Every Day

I’m jealous of all the young people who get to grow up with David Levithan’s novels in their lives. He is a master of painting the lives of adolescents in all their permutations, and in Every Day, he does this in a way unlike anyone who has come before him. Known only as A, our hero is a soul who wakes up every day in the body of a different teenager. After almost six thousand days of living like this, it has become normal for him (her?) to spend each day in a different life, fitting himself into strangers’ lives temporarily. When he meets Rhiannon, he wants to stay in the same life for the first time and let someone know his secret.

Every Day is magical, built on a complex premise but with the most basic of morals: everyone wants to be seen and loved. I want to hand this book to all the teenagers I know, telling them, “David Levithan speaks the truth.” This book is full of simple lessons which are beautifully phrased and never condescending. I want to hang my classroom’s walls with phrases like, “Kindness connects to who you are, while niceness connects to how you want to be seen” and “…being best friends is always about the benefit of the doubt.”

One of Levithan’s many gifts (meaning his talent as a writer and also his present to the reader) is how he embraces sexuality in all its forms. Everyone is welcome in his world, as seen in his previous novels like Boy Meets Boy and The Realm of Possibility. One of A’s most affecting days is spent as Vic, biologically female and gendered male. Levithan writes, “It is an awful thing to be betrayed by your body. And it’s lonely, because you feel you can’t talk about it. You feel it’s something between you and the body. You feel it’s a battle you will never win…and yet you fight it day after day, and it wears you down. Even if you ignore it, the energy it takes to ignore it will exhaust you.” Fortunately, Vic has a loving relationship with Dawn, parents who care for him, and friends that see him for who he is. These few pages will go a long way for young readers who may be in the same position, or know someone who is.

There are some unanswered questions in Every Day, and that is to be expected. A doesn’t know how he became this way, so the reader doesn’t either. It doesn’t matter. This is the most creative love story I’ve ever read.

I read a teaser of EVERY DAY from the BUZZ BEA ebook from Netgalley and knew I had to read this novel! I was bummed I wasn't able to snatch a galley at ALA this last June but I ended up preordering a copy from my local Barnes and Noble.

Let's just say the book fulfilled all my expectations and more!

I totally loved this story! 'A' starts every day in a different body, different gender. Sure, you're not sure what gender 'A' is but it's like the author states in the novel:

...I have never fallen in love with a gender. I have fallen for individuals...

That's the beauty of this novel. You don't see 'A' as a gender but rather an individual especially when 'A' falls for Rhiannon and tries to keep the connection no matter which body 'A' is in at the time.

This story also opened up some questions. What responsibility does 'A' to the host body? In one scene, 'A' ends up in a girl's body who not only is suicidal but maps out the different ways to do it. 'A' freaks and calls Rhiannon, asking what to do. What Rhiannon says had me ponder the whole ethical matter here.

Also apparently 'A' has always jumped into different host bodies. I couldn't help but wonder more about the backstory about how this all started. Toward the end of the novel, there's more hinted at. I kind of hope the author will write at least a novella to show us a little more of this world.

And this world is amazing and fascinating! Each different host is the same age and in basically the same geologically area. Then 'A' makes a mistake and the one host Nathan calls what happened demonic possession.

Beautifully written with a premise that is part Quantum Leap, part Time Traveler's Wife. I happened to love the cliffhanger like ending which teases readers that there might be more to 'A's future. I do admit, the ending totally took me by surprise and is bittersweet. But then again I love stories like that. And I love EVERY DAY which is a fascinating look into 'A's journey that starts each day in a different body with different problems/issues.

This is one of those books that some people love while others are left to ponder all of the unanswered questions they still have. *points to self* This is certainly an interesting story, well written and the characters are engaging but I honestly don't know how I feel about it. The idea that love knows no boundaries, defies physical appearances, constant change etc. is all good stuff but it doesn't always work out like that. When you love someone you're supposed to focus more on their inner self and the outward shouldn't matter as much but it still matters. (If my husband woke up tomorrow and was suddenly a woman, it.would.matter.)

It bothered me not to know whether "A" was a boy or a girl at his/her core but it bothered me more to not know how "A" came to be. I also felt like all of the other stories we were getting glimpse's of were left hanging. It seemed a lot to keep track of along with the complexities of the love story that was taking place. I'm a big fan of closure and I don't need a "Happily Ever After" ending but this one had me asking, "That's it? What happens now?"