Every Day by David Levithan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
So… this book. This book…..
Every day a different body. Every day a different life. Every day in love with the same girl.
I’m not even sure where to start because from the very beginning you are drawn into this existence that makes no sense. Every single day A wakes up in a new body… someone different but around his age and in the vicinity that he currently is… it could be a boy or a girl. He/She never knows who it will be. He has accepted that this is his life. He spends his day acclimating to the person, never interfering, never being noticed and then moves on. A manages to maintain a sense of separation between the body that’s being inhabited and him/herself (itself?)
It’s a lonely existence until one day Awakes up in the body of Justin and meets Rhiannon who is Justin’s girlfriend. A is completely captivated by her and no longer follows the rules that were created. Each day, A finds himself longing for her, any interaction, any meeting. A is in love and its the first time A has ever had any kind of connection to anywhere or anyone.
I’m finding it hard to explain this book in my review adequately because it is without Levithan’s words I can’t do it justice. It is almost impossible to imagine and consider. A has never had to consider gender and isn’t even sure of one and I think that is one of the messages of this book even if it wasn’t intended. Once Rhiannon knows, once A has explained and given proof she struggles with the constant changes, she’s focused on the outside package of A.
“In my experience, desire is desire, love is love. I have never fallen in love with a gender. I have fallen for individuals. I know this is hard for people to do, but I don’t understand why it’s so hard, when it’s so obvious.”
Even now, writing this review I’m struggling with the idea that A wasn’t ever a specific gender, but a beautiful soul. A struggles with the idea that they can’t just make the relationship work and eventually it hits hard.
I will never have a family to grieve for me. I will never have people feel about me the way they feel about Marc’s grandfather, I will not leave the trail of memories that he’s left. No one will ever have known me or what I’ve done. If I die, there will be no body to mark me, no funeral to attend, no burial. If I die, there will be nobody but Rhiannon who will ever know I’ve been here.
This book really just makes you think… could you love someone who changed on a daily basis, someone who was the popular girl one day, and a 300 lb boy the next, a strung out girl one day, a gay boy the next? rich, poor, fat, thin, gay, straight, drug addict… he’s been them all and experienced things beyond belief. There are bits of humor and sadness and really shows how sometimes we take what we have for granted… family, friends and relationships.
The writing was beautiful and I found myself engaged throughout the story – always wondering who A would wake up as next… what would that person’s story be and how would A make it work. The characters were wonderfully written and even though we don’t know much about A we learn quite a bit about those A inhabits and we also get a lot of Rhiannon and the journey her character goes through in this story.
The end … *sigh* the end was not what I was expecting because I had tears … subdued tears, but tears none the less.
BUT – I want more… I want more answers and I hope that someday we get them. I was left with lots of questions that I NEED answers to! (which is why I gave it a 4 star)
Overall a wonderfully told story that will captivate you from beginning to end. At it’s core, this book is a love story… a teen romance, but it is so much more than that too. It’s an exploration of perception and gender, love and trust and offers poignant and realistic situations for the reader to consider. I hope you’ll go check it out when it comes out in August.
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