Every Day by David Levithan

Every Day

by David Levithan

From the genius of David Levithan, co-author of Will Grayson, Will Grayson, and Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist, comes a love story like no other you've read before.

Each morning, A wakes up in a different body. There’s never any warning about who it will be, but A is used to that. Never get too attached. Avoid being noticed. Do not interfere.

And that’s fine – until 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 – every day …

A stunningly original novel that will make you view the world from a different perspective. You can also read Rhiannon's side of the story in Another Day.

Levithan’s powerful novel explores the complexities of first love in a unique way that will captivate anybody who loved Rainbow Rowell’s Eleanor & Park and Jandy Nelson’s I’ll Give You the Sun.

David is the New York Times best-selling author of Boy Meets Boy and Marly’s Ghost. While among his many collaborations are Will Grayson, Will Grayson with Fault in Our Stars author John Green. David's latest collaboration with Rachel Cohn, The Twelve Days of Dash and Lily, was picked by Zoella for her Book Club with WHSmiths. David is also a highly respected children’s book editor, whose list includes many luminaries of children’s literature, including Garth Nix, Libba Bray and Suzanne Collins. He lives and works in New York.

Reviewed by Terri M. LeBlanc on

1 of 5 stars

Share
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

Last modified on

Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 15 February, 2016: Finished reading
  • 15 February, 2016: Reviewed