"Every day a different life. Every day in love with the same girl." Reviewing David Levithan's Every Day

Imagine if you woke up in a different body every day. One day you are Becky - the shy girl in class who never lifts her hand. The next you are Thomas - the ambitious student who is trying to get into law school.You know that you wake up in a different body than you went to bed in, you are fine with it. When it happens, you try to follow their daily lives, trying not to interfere.

One day, you wake up in the body of Justin and you fall in love, knowing full well that the next day you are going to be someone else again. What do you do now?

This is the plot of David Levithan's "Every Day" - A is a sentient being who wakes up in another body every single day. One day they find themself in Justin's body, they fall in love with Rhiannon. They spend a fantastic day together. And yet, when A wakes in another body, they can't let it go of her, they are still in love with her.

Following their heart, A tries nearly everything to get back to Rhiannon. They visit her school, and pretend to be a new girl trying to find her way around. They go to the same party and they pretend to be a gay cousin of the house owner. This works until Rhiannon discovers that there is no gay cousin, and asks via e-mail what is going on. The truth starts to come out ...


What made me pick up this book in the first place was the creative idea. I did not need another cheep love story where someone is hopelessly in love and tries to make the other fall in love with them too. However, the fact that this slight Sci-Fi element is built into the story, has caught my attention. Overall, the idea is put well into place - the element of the story is explained, even the background and how A came to realize that they were different from the rest of the world.

While the story is centered around a love story, and A is trying to make Rhiannon fall in love with them. It does not happen cheaply. Rhiannon does not finally give in, instead it is a slow progress: at first Rhiannon is suspicious, then she starts to trust A. This is followed by a fragile friendship, until they kiss.

At the beginning A comes off as pushy and even creepy, but as the story progresses they grow up. The character development is on point. The moment Rhiannon states that she needs here distance A gets into a sissy fit usually reserved for the Douche Bro in rom-coms. Very soon, A learns from this experience and respects her wish as well. A is nowhere near a faultless character at the beginning, instead they learn how to be one as the story progresses.

Given that A wakes up in a new body every day, it could have easy been a white male each time. Instead, Levithan wrote different people for each day. It would be unrealistic if A would end up being a man each time. So A end up being a beautiful Latina one day, the next they are a poor immigrant, and then indeed a white football player. Afterwards, they are a depressed girl ready to take her own life. A does not identify with a gender, and has stated that they fell in love with a man before. This makes the main character into an agender pansexual - which is very refreshing.

Thus I found it a bit disappointing that during all of the mayor scenes with A and Rhiannon, A had been in body of a white male. There was only one scene in which A was in a female body and Rhiannon admitted that she couldn't just switch between loving different genders.

While I am aware that this is part of the plot, I just couldn't shake the feeling that a bit more of a mix-up should have happened. While Rhiannon kissed  A in a body of a fat man on the cheek - which is hardly a sexual move - nothing came anywhere near this type affection when A was in a female body.

This was the "biggest" nit-pick I had with "Every Day." All in all, the book offers a new type of story that I hadn't read like this before. The characters are interesting and you get to see them evolve, and thanks to Levithan's empathetic writing, you understand every single thought and feeling that A has.

This is a book that everyone should read!

Every Day	by David Levithan
Published	2012	by Knopf Books for Young Readers
Series:	Every Day	#1
Pages:	322
ISBN-13:	9780307931887
Goodreads:	Add to shelf