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Dissatisfaction Breeds Success

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I’m still thinking about Julie’s post about gender, recognition, and other tricky issues. I am thinking of it now in light of Val Forrestal’s brave post about how she was almost named a Library Journal Mover & Shaker.

Last night I read this post, also over at Library Journal, about enduring recognition, which seems like it’s a commentary on everything in Julie’s post and those posts which then were inspired by hers, but it doesn’t have any sort of attribution or crediting. The LJ post linked to a piece over at the New York Times about the secret ingredient to success that I’m not entirely sold on but have appreciated thinking about quite a bit.

Over the last few weeks, these posts have continued to pop up, and people have written their own responses, especially to Julie’s thoughts. Read the comments on her post to get a sense of what people are walking away with. More than that, look at how she’s being responded to.

What I’ve pulled away from this entire discussion of recognition and of gender in a grander sense is that many people are uncomfortable with dissatisfaction. Dissatisfaction sounds like sour grapes, like you’ll never be happy until you get what it is you want. And while it’s true that dissatisfaction is about not being satisfied (until you get what you want), it’s not about sour grapes at all, especially in terms of this discussion.

Rather, it’s composed of a couple of things: it’s expression of a desire for things to change, whether from the inside or from the outside, and through that desire for change, dissatisfaction breeds motivation.

The responses to Julie’s post have fascinated me because many of them have been bits of wisdom and advice from those in the field with more experience or who have had success in achieving their own goals. There’s an entire comment to her post about how to structure a web presence for maximum visibility and how to then leverage that to achieve more recognition.

That’s not what is at the heart of her post, nor is it at the heart of the larger discussion. I think people are not okay with someone expressing dissatisfaction.

People are not okay with a woman expressing dissatisfaction and doing so without apology. Maybe a large part of this has to do with the fact women are told to be nice, and because, well, it’s always been a man’s world so ladies should man up and deal. Women already are told they can’t dress how they want to because they’re inviting certain things by the mere act of dressing a certain way. So, to express dissatisfaction in the work place is to further push back against the norms of what is and isn’t okay within this gendered sphere.

It’s through those sorts of responses — the “just do it this way” or other pieces of advice born out of a genuine place for wanting to help someone — that I see this discomfort with another’s dissatisfaction. It’s not that the responses aren’t from a place of kindness or from a place of truly wanting to help someone else. I do think many of them are. But lost in that is the fact that sometimes it’s simply okay to be unhappy. 

Seeing that this is a discussion that’s permeated social media for weeks now, it’s clear that there isn’t just one person or two people who are dissatisfied with how things are in the field of librarianship. Of course it’s not just librarianship, either: this discussion is relevant to so many fields and interests: reading, blogging, writing . . . whatever the arena, if people are at the heart of the work, then there are going to be feelings and thoughts involved.

What’s at the center of all of this and what is being overlooked in light of talking about things like better tailoring a resume or choosing another path on which to go is that these posts are discussing larger, more problematic issues in the system as a whole. Why does there need to be help through the holes? Or rather, why is it people continue to give tips and tricks for getting through the system rather than stepping back and considering that maybe the greater system is itself broken? Why is dissatisfaction and frustration, especially when expressed thoughtfully and without malice, so uncomfortable to read and think about?

We want things to go smoothly, we want to achieve each of our own goals on our own terms and through our own merits. We also want everyone to be happy and we want everyone to have a chance to achieve what it is that they set out to achieve. But it’s impossible. There will always be people left out and there will always be ways of improving an organization or a system or an institution. It’s by having these very uncomfortable and very open discussions through which change can occur.

There’s nothing wrong with saying that the system is wrong, that it wronged me personally, and that maybe it’s time to reevaluate the whole of it. These discussions aren’t actually about the individual writing them. They’re about a grander problem that needs to be discussed, dismantled, and changed from the inside by those who have a stake in it.

Dissatisfaction and frustration aren’t things that require any sort of apology. It’s when you’re unapologetic in what it is you want and what it is you think should be different that you can be instrumental in getting the ball rolling. Being critical isn’t ever wrong. It’s being critical. Being a voice for change, you’re being an advocate for not only yourself and your goals, but you’re being an advocate for making the goals and dreams of other people in similar situations achievable, too.

Thinking about Bell’s LJ post and in the NYT piece he points to, it sure sounds like the way to success is through changing your own goals. But I disagree completely — why is it when a bigger system is broken that it is the individual who has to suck it up and change what it is she wants?

Unsolicited advice and suggestions are ways of quelling dissatisfaction. And when we quell dissatisfaction or allow others to do it for us, we allow the system NOT to change. We inadvertently validate the system itself and the ways others have identified as “getting through.” “Getting through” is not the same as changing the system. Learning the tricks doesn’t allow for thorough examination of the grander problems at hand. Rather, they allow the system to continue running as it has.

If you are dissatisfied, it’s because you’re thinking. You’re considering the means of how to get from the point you’re at to the point you want to be. Expressing dissatisfaction is okay and it never requires apology. Sometimes it’s not about a solution or a helpful list of methods to try to make things happen. Sometimes, it’s simply through dissatisfaction the motivation to change emerges.

Fox Forever by Mary E. Pearson

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The events of Fox Forever follow closely on the heels of The Fox Inheritance. Having accepted a Favor from the Network, the resistance group working to combat the corruption and rights infringements in the future world Locke has found himself in, Locke must now return the Favor – and it won’t be one of his choosing.
The Network sends him undercover into the home of a high-ranking government official, a man who has ties to a long-missing, presumed dead member of the Network (and not the pleasant, friendly kind of ties). His means of entry: the official’s seventeen year old daughter Raine. As Locke befriends Raine, and then begins to romance her, he discovers a web of secrets, lies, and conspiracies. 
This is my kind of book (I’m sure this surprises no one). Pearson has continued her series begun with The Adoration of Jenna Fox admirably, and this is a worthy conclusion. She’s succeeded partly because she’s kept Jenna’s story in the background for the sequels, allowing Locke’s story to be informed, but not ruled, by it. I find that this technique is successful for many authors (Marissa Meyer is a good example); it keeps the stories fresh while still giving the reader something of the familiar.
All of the elements that made the previous books so good are here too: fast pace, interesting world-building, complex thematic ideas about humanity and morality. But this is actually a much larger story than Inheritance, which mainly focused on Kara’s and Locke’s struggles to come to terms with their long imprisonment, subsequent release, and possible non-humanness. The final volume tackles these ideas, but it’s much more focused on the incipient revolution, which was ancillary in the second book. And the events that occur have far-reaching and long-lasting consequences for many, many people.
Some years ago, I had a conversation with someone who told me they rarely, if ever, read epilogues. I was so shocked at learning this, and even more shocked when I learned it was hardly a rare condition (and yes, not reading epilogues is a condition). Let me tell you all now, if you read this book, you must read its epilogue. Yes, the main events of the book are resolved without it, but the epilogue brings all three books together and provides a proper ending, a fitting and moving one. This may be a complete book without the epilogue, but the series is not a complete series without it.
Review copy provided by the publisher. Fox Forever will be published March 19.

ALA Midwinter in Seattle: A Recap

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This last week’s trip to Seattle for ALA Midwinter was my third trip to Seattle and solidified for me that Seattle is an excellent place for a conference. Also, Seattle has some of the best food around, is easy to navigate, and I think it’s affordable. The photo above is from Pike’s Market at the fish throwing place — they welcomed the librarians with not only this, but one of the throwers stopped me and told me all about how much he knew about librarians (he knew there were tech people, archivists, school librarians, public librarians, and so forth).

I can’t think of a cohesive way to sort of talk about what happened at Midwinter, so here’s a day by day look at the excitement of sitting in meetings, of eating good food, and of celebrating good books and friends.

Thursday


After making it to Seattle on a very long flight, I took the afternoon to just veg in the hotel room. Liz, Sophie, and I had made plans to go to a tea shop and do a tasting, but Sophie’s flight was delayed and Liz felt similarly to me when she got in and just wanted to relax. We did that until we got a call from Jackie to join her and Colleen for dinner up near Jackie’s house. After seeing her adorable new house, we went to The Bottlehouse for a dinner of cheese, cheese, and a lot more cheese. And everything was delicious. To go along with cheese, Liz and I split a red wine flight, and then we each enjoyed a dessert. I picked a trio of small cheesecakes:

Friday


The first real day of conference began with a long chat between my roommates and myself about issues in librarianship and with gender — a lot of the things that Julie expressed in her blog post got us thinking about things we want to do in our own careers/lives. After that brainstorming, we made our way over to registration at the convention center bright and early.

After registration, we once again met up with Jackie and Colleen, and this time we took a hike up the hill to have lunch at a burger place that everyone was excited about (they had a veggie burger option for those of you playing along at home knowing I don’t do beef). We not only each had a burger, but we ended up enjoying french fries with milkshake to dip them in. And it was absolutely delightful.

My first committee meetings were on Friday from 1 until 5:30 pm. As admin on the Alex committee, I really didn’t contribute much to the meeting, and in fact, the first day I had nothing I could really do, so my chair kindly let me leave early. It’s tough to be in a committee meeting where the committee is talking about the books in depth and you can’t say a word because you’re not actually a member of it. But what I can say is I absolutely loved seeing the process on the inside — this meeting involved nothing more than talking about half of the committee’s nominated titles. They’d discuss merits, the appeal of the book, and all of the other elements that made them nominate it in the first place. I felt like in hearing a lot of their discussions, I added a bunch of titles to my own to-read list that weren’t ones that caught my eye when they showed up here through the last year.

I snuck out early to meet Liz, Colleen, Sophie, and Jackie for the opening night of the exhibits, and in the process, I ran into Lenore. I’m not going to lie: I was anxious about how the exhibits would be, especially on opening night. They’re always a bit of a madhouse then, since it’s about the only time everyone is free TO go, but I worried about other things to. Fortunately, even though it was busy, it felt sane, too. Lenore and I wandered around together, and then I decided to cut out after about 20 minutes. I think I picked up maybe 7 ARCs, and I asked about another one and was told it would be out Sunday (which made me then arrange to have Lenore pick it up for me since I’d be in committee meetings in the morning then, too).

There was indeed a dinner planned after exhibits, and the same group of us who’d gone out for lunch went out for Vietnamese food at Long. I didn’t have a lot of time before the YA Blogger meetup, and when the waiter knew about this, he did an amazing job getting my drink and meal out to me very quickly. I enjoyed a chicken satay and a fizzy rum drink of some variety before wandering down to the hotel for the meetup.

The blogger meetup was GREAT — I know people came and went, but all told, I think we had an easy 40 people over the course of the night, if not more. I’m really not great at mingling (to the point someone even came over and gave me grief about it . . . even though she didn’t even know who I was) but I was thrilled to finally meet Flannery of The Readventurer — we are pretty sure we’ve met before through a mutual friend we have, but it was nice to spend the evening chatting about books. There were a few other people I was finally able to put a face to who I knew through blogging or Twitter and overall, it was a nice, low-key event, with a mix of bloggers and authors.

Saturday


Saturday morning began really freaking early with a breakfast preview for Little, Brown. I love these previews because they not only give a good idea of what’s coming up in the next season (and beyond), but also because they always bring a guest to talk. This time it was Darren Shan. I’ve never read any of Shan’s books, but since I began working in libraries, he’s been a huge favorite of teens. Hearing about his series was fun, hearing about the horror movies that inspired him was fun, and he had a delightful accent.

After the preview, I wandered the exhibits briefly with Katie. And by briefly, I mean maybe 10 minutes. I asked again about the book I was curious about at one of the publisher’s booths, and was told again, Sunday morning it’d be out. I ended up going back to my room and picking up my computer and a few other items before heading to another hotel a few blocks away for a Simon & Schuster Luncheon featuring . . . Lenore! Can I tell you how neat it is when a person you’re friends with is the guest of honor? The only downside to the luncheon was that because it ran from noon until 2, and I had a committee meeting beginning at 1, I could only stay for about 30 minutes. But I got to eat and hear Lenore speak, which made it great.

The committee meeting on Saturday was even longer than the one on Friday, running for five hours. Like the meeting on Friday, it began with a discussion of all the remaining nominated books. But this time, when the session came into the final half an hour, I got to do the big and important role of tallying up the straw poll results. Everyone on the committee voted on their top ten books for the Alex, and I counted up and figured out what were the titles — at that point — which were the ten favorites. When that was calculated and shared, the committee members went home to think about the titles that didn’t make it so they could make last minute pitches for our meeting on Sunday, if necessary. I tried to tweet a little bit from the committee meeting on Saturday because I was so impressed with how impassioned people became when talking about their favorite books. Not only were committee members using appropriate vulgarity when necessary, but one committee member came near tears in defending her book. If anyone ever dares question the process behind these awards or selection lists, it’s a slap in the face for how hard these people work and how much they’ve invested in really thinking about, discussing, and fighting for books that represent The Best in whatever arena they’re looking at.

I had plans to attend a dinner with Little Brown on Saturday night, but after getting up early and spending a long time inside, in a small room in committee, I ended up going back to my room and . . . crashing. Hard. I was trying to do some catch up on email but literally fell asleep in the middle of doing that. I knew going out was not going to happen, so I ended up just laying low for the evening. The conference wall of exhaustion hit and hard.

Sunday:



Like Saturday, Sunday began with an early morning breakfast. This time, I met with Victoria and Liz for a calm breakfast in our hotel diner. I can’t even express how delicious that spinach/bacon/avocado omelet was. Between that and loading up on high-caffeine tea (they brought me a basket to choose my poison from), I was feeling pretty ready for the day, which began with another round of committee meetings.

So this round of meetings was where I got to play a bigger role! This time I got to count things again, and then my chair was nice enough to let me get a little power hungry on some other things. The meetings began with everyone making last-ditch pitches for the books they wanted to see on the top 10 list, and then they took one final poll. It was my job to do the counting and tallying of this final poll — these would be the books that would make the final Alex list. As I tallied, I had a little problem: the final results came up with 11 titles. There was a tie. When everyone came back into the conference room, I had to break the news that they now needed to hear 11 titles and come up with one from their lists to eliminate. When that was done, I tallied again, and this time we had a solid 10 Alex titles. You can read that list here.

But it wasn’t over for committee work yet! Once that list was made, the committee had to write annotations for each of the titles. And even when that was done? They had more work. The Alex awards also involves a vetted list of nominated titles that the committee members feel fit the criteria of the Alex but weren’t quite top 10 titles. This is where I got to have my power: I read the titles and told them it was simple majority. The votes happened pretty quick and the vetted list ended up with a little over 20 titles on it. But it wasn’t over then, either. They still had to go through and write annotations for those titles as well. As of writing this post, the list isn’t up on YALSA’s website, but it should be shortly.

As a thank you for my work, the chair gave me this really freaking awesome necklace.

Because the committee meeting ran super late this time around, I didn’t get a chance to eat lunch before meeting Lenore over at the exhibits again. She said she’d pick up the one ARC I was looking for from the publisher who’d assured me it’d be out Sunday. But . . . it wasn’t. Because the publisher actually put the books out on Saturday afternoon, as I was told somewhat rudely by the booth person. I was a little disappointed about this, especially since I was informed twice it would be out Sunday and I made arrangements to have someone pick it up for me since I was in meetings and unable to do it myself. I left disappointed, especially as I felt like the booth person was not kind about the manner.

After Lenore and I met up, we wandered over to my favorite thing about ALA: the teen feedback session at the Best Fiction for Young Adults committee meeting. These teens are brutal and honest and I love every second of it. It’s proof that teens do like a wide variety of books and that even among the different teens, titles can be hits or misses. I do think my favorite part of the entire BFYA session, though, was getting to go tell one of the teens that the author was so thankful for what she had said (I’d tweeted it and the author responded to me). The look on that teen’s face and her accompanying “IS SHE HERE RIGHT NOW?” were awesome.

Since I’d missed a real lunch, Lenore and I grabbed a slice of pizza in the convention center following the teen session and had our goodbye, since she was flying home early the next morning. But fortunately for me, it isn’t a long goodbye since she’s going to be doing a program for my teens at my library in the spring (how lucky are they?).

I went back to my hotel to relax after a super long day, but rather than do that as planned, I went out with Jackie and Sophie to Cupcake Royale. I’m not a cake or cupcake person, but they had the most delicious ice cream sandwiches. . . that I decided I couldn’t choose just one kind to try. I got myself a red velvet and a pumpkin cardamom one, and both were delicious.

It was an early night because of the Youth Media Awards in the morning, but Sophie and I spent a good chunk of our Sunday night discussing late 90s/early 2000s rap artists and critiquing the music videos from such legends.

Monday


You want to know what the best thing about being a part of an awards committee is? Reserved seating at the Youth Media Awards (YMAs). I got to sit front and center for the announcements. The picture on the right here gives you an idea of what 1/3 of the crowd looks like.

Of course, the energy in the awards room is crazy, and everyone’s nervous/excited/apprehensive about what books will walk away winners. I love the YMAs but they do stress me out just a little bit. It’s less from the perspective of what won and more from the perspective of, as soon as an announcement is made about an award, there is a flurry of “but WHY didn’t THIS book get picked?” rather than allowing for the celebration and surprise (the why can come later, privately). I think this is something that really came to me a lot as I sat in and watched a committee make their choices. I can’t articulate it as well as Marge can, so do go read her post.

There were celebrations. There were surprises. But that’s how it goes. The best part of the awards is what comes after: when you go out with your friends and talk about them privately, away from the event itself. I went with a handful of people to Pikes Market to enjoy tea and a crumpet and to chat awards. After our chatter, I wandered around the Market with Jackie and Sophie.

Gorgeous fruits and vegetables

House blend tea, along with a lemon curd and ricotta crumpet

We then finally got around to the tea shop, where the owner was able to give us a bunch of amazing tea tastings. I’ve never done anything like this before, and it was such a fun experience. I ended up bringing home a bag of Lichee tea, which might be one of my all-time favorite teas.

Once tea tasting was over, I wandered back to my hotel to drop off some stuff, and then I met with a friend I do some work for at the convention center. We were doing lunch plans, and we ended up actually coming back to the Market and eating so much food. We enjoyed grilled cheese and mac and cheese at the cheese store, Russian pastries, a sit down meal at a restaurant overlooking the water (wherein I had a delicious risotto with squash and zucchini), and then we went to the crumpet shop where, yes, I had another crumpet and cup of tea. It was fantastic.

So now stuffed to the gills on delicious lunch, I thought I’d be done. Done. Done. But no. Because I couldn’t stop enjoying how great Seattle was and how great the company was and how damn good the food was, I went out for one more dinner, this time at Tango, a tapas place. It was a great crew, including Jackie, Liz, Barry Goldblatt, and Sara Ryan. It involved a couple bottles of red wine, dinner I didn’t eat because I was full, and then my insistence on eating dessert (which was delicious, as seen to the left). A laugh or two may have happened.

I think without much doubt. this year’s ALA Midwinter was my favorite event so far. It was also so different from other ones I’ve been to because of how much time was spent in committee meetings. I think in total I spent maybe 45 minutes in the exhibits, and I got to do very little for myself, aside from the meals out with friends. And it was that time I really enjoyed because these are people I talk to all the time but only get to see once or twice a year. It’s the in-person stuff where real ideas are spun and discussed in a way that’s not quite the same via the internet.

I’m eager to see what Chicago has to offer this summer.

Some other things. . .


* Because I was unable to visit the exhibits for any length of time, there won’t be any sort of rundown of what’s coming out. But I am really excited to have had Lenore pick up both of Algonquin Young Readers first titles for their teen line for me. I wish I’d had a second to talk with them but it happens.

* The book I’m most excited about that I did get to pick up was the third and final book in Geoff Herbach’s Stupid Fast series, titled I’m with Stupid. The second most exciting book I picked up was Bill Konigsberg’s sophomore novel Openly Straight. I LOVED his first book so I’m eager to see where this goes.

* I thought it was pretty interesting that Amazon Publishing had a way better booth placement than Little Brown did. We’re talking entrance to exhibits row and can-hardly-find-it-because-it-was-shoved-in-a-corner row.

* It is AMAZING the amount I learned about committee work not just from being an admin, but also from hearing the stories of my friends who were also on committees. With that, I have really come to respect the process and have not come to judge what I may have in the past perceived as odd ball choices or left field choices on any award list. Likewise, the way that people have reacted to certain awards and certain books either being present or not present has made me a little indignant on behalf of those hardworking committees. No book DESERVES anything on principle, and those committee members are reading like mad and reading with a very critical eye.

* I learned a couple interesting things about a couple of the awards I did not know beforehand. First, the Batchelder Award, which is for best translations of a novel into English, ONLY takes into account books that are published for the under age 14 market. I thought that Antonia Michaelis’s The Storyteller would have no problem garnering this honor, but when I learned this fact, it made sense why the book did not. Second: the Stonewall Award is for books published between October 1 and September 30 of a given year — that means this year’s awards honored books published between October 1, 2011 and September 30, 2012. That means certain books that seemed to have been “shut out” or “overlooked” for this award were not, in fact, overlooked or shut out. They weren’t eligible yet.

* YALSA has decided to sunset both the Reader’s Choice Award and the Fab Film Committee. They’re also going to revisit the award/selection list being behind a login issue in March.

* Also, the best thing I purchased and packed for this trip is something everyone at the BFYA session was envious of: my backup battery charger. Here’s the one I bought, for those of you who want one for yourself.

Unremembered by Jessica Brody

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A plane crashes in the middle of the ocean, and a sixteen year old girl is the only survivor. She could tell everyone what happened – if she remembered it. Not only does she not know how she ended up floating in the ocean, she can’t remember her family, her friends, or her own name. And she seems to have abilities that no one else does – like being able to understand and speak all languages without even knowing it.

Called Violet by the hospital staff due to the unusual color of her eyes, the girl also discovers that many of the everyday objects others can identify with ease – a television, a car – are foreign to her. And then a boy arrives, who claims he knows her – her name, her past, and the way to restore her memories. He tells her they were in love, and he tells her she is in danger.

Unremembered was a really odd read for me. It has so many elements that I generally love in a book (*SPOILERS* time travel, secrets, futuristic technology *END SPOILERS*), but it never felt as thrilling as it should have. 

I think most of that is due to the pretty pedestrian writing, which tells the story but doesn’t go much beyond that. For example, I knew that Violet was confused and didn’t recognize her surroundings, but I didn’t feel it. I contrast this with Tucker in The Obsidian Blade, who was presented with confusing event after confusing event and I felt that confusion right along with him.
While I didn’t necessarily guess the big twist in Unremembered, it didn’t exactly take me by surprise either. Which is a shame, because it featured a plot element I normally love (see above). I just couldn’t get behind it here. Other elements in the book felt a bit thin, too: characterization wasn’t as great as I wanted it to be, and the world-building in particular felt lacking. 
Unremembered feels very much like a book-of-the-moment. It reads like all the other light (very, very light) sci fi YA books out there now (like Erasing Time or Eve and Adam), doesn’t offer anything new, and doesn’t distinguish itself in any other aspect such as writing or world-building, where it could have redeemed itself. It’s not bad, but it’s not great, either. This is not to say it won’t find its fans among those who have read others of its ilk and simply want more of the same, but ultimately, Unremembered will go unremembered.
(Please accept my sincerest apologies for the pun. My fingers forced me to type it.)
Review copy provided by the publisher. Unremembered will be published March 5.

Just One Day by Gayle Forman

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As Allyson’s time on her trip through Europe comes to an end, she and her long-time best friend Melanie decide to go off-course. Instead of attending the play they’re supposed to as part of the tour, they see a street performance of Twelfth Night. It’s there where Allyson first sees Willem. It’s there where Allyson decides she needs to do something more in her last days of the tour.

It’s there where Willem convinces Allyson to join him for one day through Paris.

Allyson, who always sticks to the rules, decides to do it. And the trip is magical. It’s imperfect — her and Willem have an argument, she gets injured from a stranger — but it sets her heart on fire with possibility. When Allyson wakes up the morning after this adventure and Willem is gone, Allyson’s crushed. But she trudges on back to meet Melanie after a teary phone call with the trip coordinator (who helps her navigate Paris since Allyson doesn’t speak the language) and then, she’s back to America and back to begin her first year at college in Boston.

Just One Day follows Allyson as she adjusts to college life. But it’s not her college life. It’s the one her mother created for her, and it’s the one she dutifully follows. Allyson’s not happy, though. She misses Willem. She wants to know what happens. When she gets to chance to see Melanie again — who is going to college in Manhattan — Allyson feels so out of sorts. Melanie keeps changing and Allyson, well, she feels like she’s in the same place.

That first semester of college is anything but great. Allyson doesn’t get good grades, she’s unhappy, and yes, there is a lot of moping around on her part. It’s when she’s called into the guidance counselor’s office prior to second semester — after a disastrous few days with her mom and dad — that she decides to drop her pre-med track. She takes a risk, and it ends up paying off quite a bit for her.

Although the change is anything but easy, Allyson finds passion. And she knows that she needs to go back to Paris and look for Willem again.

Gayle Forman’s new novel is, of course, superbly written. The sights, the sounds, and the tastes come alive through the prose. Likewise, the story itself and what it accomplishes in bringing about the importance of pursuing your passions for yourself and not for someone else — for taking risks, regardless of the positive or negative outcomes — is excellent. The thing is, it’s not entirely new or fresh, despite the setting. I feel like what this book achieves is what Kirsten Hubbard achieves in her novel Wanderlove and what I feel like Nina LaCour accomplishes in The Disenchantments. That should make it clear this book has a readership, and there will be many fans who fall for the story (and rightly so) and then have additional titles they can then turn to after.

Allyson’s character is moody. She’s prickly and ornery and I really liked that about her. She’s not entirely likable, nor should she be. She’s razzed quite a bit by Melanie for being this way, and even Willem gives her a little bit of grief about it. Her roommates in college do the same, and even Dee, the guy she befriends in her Shakespeare class, gives her some thoughts on this. Allyson is just that way, but it’s enhanced by the longing she experiences for Willem. To be fair, it took a lot for me to suspend my disbelief that his one day with her could cause an entire year for her to basically be a wash with moping about him — but Forman’s book required this on me as a reader a few times. It wasn’t just the longing over the guy from one day, but it was Allyson’s all-too-willing agreement to go along with a stranger in the first place (especially since it took her so long to even skip out on watching a performance with her tour group). It was also Allyson’s ability to change up her classes at the university without her mother once finding out, until it was too late.

I didn’t quite think the characters in this story were consistent. Part of this is because of Allyson: since the story’s in her perspective and she’s in such a transition in her life, many of those in her life will appear to her as different things at different times. Allyson’s mother, though, became problematic. At first, it’s clear mom has a big role in who Allyson is. Mom’s prescribed a life for Allyson based on her own lost dreams; this isn’t speculation, it’s actually there in the book. However, knowing how much her mom wanted to keep an eye on her made me question then how it was even possible for Allyson to get away with changing her classes for an entire semester. How she tricked her mom about it when she visited for President’s Day. The inconsistency in her mother frustrated me because it was her mother who had had such an impact on Allyson’s current life and on her mentality that she simply “couldn’t” do what she wanted to do for herself.

My biggest concern came at the end of the book. We know Allyson’s moping about losing Willem, and when she makes the choice to go back to Paris and look for him (after, I should add, she takes a job, stands up to her parents, and makes this trip happen for herself), she realizes he’s a lost cause. He’s been described as a player, and after meeting other people in his life, she’s less-than-thrilled with who he is in reality, rather than what she saw of him that one day. Spoiler alert here — she reunites with Willem at the end of the story. As she’s ready to hit the airport and fly home, after she’s declared how great it is to be independent and make her own choices for herself and not let anyone stand in her way, after she talks about how she doesn’t need Willem anymore because she’s happy for herself . . . she hunts him down, knocks on his door, and walks right in. The moment that Allyson shows she has incredible agency, she gives it away. This is not to say that romance cannot win out in a story. It can. The problem is that she’d just learned how he wasn’t who she thought he was and she’d just figured out that being on her own was good. So then to give it all up right away? It made me annoyed. Compounding this was the fact in every instance Allyson had to make friends, especially female friends, she throws it away or uses them to find this boy. Wren? A tool. Kelly? A tool. Melanie? Well, she was out of the picture by then anyway. It felt like this solution was too clean and easy. Sure it was the romance, sure it was the chance to start it all again with those feelings, but it was at the expense of the agency she had just fought so hard to earn for herself.

This is a good book, despite the flaws, though be warned there are times the story drags a bit. It’s because Allyson’s not always the most fun to read about, especially as she becomes weary about never seeing Willem again. But I comment Forman for writing a flawed but realistic character, and a character who is easy to not like. There were numerous times, especially at the beginning of Allyson’s college career, where I saw a lot of myself in her and I sympathized for the situation she was in. The pressure pressed upon her by her family and by herself to impress her family was palpable.

Just One Day has great appeal for readers who want a story set abroad, set in college, or a story about a girl struggling to find herself. Again, it will have huge appeal to readers who loved the travel or the plot arc in Hubbard’s Wanderlove or LaCour’s The Disenchantments. Those who loved Stephanie Perkins’s Anna and the French Kiss will eat this one up for not only the setting, but the romantic elements. I’m eager to see where Forman takes this story in the companion, Just One Year. I’ve got a feeling we’ll get Willem’s story, which is good since I spent the bulk of the book wondering what was so appealing about him anyway. He’s not the kind of guy a reader can easily swoon over. At least, if they’re into a romance for more than the fact the love interest is a foreigner.

Just One Day is available now through Penguin/Dutton. Review copy received from the publisher.