Every Day

by David Levithan

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

“[A] wise, wildly unique” (Entertainment Weekly) love story from the bestselling co-author of Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist and Will Grayson, Will Grayson about a teen who wakes up every morning in a different body, living a different life.

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.

With his new novel, David Levithan, bestselling co-author of Will Grayson, Will Grayson, and Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, has pushed himself to new creative heights. He has written a captivating story that will fascinate readers as they begin to comprehend the complexities of life and love in A’s world, as A and Rhiannon seek to discover if you can truly love someone who is destined to change every day.

“A story that is always alluring, oftentimes humorous and much like love itself— splendorous.” —Los Angeles Times

• ISBN10: 129908947X
• ISBN13: 9781299089471
• Publish Date: 1 January 2012
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 9 June 2015
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers
• Format: eBook
• Language: English

Reviews

[Terri M. LeBlanc]

Warning! In order to explain my Thumbs Down rating of this book, there is material in this review that could be considered a spoiler. Proceed at your own risk!

I’ve been intrigued with Every Day by David Levithan from the first time I encountered it at my local bookshop. Just the synopsis on GoodReads gets the mind thinking…

"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."

Why does A wake up in different bodies every day? What’s it like living in someone else’s skin for the day? How do you cope being someone different every day? The mind reels.

When Every Day first started off it was a compelling read. It was a learning experiencing for me because A doesn’t necessarily have a gender. A’s thoughts are philosophical and give the reader a lot to chew on. Then A fell in love with Rhiannon.

I didn’t have a problem with A falling in love with Rhiannon. Their infatuation with each other, the joys of young love was lovely. I had a problem when A spent the day in Rhiannon’s body. I was so fantastically creeped out that my skin was crawling. I was driving and I just wanted to take a bath after getting done with that section. It took the body hopping a bit too far and it escalated, in my mind, A’s obsession with Rhiannon. To me, he felt like a stalker.

I also had a problem how the secondary story line with Nathan Daldry and the Reverend evolved. The late reveal that there are others like A in the world felt like an afterthought. At that point in the game, I just wanted A and Rhiannon to figure out their relationship. That was the meat of the story for me—how relationships grow and change. I didn’t care if A is part of an alien race or a demon or what by that point. If the author wanted that to be a primary part of the story, why not bring it up sooner? I was super annoyed because a) it meant that this was suddenly going to be series and b) it meant that A could cling to Rhiannon longer.

I know, based on the average review rating on GoodReads, that I’m in the minority in my feelings about this book. The strongest points of this book are the deep understanding one can gain by considering the thoughts and feelings of others in every thing that one does every day. But the creepy, stalkerish behavior of the characters and the late decision to continue the story into other books rubbed me in all the wrong ways.


This review was originally posted on Second Run Reviews

[Leah]

This was such an interesting read. I picked it up from the library at a whim, not sure if it would be my kind of read but it was actually quite an amazing read. I loved getting to know A, and his story is definitely an interesting one because I can't quite decide if moving from body to body is actually really awesome or would actually become quite tiresome very fast, as A finds out.

It was such a good read it kept me up until just before midnight, but it was well worth it because it was so engrossing and I'm quite excited that there's a companion out and a final book coming at some point, though there's sadly no release date for it.

Definitely a thought-provoking book and one I really enjoyed.

[Linda]

This review was originally posted on (un)Conventional Bookviews
Every Day is a unique story in which A wakes up in a new body every day, and has to live the life of that person for one day.



Every Day is well written, and it is more than just A's story, because A is like just a consciousness, no gender. And getting to know A is like getting to know someone who doesn't see the world the same way most people do, both because of changing every day, and also because of not knowing why this happens, how to deal with it, or if it's possible to stop moving around from body to body each day. The story is both a love story and a mystery, and once A meets Rhiannon, there is a new kind of life that coud open up for A, but it would be at the expense of someone else.

I enjoyed learning about A and that solitary life of waking up in a new body each day. Rhiannon was mostly a normal girl, with a boyfriend who didn't necessarily love her all that much. Her life was complicated in some ways, and rather straight forward in others. When she first met A, it was as if her boyfriend had completely changed, and she spent the best day of her life. When A needed to find her again, and showed up as different people at her school, she found it difficult to believe A at first, up until a moment when there were just too many things strangers knew that only A could know about.

I'm not even sure what genre I'd put Every Day in, it's a strange story, unique, and it shows that our true nature has nothing to do with the body our conscience is inside of, and that while we may be shaped by our environment, that's not the only thing shaping us. Written in first person point of view from A's perspective, and in present tense, the story is moving and both tender and a little sad.



Every day I am someone else. I am myself - I know I am myself - but I am also someone else. It has always been like this.

It's hard being in the body of someone you don't like, because you still have to respect it. I've harmed people's lives in the past, and I've found that every time I slip up, it haunts me. So I try to be careful.

I have learned how to observe, far better than most people observe. I am not blinded by the past or motivated by the future. I focus on the present, because that is where I am destined to live.

[reveriesociety_]

There are those books in which the guy changes how the girl sees the world, and those in which happens the other way around. This was neither. This story made me, be the one to change how I see the world.

Every Day was a wonderful book. I loved how every chapter was a day and if we want to get more technical, the writing is awesome too. Not especially poetic, or super deep. The simple voice of A worked well with the cover and the tone of the story.

*A doesn't have a gender, so I'll just say the name, or the pronouns him/his to avoid confusion.

I was a bit suspicious about how quickly A ditched his supposed rules because of falling in love with Rhiannon, but it was a minor thing compared to the awesomeness of this book.

Aside from the main plot of the story that ties these two people together, I enjoyed very much the little subplots and conflicts each host of A's presented. We see a girl with serious suicidal thoughts, a guy with other troubles, someone with anxiety, some nice people, people who were gay... etc. This look into other teenagers' heads was eye-opening. It isn't like I live under a rock, but for someone to actually experience all of these things... it was just a really great, new perspective to have.

 A heads up: There will be some questions about how exactly is A possible, and other things like that. If you like everything to have explanations, then maybe you should tread carefully.

As I explain in my post LGBT Books and Me, this book, which I hadn't realized was LGBT until I saw the label in GR, totally made me question my beliefs. I have a better understanding of friends who are bi, and about the world in general.

Halfway I realized this wasn't going to end in the kind of happy ending I always expect and love. But this one worked too, because it was just... disappointing enough to be real, and happy enough to please me.

GO GET THIS BOOK IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY!

Find this review also at A Writer's Tales

[Angie]

Can you imagine waking up in a different body every single day? How about falling in love knowing you'll be a in a different body the next day? Or having someone fall in love with you knowing you'll be different tomorrow? That is what A experiences in Every Day. Every day he's someone new, but also himself (I'm just assuming A is male for simplicity's sake, but he's really genderless in some ways). A has to dig through the body's memories so that he can seamlessly go about their day. Then he meets Rhiannon when he's in her boyfriend's body. A has never felt this way about anyone before, and isn't willing to let it go.

Every Day was really great. The concept is super unique and explained really well. There's nothing complicated or mind boggling about A's situation. It just is what it is. It's all he's ever known. A is careful not to disrupt anyone's lives while he's in them, but that's something he also screws up after meeting Rhiannon. Now a boy thinks he's been possessed by the devil, and A doesn't quite know how to make that go away. His priority is getting to know Rhiannon better and having her get to know him, and hopefully making a relationship work. I wanted them to work so badly!

A seems like a wonderful person, despite all of the crappy people he's been over the years. But I suppose, A has also seen and experienced a lot of stuff and doesn't want to be like those crappy people. It would be all to easy to take advantage and do all kinds of reckless things, since he won't have to live with the consequences. However, A does try to be helpful if he notices something terribly wrong. It's just a really interesting thing to think about, because what would you do if you had a different life every day? I'm not sure.

I really enjoyed Every Day. Each chapter is something new, since A inhabits a different body. Sometimes he has to go through their routine for the day, others he finds an excuse to run off and meet with Rhiannon. Sometimes he's a boy, or a girl, or gay, or straight, or trans, or fat, or sexy, or black, or Hispanic, rich, poor, happy, sad, injured, blind. All kinds of different people, so while A is always focused on being with Rhiannon it never felt repetitive to me because there's always something new to adapt to.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.

[Sam@WLABB]

“It's one thing to fall in love. It's another to feel someone else fall in love with you, and to feel a responsibility toward that love.”

Every day, A begins a new life in a new body, but just for one day. The concept immediately caught my attention, very original. But this is not simply a story of a soul that jumps from body to body, to me, it was about relationships -- with family, friends, lovers. How relationships can be complicated, joyous, satisfying or unsatisfying. Why we have relationships or don't. Why we stay or why we go. How relationships may be between different people, but still hold similarities, even if the outside "packaging" may vary.

I love Levithan and always enjoy his style, combine that with some really heartfelt characters (A & R), an interesting idea and you get a great read.

[Bianca]

We all want everything to be okay. We don't even wish so much for fantastic or marvelous or outstanding. We will happily settle for okay, because most of the time, okay is enough.

[Rinn]

Also posted on my blog, Rinn Reads.

When I first read about this book, I thought that it sounded like a beautifully unique story, like nothing I'd ever read. And now that I've read it, I know that my first impression was entirely correct.

Some may criticise the book - how can we learn anything about A, when A is someone new every day? Well, A is only a different person on the outside - A's personality remains. One day A might be a male jock, the next a suicidal young girl, the day after a super-shy, hard-working young man. A is able to access the memories of the body they are inhabiting, to avoid any awkward situations, and can generally pick up how that person might typically react to a situation.

So one day, A wakes up in the body of Justin. A girl walks up to him in the school corridor, and it turns out that this is Rhiannon, Justin's girlfriend. A immediately picks up on her body language around Justin, and her surprise when A treats her so well, that this is a relationship of convenience, not love. They ditch school and take a trip to the beach, where A gets to know Rhiannon - and falls in love with her.

Okay, so it doesn't take A long to decide that it is love. But as you read about A's life (or lives, I suppose), you realise that to A, that is love. A has never been loved before - how can they, when they've never been with the same people for more than a day? Never had a real parent, boyfriend, girlfriend, grandparent to love them? A may have heard declarations of love in the past, but they were to the people that A was inhabiting the bodies of, not A. For someone who has never really experienced any sort of emotional closeness this is a huge leap, so A instantly wants to see Rhiannon every day. Luckily, A only inhabits the body of a teenager within a certain distance - so as long as A stays in Maryland, A is near Rhiannon.

A frequent writer of LGBT fiction, Levithan continues here - A is genderless, and meets up with Rhiannon whether male or female. She often hesitates when interacting with female versions of A, but over time begins to get more comfortable as she gets more and more comfortable with the person inside. Although it's not a total LGBT story, like Boy Meets Boy or Two Boys Kissing, I hope it will become just as important in that sub-genre. A appears as straight, gay, lesbian - all bases are covered, with sensitivity and realism. To me it was a wonderful commentary on the walls that race, gender and sexual orientation can sometimes unnecessarily create.

Levithan's writing flows so smoothly, and each character that A becomes is unique and well thought over. I liked the fact that there wasn't a perfect ending, and whilst it's a sad story, you're left satisfied that the author didn't take the easy way. An unusual love story, it works so well on many levels.

But you know what was the best thing about this book? The very clear and loud message that whoever you are, whatever you look like, whoever you like - you're important. You're a person worthy of love and kindness. Your life is worth something.

After all, it's what's on the inside that counts.

[teachergorman]

For those of you who like to feel close to a character, this novel provides probably the most intimate portrait of a pair of young lovers that I've ever come across without ever being exploitative or grotesque. The mind-bending strangeness of the premise could have turned into a disastrous mess in lesser hands, but Levithan pulls it off in the end (though I had some moments where I thought the plot would veer into some disappointing territory). Ultimately, I couldn't tell how much research Levithan had done into the kinds of struggles his characters face on a day to day basis, but I found them all believable and many of them so illuminating that I will see certain people differently for the rest of my life. That alone is a major accomplishment and makes this book worth anyone's time. But the fact that he pulled these different lives together into a coherent narrative about two characters we come to love deeply is a major feat.

[Jo]

Originally posted on Once Upon a Bookcase.

Ever since I first heard about Every Day, I've wanted to read it. I knew it would be great for LGBTQ YA Month, but I had enough books already and didn't want to over do it. But things changed, and I knew I just had to read it. And it may just be the most incredible book I have ever read.

I don't think this book needs much of a summary. A wakes up in the body of a different person each and every day. He spends each day living their lives as best as he can, as they would, without too much disruption. He has no family or friends of his own, and lives a mostly lonely existence, never able to make any attachments. But when A meets Rhiannon in the body of her boyfriend, Justin, everything changes. He falls in love.

I cannot tell you what a fantastic book this is. It's unbelievable! It's beautiful, it's heartbreaking, it's simply amazing! Seeing A go from body to body, life to life, not have one of his own, but trying so hard no to screw up the lives of the people whose bodies he inhabits each day is just so hard. It's all A has known, so he's now more philosophical about it than depressed. But every now and then something will happen where he wishes that this was his life, these were his friends, this is his family, this is his body, and he has a hard time. Yet we can learn so much from A! Having lived every day of his life in a different body, he's had first hand experience of so many different cultures, religions, sexualities, races, and of course genders. He's been in the bodies of drug addicts and in the bodies of the depressed. He's seen the dynamic between different families. He's seen the hardships people go through, and the trivial in comparison worries of others. He's seen and experienced so much, he simply cannot judge anyone. Because he understands. He's also very intelligent, and talks about how, despite our differences, we're all pretty much just the same.

Watching A try to form some kind of relationship with Rhiannon when he's in a new body and new location every day is just so hard, but his determination to try something, simply because he can't bear to not be near her, is really the most wonderful thing. It really makes you think and question yourself. How far will you go for love? What would you do? What would you sacrifice? How hard are you willing to work? And at the same time, it shows us how the outside, our looks, really isn't important at all.Who we are surpasses what we look like, and this is who we love. It's what's inside that counts. Or is it? Again, the question of how far will you go for love doesn't just come from A's perspective, but Rhiannon's too. This is such a beautiful love story!

You'll notice that I've been referring to A as "he". This isn't correct. A doesn't have a gender. I will be using the generic "he" as "it" and "they" seem kind of rude. But yes, A doesn't have a gender. He's never had his own body, and spend time in the bodies of both girls and boys, he's just never thought that he has his own specific gender.

'I didn't think of myself as a boy or a girl--I never have. I would just think of myself as a boy or a girl for the day. It was like another set of clothes.' (p155)

This is something Rhiannon has some trouble with. When she knows about A's life, she struggles with being around him when he's in the body of a girl. That this person she's getting to know and starting to have feelings for... is a girl today. But as he explains, this is just who he is.

'She takes a sip of coffee, and I can tell another question's coming. "I know this is weird, but... I keep wondering. Are you really not a boy or a girl? I mean, when you were in [a girl's] body, did you feel more... at home than you would in the body of a boy?"It's interesting to me that this is the thing she's hung up on."It's just me," I tell her. "I always feel at home and I never feel at home. That's just the way it is." (p205)

This comes into play more when he finds himself in the body of a transgendered boy, and finds himself empathising to a certain degree.

'Even before I open my eyes, I like Vic. Biologically female, gendered male. Living within the definition of his own truth, just like me. He knows who he wants to be. Most people our age don't have to do that. They stay within the realm of the easy. If you want to live within the definition of your own truth, you have to choose to go through the initially painful and ultimately comforting process of finding it.' (p253)

A understands what Vic has gone through, and by "accessing" - looking at the memories of the body he inhabits - he's able to tell us a bit of Vic's own story.

'[His parents] knew that their daughter liked girls. But it took a while for him to articulate--even to himself--that he liked them as a boy. That he was meant to be a boy, or at least to live as a boy, to live in the blur between a boyish girl and a girlish boy.' (p254)

'[Dawn] had no idea what she was attracted to--the boyish girl, the girlish boy--and eventually she decided it didn't really matter. She was attracted to Vic. ...When Dawn looked at Vic, she saw Vic exactly as he wanted to be seen. Whereas Vic's parents couldn't help seeing who he used to be, and so many friends and strangers couldn't help seeing who he didn't want to be anymore, Dawn only saw him. Call it a blur if you want, but Dawn didn't see a blur. She saw a very distinct, very clear person.' (p255-256)

Because of being in Vic's body, he is reminded of his own gender issues, and shares with us the problems he once had. Where Vic was born as a girl when he should have been a boy, A has struggled with not having a fixed gender in a world that says you have to fit into one of the two books. Accepting his genderfluidity took time.

'There are few things harder than being born into the wrong body. I had to deal with a lot when I was growing up, but only for a day. Before I became so adaptable--so acquiescent to the way my life worked--I would resist some of the transitions. I loved having long hair, and would resent it when I woke up to find my long hair was gone. There were days I felt like a girl and days I felt like a boy, and those days wouldn't always correspond with the body I was in. I still believed everyone when they said I had to be one or the other. Nobody was telling me a different story, and I was too young to think for myself. I had yet to learn that when it came to gender, I was both and neither.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 try to ignore it, the energy it takes to ignore it will exhaust you.' (p254)

As well as genderfluidity and transgender topics, Every Day also looks at sexuality. A has been in the bodies of straight males and females, but also in the bodies of homosexual males and females, and has not had a problem. A himself is pansexual. The term "pansexual" isn't mentioned in the book, but I had heard of it before. Giving the extraordinary life A has, it's made understanding pansexuality easier; A doesn't see the gender of other people, he just sees people. He isn't attracted to girls and boys, but people. We discover more about how he thinks of his sexuality at a Gay Pride event.

'We come to the corner where there are a few people protesting the festivities. I don't understand this at all. It's like protesting the fact that some people are red-haired.In my experience, desire is desire, love is love. I have never fallen in love with a gender. I have fallen for individuals. I know this is hard for people to do, but I don't understand why it's so hard, when it's so obvious.' (p142)

As A is genderfluid, has no gender of his own, understanding his character and seeing him as someone without gender made it easier for me to understand pansexuality, because gender absolutely does not come into it. Bisexuality is attraction to males and females, pansexuality is attraction to "all"; gender doesn't come into consideration, and at the same time, the "pan" (meaning "all") includes, according to Wikipedia, those "who are intersex and/or fall outside the gender binary", like himself.

I could go on about this book for ages, but I think my review is long enough. Every Day is so thought-provoking and so wonderful! There were passages in this book I had page-marked for myself rather than for this review, it's just so eye-opening and enlightening! Levithan is awesome with words, and through A, expresses emotions and feeling so beautifully, and filled me with such awe! The ending near killed me! I'm so glad to hear there is a follow on from Every Day coming out this August, Two Boys Kissing - it's one I am now eagerly awaiting! Every Day really is incredible. The best book I have ever read to this date. I couldn't recommend it enough!