Annike: Hey guys, so today I wanted to review a book I actually read late last year called Every Day by David Levithan. The reason that I started reading this was actually because I saw the trailer on Youtube and thought it looked really interesting – though Goodreads reviews maybe weren’t as promising. All the same, I decided to get it on my computer and give it a try. I have heard many good things about David Levithan but this is my first proper novel of his so that was also a driving factor. I am happy to say that I did really enjoy this book, it was quick and easy while also being extremely intriguing so without further ado, let’s get onto the review.
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.
Ultimately, this book circles around a main character known as ‘A’. The catch of such a character is that they have neither a gender, a sexuality or any kind of appearance in which the audience knows. Instead, ‘A’ finds themselves in a new body everyday, for a single day, and is simply forced to live as that person for those 24 hours. This idea did initially draw me in, I thought it sounded extremely interesting and have always enjoyed those books with a large scope including many characters or many worlds.
So the main catch of the novel happens to be that after spending a day as a high school boy named Justin, ‘A’ finds themselves drawn to his girlfriend and is determined to meet her again despite the fact that the very next day they could be hours away from her and someone she has never met. The story follows ‘A’ as they dip in and out of people’s lives, determined to find Rhiannon again and again, trying to get her to fall in love with them as well as dealing with the rumours following them after someone they control for a day, claims to have felt possessed.
I think David Levithan definitely tackled a really difficult challenge in writing this book. It is obviously common fact that characters in a story are extremely important when it comes to the audience and their perception on a story. Characters have to be likeable and easy to connect with which is obviously extremely hard having barely any context of ‘A’ as a person. Even though I guess it shouldn’t matter what gender, sexuality or appearance someone has – you can’t deny that these are some of the things that definitely do make up a human being and without, the audience is only left with ‘A’s’ voice to connect with. The fact that I couldn’t really connect to ‘A’ as much as I would have liked definitely came down to this point.
Other than this, I do think that the story was really well written. There was a massively broad spectrum when it came to characters and their stories. A became people with different genders, different bodies, different sexualities, those struggling with mental health, those with different religious beliefs and many many more which was super interesting to look at. I thought it was really creative to establish a bunch of great characters and really delve into the varying lives of teenagers.
Overall, while I definitely did have my problems with this book, it was something I really enjoyed. There was a diverse range of characters and it was a relatively fast read with chapters that were relatively short – something I always appreciate. I definitely recommend it to young adult readers, and I’ll definitely be looking for the movie to come out at some point this year!
3.5/5 stars
Let me know if you’ve read this book, want to, or have any other good David Levithan books to suggests in the comments! Have a good week ahead of you!
~ A
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