Publishers Weekly
The love story in Forman’s If I Stay and Where She Went was wrapped in the finality of death. This story—about the romance between Allyson, a recent high school grad, and Willem, a handsome Dutch actor she meets during a whirlwind tour of Europe—is built around uncertainty and a kind of loss that’s more akin to an open wound. Upon meeting, the two take an impulsive trip to Paris, but Willem disappears and Allyson is left stranded. Back in the U.S., Allyson is unable to wipe Willem from her mind, and her carefully planned future takes unexpected turns. In a romance that never quite answers the question “Whatever happened to Willem?” Forman explores how travel can lead to surprises and a redefinition of self. In college, Allyson breaks away from her mother’s expectations, realizes her passion for theater and language, and tries to gather clues about Willem’s whereabouts. Offering mystery, drama, and an evocative portrait of unrequited love, this open-ended novel will leave fans eagerly anticipating the companion story—written from Willem’s perspective—due in fall 2013. Ages 14–up. Agent: Sarah Burnes, the Gernert Company. (Jan.)
From the Publisher
[Forman’s] very good on travel’s expansive effects, the fluidity of teenage identity and the yearning for reinvention, how fleeting encounters can transform us.”
— New York Times Book Review
• “Offering mystery, drama, and an evocative portrait of unrequited love, this open-ended novel will leave fans eagerly anticipating the companion story.”
— Publishers Weekly, starred review
"Reading like a teen version of Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love, this tale of romance and mystery engages readers and will cause them to examine their definitions of love and self-identity."
— SLJ, starred review
"As [Allyson] blossoms a. . . the novel becomes absorbing, and readers will find themselves rooting for Allyson’s more autonomous and interesting self."
— Kirkus Reviews
"Romantics will get swept up in the story, which has it all: true love, Paris, Shakespeare, and yes, hte notion that 'anything can happen in just one day.'"
— Booklist
Booklist
"Romantics will get swept up in the story, which has it all: true love, Paris, Shakespeare, and yes, hte notion that 'anything can happen in just one day.'"
starred review SLJ
"Reading like a teen version of Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love, this tale of romance and mystery engages readers and will cause them to examine their definitions of love and self-identity."
New York Times Book Review
[Forman’s] very good on travel’s expansive effects, the fluidity of teenage identity and the yearning for reinvention, how fleeting encounters can transform us.
Children's Literature - Paula McMillen
Allyson and her lifelong best friend Melanie are finishing up a whirlwind cultural tour of Europe with the well-regarded "Teens Tour" group, a high school graduation gift from their respective parents. Waiting in line to see the Royal Shakespeare Company's performance of Hamlet, they are solicited by a street troupe of performers known as "Guerilla Will," who are performing As You Like It for free. Melanie decides to fake heatstroke so they can slip away and watch the street troupe's show. A handsome young actor in the troupe takes an interest in Allyson, coincidentally meets them on the train to the London the next day, and invites her to visit Paris for just one day before returning home. Allyson escapes the eighteen-year-long "good girl prison" she never realized she had been in. Her rescuer, who she knows only as Willem, is gone when she awakens the next morning; in a panic, she returns home and dutifully enters college in the fall, but she fails to find her feet. Previously an academic star, Allyson nearly fails her heavy science course load, and her mother's reaction is swift and harsh. To make matters worse, Melanie seems to have grown distant, and Allyson feels she can no longer confide in her. Fortunately, a guidance counselor pulls Allyson aside and helps her enroll in a somewhat unorthodox Shakespeare class. There, she makes an equally unorthodox friend who eventually convinces her to seek some answers to questions she has about the disappearing Willem. What she really finds out is more about herself. The use of Shakespeare's storylines to illustrate the ongoing work to define oneself might entice young adults to read the classic stories with new appreciation. Reviewer: Paula McMillen, Ph.D.
School Library Journal
Gr 9 Up—"We are born in one day. We die in one day. We can change in one day. And we can fall in love in one day. Anything can happen in just one day." Allyson's life has been carefully planned out by her well-intentioned, but overbearing parents, even her graduation present of an educational tour of Europe. Everything that makes Allyson "Allyson"-from choosing her hobby of vintage-clock collecting to selecting what her college major will be-has been orchestrated by her mother. So when, after a chance encounter with a young man named Willem, the 18-year-old rebels and ditches a performance of the Royal Shakespeare Company to see "Guerilla Will," live Shakespeare performed in a London park, even her friend Melanie is surprised. Shedding her good-girl cloak and adopting the nickname "Lulu," Allyson decides to spend a day in Paris with Willem, an actor from the theater troupe. She surprises herself with her bold and adventuresome behavior during their time together, not the least of which includes having sex in an artist's squat. When Allyson wakes up the next day to find Willem gone, she returns home but can't shake him or the whole day from her memory. After a tumultuous freshman year, she saves up enough money to return to Europe and track down Willem to get closure. In the process of finding him, Allyson discovers herself, which may have been the point of the trip all along. Reading like a teen version of Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love (Viking, 2006), this tale of romance and mystery engages readers and will cause them to examine their definitions of love and self-identity.—Nicole Knott, Watertown High School, CT
Kirkus Reviews
At the end of a European tour for teens the summer before college, a rules-following, 18-year-old girl impulsively travels to Paris with a handsome Shakespearean actor, a one-day adventure that becomes the catalyst for big changes in the way she sees herself and her place in the world. Nicely integrating the work of Shakespeare as a thematic jumping-off place, author Forman explores "the line between true self and feigned self," the multiple personae, roles and identities that coexist in a single soul. After Allyson, the dutiful, emotionally muted daughter of a pulmonologist father and helicopter mother, finally breaks out and has a romantic adventure with aforesaid handsome actor, she wakes up alone. She feels betrayed and played, precipitating a hard-to-buy psychological crisis. Once in college, Allyson finds herself unengaged by the pre-med curriculum her parents designed. Although she feels trapped by their expectations, with the support of classmate Dee (who tiptoes through various identities and roles himself) Allyson begins the business of figuring out who she is and what she wants. As she blossoms and emerges from her tedious depression, the novel becomes absorbing, and readers will find themselves rooting for Allyson's more autonomous and interesting self. An overlong coming-of-age novel that takes forever to get going but soars at the finish. (Fiction. 14 & up)
