Age: 15
Title: Every Day
Author: David Levithan
Pub Date: 8/28/2012
Galley: Yes
Top 25: Yes
Convince us to read the book: New book by David Levithan. That alone was enough to make me pick up this book, regardless of the plot or cover. This book is a standout. It is anything but ordinary.
Imagine waking up in a different person's body every day. This is the reality that A lives with. He is good at it, and A tries to never interfere with other's lives; that is, until meeting Rhiannon and falling in love. Now, A tries to figure out how to love someone while living an unusual life. A's voice is clear throughout this book and is very realistic. Although the premise is fiction, this book reads like the best teen romance: one that you, as a reader, both can imagine and want to imagine.
A is considered genderless throughout the book, which is making this review very hard to write and sort of awkward. A wakes up in different bodies in terms of gender and sexuality and therefore views love much as he/she/it (? I read A as male at first, but eventually as the gender of the person whose body A was in) views A, not bound by gender/looks/sexuality at all. This is a challenge for Rhiannon, though. This book makes you ask, could you love someone based purely on their personality, not influenced at all by gender or physical appearance? How important are those things to us, in how we look at others?
Additionally, regardless of the odd but cool and interesting premise, David Levithan just knows how to write a really good love story. And at its heart, this is just a really good love story. I would highly recommend this book.
Memorable or Forgettable: In this book, every side character seems fully developed. A wakes up in a new body every day, and each of these people is developed as a character even if they are only in the story for a few pages. Their friends and family are also fully developed. This is quite a feat and ensures that the story never gets boring or repetitive. There are so many side plots and stories, which never detract from the main plot of A/Rhiannon but add complexity to the plot. Although this is only one part of the book that is memorable, it definitely stood out to me as being unusual in YA fiction.
Cover: I loved this cover. I love the muted colors and how the clouds are broken up by solid lines. The title/author name are large and eye catching but still simple. Also, the people floating in the clouds shows how the only static part of A's life is A.
Age Range: 14-17
Quality: 5Q Hard to imagine a better book
Popularity: 5P Everyone wants to read it
Additional Comments:
Every day a different body.
Every day a different life.
Every day in love with the same girl.
1 comment:
I completely agree, each new life did seem to be fairly well fleshed out. I think it would be equally interesting to read about A's childhood, because while we do get a sense of it, a full account would be absolutely fascinating. I think, although it would be a massive undertaking and is unlikely to happen, a full account of A's life, beginning to end (?) would be so enjoyable.
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