Wednesday, October 24, 2012

"Every Day" by David Levithan

336 pages 

One day, "A" meets a girl named Rhiannon and can't stop thinking about her. Pretty typical teenage story. What's not typical, though, is that A met her while inhabiting the body of her boyfriend. And he was only there for one day. Because every day A wakes up in a different body, and it's always been like that. He has always woken up in a different body, of someone about his age, each day. He has no race, gender, or economic status (I only say "he" for lack of a better word and to avoid confusion). He's always just dealt with it. He can access the memories of the person he's inhabiting, so he's able to make his way though. After meeting Rhiannon, however, A has something to live for. He's got a goal, and that is to be near Rhiannon, no matter which body he's in. Eventually, the truth comes out, and A finds himself opening up to someone about his life for the first time ever. Unfortunately, this creates more complications than A expected. 

I was really interested in the premise of this book. It's fascinating to think about how someone's personality would develop if it could be stripped of gender, race, and all the expectations that come with it. Levithan is obviously making some statements about gender roles and sexuality, and though they aren't subtle they aren't too heavy-handed. I usually like for mysterious things like what's going on here to be explained at some point, but for some reason it seemed to work here and I just accepted the bizarre situation. I really got into the story and couldn't put it down, but I had some trouble with the ending. It felt anticlimactic and disappointing. Still, I give Every Day a high rating overall for its thought-provoking nature and novelty factor. 

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