Review: Every Day

Every Day by David Levithan

Published by Knopf Books for Young Readers

Genre: YA

$16.99 (US hardback)

322 pages

 

What it's about:

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

Every morning, A wakes in a different person’s body, a different person’s life. 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 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.

My thoughts:
In the acknowledgments of this book, David said he came up with the idea for the book after having conversations with John Green and Suzanne Collins. So you know this book is going to be awesome if those two authors helped come up with the idea and David Levithan wrote it.

I'm starting to believe that both David Levithan and John Green are brilliant. Truly. When I read books by either of them, I'm always surprised by them and amazed. In Every Day, Levithan took me by surprise. I was thinking it was going to be good, but I didn't think it'd be this good. The story starts on the day A goes into Justin's body and him falling in love with Rhiannon. It just throws you in and you have to figure it out from there. I didn't know what to expect from the rest of the book, but I was always a little surprised. It blows my mind how Levithan is able to get you to connect to all the characters so fast. A is only in the body for about 15 hours, and yet in those few pages it takes to talk about those hours, you are already connected. Throughout the book I was wondering what happened to the kids A inhabits? What happens the next day? How was everything solved? Was it even solved? I wanted to know. Yet you never really do and that was the point.

Levithan had me asking myself so many questions while reading the book. He talks about religion, love, gender roles, and a little of everything. It had me wondering. Like for instance, A. Is A a boy or a girl? Or is A neither or both? Does it matter? Yet I kept thinking of A as a him. Then had to ask myself why.

The only complaint I have about this book is the abrupt ending. After finishing the book, I sort of just sat there, scratching my head in confusion. I'm still not possitive about the ending and would have liked to know more about it, but once again, that was the point. I see what Levithan was doing and get it, but I'm not thrilled with the ending.

My rating: 9/10