It’s much like a cliffhanger, except it ends at an open door.
An open door at the end of TWO books by Gayle Forman, to be precise.
The DREADED DOORHANGER.
You remember. The end of both Just One Day and Just One Year end at that damned open door. That quiet declaration, “My name is Allyson.” And well, that simple kiss.
And you can quit frontin’ like you’d heard of the term, because I just made it up.
Which was obvious.
Because it was not that clever.
ANYWAY.
We all railed at and rallied against the ending of Just One Year because lezzzzbe honest … we wanted more. Remember that Boozy Book Club where no one was happy with the small glimpse we got of Willem and Allyson’s future? The complete and utter lack of their TOGETHERNESS? Oh, how we railed. Because despite how much we LOVED their story, it simply felt abridged.
Speaking of abridged, look at this quote from the last page of Just One Year.
OH THE PARALLELS.
Really, I don’t know why we were surprised she ended it where she did. She kept giving us GIANT NEON SIGNS of where this train was headed (or not). From Just One Day:
LIKE THE KISSING. LIKE ABSENCE OF THE TONS OF KISSING THE COVER PROMISED.
So, we wept. We told Gayle how we felt. We tweeted and blogged and generally made a giant Old Testament case to YA Moses about how sorry we felt for ourselves.
And lo, the clouds opened up and the vast peoples of the Young Adult kingdom looked to the firmament and beheld the promise of … The Rest of the Tale.
In her infinite wisdom, Gayle is giving us an entire novella, Just One Night (Just One Day #2.5) in which we finally get to see the rest of that evening. And this cover? Also promises kissing.
COMING: May 29th!!!!
And as much as we bemoan what felt like the lack of an ending to Just One Year, we trust Gayle to know what she’s doing and give us wonderful books that make us cry, that we will re-read for years to come, and that we will recc to our girlfriends and daughters (when they get old enough for kissing books). I’m grateful she saw more in their story, and saw enough to give us an all new novella.
SO THANK YOU, GAYLE. I will be buying this at midnight on the 28th, and devouring it before brunch.
But this whole thing got me thinking.
Just how many OTHER YA authors could we possibly badger into giving us those lost, missing or otherwise door-dangling scenes?
We’ve talked about it enough, but do you think we could pester Rainbow Rowell to give us those three words from Eleanor & Park?
How about nagging Maggie Steifvater into actually telling us if Grace stays human, wolf or FREAKING DIES HORRIFICALLY after Forever‘s last page?
Do we care enough about the end of Requiem to ask Lauren Oliver for ANY freaking THING? Probably not.
How about we hastle Tabitha Suzuma to change the ending to Forbidden altogether so we can believe in humanity again?
I can think of about a million deleted scenes I need Melina Marchetta to pen immediately. For reasons. Mostly Jonah and Finnikin reasons. But I’ll take Froi. Or Banyon. Dude. I’ll even take a Will Trombal scene. MORE WERDS, MELINA.
And do we even NEED to talk about all the missing hotness, Stephenie Meyer?
So, what do you think? Is this possible? Is it considered bullying to beg authors for more, or just bad taste? What books or scenes would you beg for if you knew you would get them?
