Becky's View: Every Day by David Levithan

Every Day by David Levithan
♦publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
♦released: August 28th, 2012
♦hardcover, 336 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦source: library

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.

Review:  It’s  seems a strange thing to admit, as someone who devours so many novels from the YA realm, that I’ve never read any of the numerous titles by David Levithan.  Not until this little beauty: Every Day.  And I can say with utter certainty that Every Day has made me a fan and that I plan to go to the library stacks seeking out more gems from this wonderful author.  I am in awe.  The main idea of Every Day is definitely paranormal: a being, not a boy or a girl, just a soul knows as “A” (though for the sake of my sanity in this review, I'll be referring to him as a "he").  He drops into a different life every single day.  There is never any real explanation about why this happens to him or what he is, but in the end, I was so drawn into his story, and cared so deeply about A and his strange dilemma that the "why" didn't even matter.  The lives he takes over are as mundane as they come: a slacker, a druggy, a nerd, an athelete, someone's little sister, someone's twin,---but that is the magic of David Levithan’s writing, in my opinion.  He makes the subtle differences of each life that A drops into seem so fascinating, so special.  This is the norm for A, it’s all he’s ever known.  He goes to bed at night as one person, and at midnight his soul is sucked out and he becomes another person.  There is nothing he can do about it, he’s even tried to stay up all night to stop it from happening, but learned the hard way that it is much better to sleep through the change.  So he deals.  He takes it in complete stride,  going from body to body, place to place, day to day, just trying not to interfere with each life as much as he can. 

That is until he meets Rhiannon.  She is the girlfriend of the life he’s just dropped into, and he knows  this boy is not treating her very well.  When they meet, she seems almost hollow from the way she’s been treated and he somehow sees the kindness and hope inside her.  So he breaks his own rules. He lets himself give her a wonderful day that she might never have gotten from her real boyfriend…and ends up wanting to stay in a life more than he ever has before.  But he can’t stop it. The next day he is someone else---and the next day and the next, but he never stops trying to get back to Rhiannon.

  

I flew through this book, I couldn’t wait to see what new life he would be in each day and what new obstacle it would pose for both A and Rhiannon.  There were funny moments and very trying moments, and moments that had me in tears. The ending, while inevitable and, if you dwell on it too long, is slightly creepy in a "that's all kinds of wrong" sort of way, was still heartbreaking and the heart and thought behind A's sacrifice was still beautiful.  He is just an incredibly good, strong soul that you can't help rooting for and hoping he finds a way to live how he wants to live and to have love that he can keep. 

If you get the chance to read this one, definitely take it.  Don't pass up this amazing story. 

Find David Levithan online:  Website  •  Twitter  •  Facebook

Purchase Every Day: Amazon  •  BN.com  •   BookDepository  •  Indiebound

This book has an AWESOME trailer...some of the biggest names in YA reading part of the first chapter. Very cool.