Round 2 of my 2018 book reviews! Recently when I was watching YouTube, an ad for the movie of Every Day played before my video, and I thought it looked interesting so I picked an ebook from the library and read it in one go in the wee early hours of the morning. Unfortunately I was not a huge fan of the book, and will go further into my thoughts below
The description given on Goodreads is pretty good, so I will copy it below
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.
Characters
I did not like A or Rhiannon very much at all. A did not seem to care very much for anyone else’s feelings, especially the bodies they took over, but also Rhiannon’s at the beginning of their relationship. They also did not have any interests or hobbies, or personality traits, making them feel flat. Rhiannon was also pretty flat, and the fact that we only ever saw her through A’s eyes meant we never got to see her as anything but perfect to them.
Due to A jumping into a different body every day, we did not get introduced to any other important people in their life, and although I understand why, I love side characters in books so I was disappointed. I would have enjoyed seeing more of Rhiannon’s friends and family, but of course she was only interested in A. The one we did get to see was Justin, Rhiannon’s boyfriend. I wish that his character had been shown more, instead of A complaining about him as an obstacle to their relationship. One of my favorite characters was Nathan, as I thought that he was interesting and better developed than many of the other characters.
Plot
The idea of the plot is super interesting, and what got me interested in the book to begin with. I think that the concept was very original and was one of my favorite parts of the book. However, I was not a fan of where the plot went after that, as I felt like some of it did not make sense, or were only caused by A’s incompetence. Without going into spoilers, I did not like the ending either, as I felt like it did not fully wrap up the plot, as well as some other issues I had with it. I know David Levithan is coming out with a sequel this year, but I would rather have had a longer book that tied up everything than a sequel 6 years later.
Romance
As I stated previously, I was not a fan of either of the main characters, so I did not like the romance at all. I usually do not complain about “insta-love” but I found the amount of time that it took A to fall in love with Rhiannon ridiculous, as it was for less than a day, and she was only acting like she did because A was in the body of her boyfriend. I was also uncomfortable with how A kept expecting Rhiannon to love them back instantly, despite the fact that she had met them only a few times, and the only one in a romantic context was as her boyfriend. A was also unwilling to compromise on their relationship, and kept encouraging Rhiannon to break up with Justin, and their relationship was too close to cheating for me to like it, even if Justin was a jerk.
Setting
This book is set in Maryland, but if I was not from Maryland I would not have remembered that at all. Being from Maryland, that also bothered me, as there are not many books set in Maryland, and I thought that the setting did nothing for the plot.
Representation
Previously I have seen people say that A is nonbinary and pansexual, but I do not think that is well represented. While A says that they do not identify as a specific gender, both Rhiannon and the synopsis of the book refer to them with he/him or think of them as male. Rhiannon also seems uncomfortable whenever A is in the body of a girl.
People also applaud this book for the diversity in the people that A is each day, but I also thought that it sometimes felt forced, as if each person was checking off a box for diversity. Some of the parts were also handled very poorly. The obese character, Finn, that A inhabits is dehumanized, as A does not bother connecting to him in any way and comments on his weight as his only characteristics. He also talks about knocking things over or bending chairs, and both A and Rhiannon do not see anything redeeming about him. This chapter feels less like learning about other people’s experiences like many of the other chapters, but more like A and Rhiannon struggling because A is “unattractive” and that really bothered me as if you are trying to represent all diversity you should not do that.
Another chapter which had issues in representation was the chapter about the transgender character Vic. It begins well with A talking about how they are neither male or female and how they had issues with that when they were younger. While A seems to mostly understand Vic’s gender, he still introduces his new body to Rhiannon with the sole fact that they are transgender, and Rhiannon does not bother to care saying “so you’re a girl who’s a boy?” and constantly misgendering him with no correcting from A. I think that once again if you are trying to include diversity you should show it in a clear and correct way, and having one of the main characters misgender a trans character, without correction or any discussion, is not the way to do that.
Writing
I enjoyed the writing of the book, and it allowed the book to breeze by, it only took me a few hours to read, and it kept me up until 1 am reading. I would not be opposed to reading another book by the author.
Final Verdict
I really wanted to like this book, but overall I give it a 2/5 stars. Despite not liking the book I may still go see the movie because it looks like it has the potential to remove some of the issues that I have with the book.
On a side note I have recently gone back to college so I will be more busy, so posts may be less frequent while I get used to my schedule. Tune in to my twitter for my quick thoughts on books and movies, as I am trying to use it more.
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