Every Day by David Levithan

Every Day by David Levithan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Hardcover, 336 pages

Published August 28th 2012 by Knopf Books for Young Readers

In his New York Times bestselling novel, David Levithan introduces readers to what Entertainment Weekly calls a "wise, wildly unique" love story about A, a teen who wakes up every morning in a different body, living a different life.

Every day a different body. Every day a different life. Every day in love with the same girl.

There’s never any warning about where it will be or who it will be. A has made peace with that, even established guidelines by which to live: Never get too attached. Avoid being noticed. Do not interfere.

It’s all fine until the morning that A wakes up in the body of Justin and meets Justin’s girlfriend, Rhiannon. From that moment, the rules by which A has been living no longer apply. Because finally A has found someone he wants to be with—day in, day out, day after day.

With his new novel, David Levithan, bestselling co-author of Will Grayson, Will Grayson, and Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, has pushed himself to new creative heights. He has written a captivating story that will fascinate readers as they begin to comprehend the complexities of life and love in A’s world, as A and Rhiannon seek to discover if you can truly love someone who is destined to change every day.

“The moment you fall in love feels like it has centuries behind it, generations - all of them rearranging themselves so this precise, remarkable intersection could happen. In your heart, in your bones, no matter how silly you know it is, you feel that everything has been leading to this, all the secret arrows were pointing here, the universe and time itself crafted this long ago, and you are just now realizing it, you are just now arriving at the place you were always meant to be.”
― David Levithan, Every Day 

This is the first novel I've read by David Levithan, and after finishing it, I have to say that I will definitely check out more of his work.

GoodReads was advertising this book like CRAZY when this book first came out. I couldn't go anywhere on the website without it being shoved in my face, rather obnoxiously if I may add. So, upon one day stumbling upon the book on the shelf of my county library, I decided, "Why not?" GoodReads is obviously trying to get me to read this so it can't be all bad. And, it wasn't; I fell in love with the first few pages.

Every Day is about a character named A; A doesn't have a definitive gender, at least, not that A knows of. A wakes up in a different person's body everyday; sometimes as a girl, boy, thin, obese, straight, or homosexual; the possibilities are endless. This has been going on for as long as A can remember.

A pretty much accepts this life because there isn't any way to change it. It’s not something s/he can just turn on and off at will; it’s his/her reoccurring ailment. That is, s/he accepts this life, until s/he meets Rhiannon. And to make matters even more complicated, Rhiannon has a rather asinine boyfriend who basically treats her like dirt and she lets him.

I have to say, the whole concept of waking up as a different person everyday and being able to also access all their memories, is definitely a unique plotline. It is what I loved so much about this story. The characters also felt so real that is was hard not to love them or connect with them. Though, at one point, I was getting pretty annoyed with Rhiannon. At parts, she seems a tad judgmental when it came to A’s appearance. A specific example would be when he was a 3 or 400 pound boy. She kept looking at him oddly, and seemed ashamed to be seen with him in public. I guess I can sort of understand her situation; it must be hard to be with someone who is in a different person’s body every day, but A is still the same person inside. She seemed to have trouble seeing that at times when A was on the more unattractive side. For some reason it just irked me a bit.

Overall, the writing was wonderful! I didn’t expect to fall in love with this book like I did. Now, you are probably wondering why if I loved it so much, I only gave it 4 stars instead of 5. I can’t really explain why. Even though I thoroughly enjoyed the novel, I found I wasn’t as immersed in the story the closer I got to the end. The ending, don’t get me wrong, wasn’t bad. There probably wasn’t really any alternative to what happened that wouldn’t have completely changed the story. Another factor that could have paid tribute to me giving the book only 4 stars was the fact that A got a little creepy as the book went on. By creepy, I mean obsessed. He constantly thought of Rhiannon and wanted to see her, and would go see her, even if she didn’t want to meet; this interfered with the lives of the people s/he inhabited. I felt like that wasn’t really fair.

As I said, the book was good. I would recommend it to anybody. However, just a warning: the majority of the book is about romance. Yes, there is the sci-fi aspect, but the story itself pretty much revolves around A’s love of Rhiannon. So, if you are expecting some epic sci-fi novel, or are just not a huge fan of romance, then this is probably a book you should skip out on.

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