Book Review: Every Day by David Levithan

Book: This is a story about A. A is neither female nor male and he is not a single person. A is a type of soul or being. He inhabits different people’s bodies daily. Every day he is someone new; this means he can wake up one day as a boy and the next a girl. A has been like this since birth. Initially, A thought this was how life was for everyone; however, with time, A realized that it was not normal and was in fact quite unique. When A inhabits a person’s body, “he” attempts to keep their life on track, without messing up any part of it. “He” does this to the best of his ability. One of the reasons for this is because he attempted to keep connections with people and it resulted in a disaster. Therefore, he tries to just get through the day as easily as possible. He picks up on many cues from parents, siblings, friends, etc so he conforms quite easily, since he has had lots of practice. The story takes off when A inhabits the body of a boy named Justin. Everything is going great until Justin (A) gets to school and realizes he has a girlfriend, Rhiannon. A is automatically drawn to Rhiannon and wants to stay connected with her in some way. This story contains many issues, some are lighthearted and some are heavy. It makes the reader think and do a lot of self-evaluation, specifically on how you view yourself and how others view you. It deals with obstacles that their love must face and obstacles that many teenagers that are coming of age encounter.

Opinion: This book was a little odd to me in the beginning because the concept was so strange and unique to me. However, the more I read, the more I liked the story. The uniqueness of the A’s character made the story interesting. I was not bored in this story at all because every day A would wake up in a new person’s body. The reader never knew whom A would wake up as or what was going to take place. I am keeping this review spoiler-free, so I cannot go into extravagant detail. I know many people did not like the ending of this book, but I thought it was the perfect ending to the book; I was completely satisfied with it. I did enjoy reading this book, but there was one aspect of the book I did not particularly enjoy. I am not a huge fan of instalove. However, for this particular book, I see how it can be used. A only has one day in a specific person’s body, so whatever A does, he has to make it count. Even though A has instalove for Rhiannon, it is not reciprocated on her part. So, the concept of instalove in this particular story did not bother me as much as it normally would. I enjoyed A’s character. I also enjoyed David Levithan’s writing style. I do think fans of John Green would like this book. I thought this book was a good read.