Every Day (edició 2013)

I loved the concept and it was mostly well done, but the end...huh? What the heck happened? I didn't get it, maybe because I listened instead of read. ( )

I really loved this book. The only thing keeping me from giving it five stars is I was hoping to close the book with a better understand of the "why" of the situation. I almost felt like the end could lead to a sequel, but I'm not sure if that's the case or not. And I'm not sure if I'd want that because the rest of the story felt very resolved...not sure I'd want to revisit it again in any other way but to get more answers about "why" A was like this.

I really LOVED some of the social commentary about how the rest of us (who don't switch bodies daily) do put so much weight on physical appearance and on gender definitions before we can truly love the inner person. I liked how difficult that was for A to understand. And I liked how sad he was when he realized it was affecting him too...once he started worrying about how someone would see him.

This was a really great book. I definitely recommend it. I devoured it in one sleepless night. ( )

I really enjoyed Every Day. It was kind of a Time Traveler’s Wife for a younger audience. The concept—that the main character wakes up every day in a different person’s body and has to live their life for one day—is amazing.

The story is about how the main character, A, falls in love for the first time. Or is it the only time? When A first meets Rhiannon, I found A’s sudden love for her a bit unconvincing. Especially the reason why A likes her, that Rhiannon is sadly and subserviently in love with a boyfriend who doesn’t treat her right. It reminded me of that creepy pop song that goes “You don’t know you’re beautiful, that’s what makes you beautiful.” Ugh. But as the book progressed I began to believe that they were two soulmates.

The plot makes you think about who a person truly is at their essence, and also creates a powerful conflict. On the one hand, I wanted Rhiannon and A to be together. And the storyline mostly leads you to the conclusion that bodies and genders are irrelevant and true love conquers all. But on the other hand, A and Rhiannon have no future because A doesn’t know what body A will wake up in tomorrow, or where, or what the circumstances will be. So A and Rhiannon never know if they will see each other the next day, and Rhiannon can never introduce A to her family or friends or have a full relationship with A. They seemed genuinely doomed. So I really was interested to see how this would resolve. I also liked the question of whether A was the only person in the world like this or whether there were others.

My favorite scene was a scene at a library where A and Rhiannon talk about the Shel Silverstein book The Giving Tree. It gave Rhiannon a chance not to be a codependent lost girl, and it was funny and sweet. I was also mildly amused that David Levithan made half of A’s favorite books ones published by Scholastic (where Levithan is an editor.)

I liked the way the story presented gender and how the main character A didn’t have one/had two. I also liked that one of the people that A embodied for a day was transgender, and that the character had a happy life and a nice girlfriend. I did notice there was a strong emphasis on how that character had the wrong body, wrong wrongitty wrong, and his body was a betrayal. This is the narrative I always read in YA about characters who are transgender and I want to know if this is the only one on offer because it’s really the only one there is, or if trapped-in-a-hatefully-wrong-body is just the simplest, most accessible story.

David Levithan has a sort of spare style and in the past I’ve enjoyed his collaborative books the most because they seemed more balanced and full to me. This time, I felt his style really suited the plot and made the novel more haunting. On the other hand, some of his quick character descriptions seem a bit stereotyped or taking the lazy way out. Like, A wakes up as an Asian girl who plays the clarinet, and that’s supposed to tell you everything you need to know about her. The chapter where this came across in the most horrifying way was the chapter where A was Finn, a boy who weighs over 300 pounds. Finn gets the least sympathetic treatment of anyone you can possibly imagine. We are told that Finn got that way through negligence, laziness, and carelessness, and that Finn may have humanity somewhere deep down but A can’t find it. Wow. I loathed this chapter beyond belief. I know I’m a broken record and I always say the same thing in reviews, but I really hate the idea that a young person will pick up a novel and end up feeling bad about him or herself. Don’t be a hater while you’re writing a YA novel.

I liked the ending, which I won’t describe. I also enjoyed the acknowledgments page. I’m coming clean about the fact that this is often one of the most fascinating parts of a book for me. What a delightful writer’s life Levithan leads, as portrayed in these acknowledgments! He talks over his ideas with Billy Merrell, Suzanne Collins, and John Green—a dream team! When on a book tour, he has a driver—exquisite! And I love that Bill Clegg is his agent, since I just finished his two memoirs. I may start doing reviews focused solely on the acknowledgments page. ( )

This book is fantastic, beautiful, moving, and depressing at the same time. I read all but the first 30 pages in one day... ( )

Every Day is a story about "A" - someone who wakes up in a different body every morning. "A" has always been like this since they can remember, and they have just come to accept how they are - until they meet Rhiannon. "A" wakes up as Rhiannon's boyfriend, Justin, and they go on a date. Suddenly, "A" moves all other lives to be around or near Rhiannon as best as they can, even if they know it's a struggle.

This was my first book by David Levithan and I was pretty excited about it because I know he gets such high praise. The book just didn't have the magic for me... It's a cool concept fantasy novel that explores what it's like to be a different person everyday, to be genderless, to be without self really, and also to be in love - but it's done in a creepy way. There's stalking, lying, cheating... it gets messy.

I'm not fond of the characters. "A" is a jerk - noted as a "nice person," the only one who can see who Rhiannon really is. Once "A" meets her and instantly falls in love, they stalk her and make the host bodies skip school, miss tests or practices, important events, or lie to their parents. Afterwards, "A" can manipulate the hosts' memories to really whatever works best with the plot. Rhiannon doesn't seem to have much to offer either.

The plot resolved around "A" being with and around Rhiannon, and during the time they're not, the story gets kind of just skimmed over. It's a romance YA story that's for sure, but I wish there was more at stake than just wanting to be with someone.

The pacing of the story was slow, but it's still a fast read. I can't say I enjoyed the book fully; there were some parts that I found interesting, and I read to the end to know what happened, but it had too many issues for me and ended on a note I'm not fond of. ( )