney wrote: "Okay, guys...my first post in this book club. I was incredibly disappointed in this book. I rated it more stars because I appreciate the way G. Forman turns a phrase. But after loving Just One Day,..."

Welcome, Courtney!!! I agree with you wholeheartedly. There was so much missing in Just One Year, and that was HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH ALLYSON.

Yeah, I didn't like this one quite as much either. I think Allyson grew as a person but Willem really just finally dealt with everything. And maybe Allyson was something of a catalyst but really Willem went from running from the death of his father and the distance from his mother to still running but under the guise of finding Lulu until he just cracked. But then it actually took Mukesh for him to really finally connect with his mother and start dealing with everything.

Although Willem describes Yael and Bram as truly in love in the first book, in the second when he's remembering his childhood all I was getting was his mom was mostly standoffish but then by the end (and once he's reconciled with Yael) he was back to Yael and Bram and their 25-yr marriage after 3 hours (and two years) so that was confusing. Plus then it made me wonder how much of him and Allyson was their connection and how much it was him projecting his parents' story. Totally agree with Courtney that we didn't get to see how Allyson made him feel or if he still felt it. And it totally threw me when Kate pointed out that he had taken all his stuff with him when he went for breakfast on that morning. He says he was going back and when he regained consciousness he knew he needed to be somewhere but even that didn't totally convince me.

Of course, I was rooting for Willem and Allyson the whole time and screaming at the postcards and the ruins and the same party in Mexico and how close they came to each other. And the sweetness of the watch and the Shakespeare and the final performance. And he's going to move to the US... so I like to imagine that he opened the door, she came in, they kiss... and live happily ever after. :)

Beth wrote: "Courtney wrote: "Okay, guys...my first post in this book club. I was incredibly disappointed in this book. I rated it more stars because I appreciate the way G. Forman turns a phrase. But after lov..."

Thanks, Beth! I'm glad to be here, and to read that so far we are on the same page about this book. Now to go look at what people are saying about Allegiant!

I can't even begin to tell you how pissed I am after reading this book. Just One Day was one of my favorite books of 2013. I wanted resolution for the characters, Its not like I wanted her to write them dating, getting married, having kids. I just wanted a few chapters of conversation between them. I wanted to see the same connection between the characters I saw in Just One Day. I was so disappointed in this book but at least it was well written. Gayle Forman is still one of my favs but this wasn't the book I wanted to read.

Tiffany wrote: "I can't even begin to tell you how pissed I am after reading this book. Just One Day was one of my favorite books of 2013. I wanted resolution for the characters, Its not like I wanted her to writ..."

AGREED TIMES A MILLION

I agree with Tiffany that it was a complete disappointment to have the book end where it did. Plus it means that you don't get to see what has really happened to Willem: only his reaction to being with Allyson again will show what part she has played in his life and if change is truly there.

I feel conflicted about Willem: he's portrayed through people's reactions to him as gorgeous, charming and a player, but comes off sounding as something of a closed-off asshole. Why would girls keep falling for him, then? Why would Allyson? Where is the "real" Willem and how did anyone ever get a clue to him?

I can understand about being the third wheel as an only child in a marriage between two very charismatic/self-centered adults who are primarily lovers and not parents. (I've actually worried sometimes that me and my husband have been too much in love, making our kids feel like they come second!)

But if that, and the ignored grief for his father and unresolved issues with his mother, are the reasons for who Willem has become, I can't see how one day with a girl, any girl, can begin to change that?

I agree that it was pure relief to read Gaile Forman's writing after hitting my head against the inhospitable ALLEGIANT, but I still feel as if she sold me a bit short with this. Is it supposed to be a trilogy? And how will that not be a disappointment in it's own right? JUST ONE DECADE?

I give it three stars and I propose we write fan fiction about what happened the rest of that summer.

First post! :)

I am so unbelievably disappointed. I LOVED Just One Day to the point of scary fangirlism - I think I've read it three times and I'd memorized some parts of it. It was so beautiful and I love journey novels anyway. Plus the sexual tension between Allyson and Willem was electrifying.

I just drank it all in - especially Allyson's quest to find Willem, and by extension, to find herself. It was beautiful and painful and perfect and she REALLY did it - she committed and she solved the mystery. She traveled across the world to figure things out - it was the beginning meets the end meets the beginning, and it was stunning how everything came full circle. By the end, I knew what had happened to Willem and really, I just wanted to find out how he felt about the whole thing, briefly what he'd been up to and how they were going to sort through what they meant to each other.

Just One Year was not what I expected at all. I was excited when I read the summary, figuring that we'd get maybe half a book about Willem's year and the second half about his reunion with Allyson.

Instead, they don't even SPEAK. WTF X A MILLION???!!

First things first, I liked their close calls (especially the beach in Mexico - how tantalizingly close he came to going to the bonfire where she was sitting, and how in her book, she feels he's nearby but can't quite pinpoint why - that was poignant and sensual -- more of this would have been welcomed by me. I liked going back to Just One Day and reading the same scene from Allyson's perspective) and I liked that Willem at least TRIED to find her... he didn't know her name, so I found his attempts admirable. When he wasn't busy putting it in every girl he met, that is...

His relationship with his parents was interesting and his Mother was a good character but I really just didn't care as much as I thought I would. His trip to India was dragged on for far too long and there were so many details that I just felt could have been discarded. As the book raced along, I felt my heart sink because I suspected the truth - she wasn't going to give them any time together. It was going to end right where Just One Day did. And I was right, dammit.

I just don't see how this can't be a trilogy. It didn't even END... they didn't speak, the kiss was a dud (c'mon, not even the slightest description?), there wasn't even an epilogue. I would have taken a few pages of them talking softly in bed that night even... just SOMETHING.

The whole freaking point of reading this book was to see the resolution and the connection between Lulu and Willem. I wanted to see what all the fuss was about again. They spent 1.5 books apart ... and then, nothing. just not right.

GAH. I can't even articulate how mad I am and how let down I feel.

Jen wrote: "First post! :)

I am so unbelievably disappointed. I LOVED Just One Day to the point of scary fangirlism - I think I've read it three times and I'd memorized some parts of it. It was so beautiful a..."

Jen: Eggsactly!!!

I'm a little late to the party on this one, but read it real quick today since it's being discussed tonight. It got very annoying having to flip back and forth between JOD and JOY to remember what was happening with Allyson. I loved the tension of the near misses (even though I obviously knew they were misses from JOD), but am so dissappointed there was not more Allyson! Gayle Forman is killing me! I'm going to go re-read the sex scene from JOD now and imagine a deleted scene from the end of JOY.