Book in Review: Everyday by David Levithan
9:48 PM
Author: David Levithan
Publisher: Knopf
Publication Date: August 28, 2012
Hardcover: 322 pages
Rating: 4.5/5
(We wrote this review together, so...)
This is a story about a being named A. A doesn't have a permanent body. A doesn't have a gender (for convenience we will be calling A "Being" like a replacement for he/she/it). Being moves from body to body to body, never staying in one for more than a day. A doesn't try to change a person's life or do anything too different or significant when being does stay in that person's body. Being could be a girl today and a boy tomorrow. Being could be Asian, American, German, or anything else. Being can have blond hair, dark hair, brown hair, or dyed hair. Being can be athletic, nerdy, artsy, suicidal, an environmentalist and many more. Being can be rich, poor, or middle-class. A can be the total opposite of what being was yesterday and it's totally normally for being.
On a certain day, A meets a girl named Rhiannon while inhabiting Rhiannon's boyfriend's body. A usually tries not to do anything too different while staying in anyone but this time, being just couldn't resist. A finds beingself liking Rhiannon and tries to find ways to meet her, even while in the body of someone else. They slowly build a relationship and get to know more about each other. Can their relationship survive under the circumstances?
We actually read this book a long time ago but have put off making a review until now. We needed a bit of time to reflect on this book. Even now, we're not sure if we consider the ending happy or sad. There's something about this book that drew us in. Maybe it's the unique plot? Maybe it's the impossible romance?
We loved how Every Day was able to show that though A likes Rhiannon, being is still capable of liking someone of the opposite gender. This highlights the fact that A really doesn't have any gender. Levithan was very clear on saying that A isn't a boy or a girl. A wasn't shown as a masculine character or a feminine one though others might think that A is more male than female.
Every Day was an extremely unique book. The plot was new and fresh, totally not a cliche. We love the plot since it makes you realize how creative Levithan is. He manages to make many books with different topics. His characters don't sound the same like some author's characters do. A was the kind of character whose voice was different from the others. Being was a being (as in being-being not being-he/she/it) that had already figured out what being (back to being-he/she/it) needed to do in order to not mess up anyone's life. we loved how the book started and also loved how it ended. We loved how A, though he never really got education from the same teachers for more than a day, isn't stupid. Being makes use of being's common sense and the things being learned while inhabiting somebody's body to survive. As for Rhiannon, she wasn't stupid either. We don't like her very much but we don't hate her either. She was on our neutral side but even so, we can understand why A would like her, why A would risk so many things for her. Rhiannon didn't do stupid things or rush off into danger. She and A were good together.
Normally, in books, we like happy endings but we realized that if this book ended happily, it wouldn't be perfect anymore and would seem forced just to please the readers. We also realized that if it ended sadly, we might hate the book, think of it as too depressing. What Levithan did was create an ending that wasn't sad but wasn't happy either. It was more hopeful than happy. Peaceful than sad.
The writing was easy to read and would grab your attention from the very first page. It showed everything it had to show and made the events perfect. We don't know why we didn't give it a 5. There's just a tiny little thing that's missing but we can't figure out what it is. Other than that, we loved the book.
Have you read Every Day? What did you think about it? Leave a comment!
4 comments
I enjoyed this book, and it WAS certainly unique. I was disturbed that A had no one permanent in his/her life. No one to love him/her. I don't know how he/she could go on....
ReplyDeleteI get the message, I just couldn't get past the horrible life that A led....
Thanks for the great review.
Wow, this sounds like a really unusual read. I read one of David's books a while ago and hated it but I've heard only good things about his books since.
ReplyDelete★ Under The Mountain ★
This book was so unique. I remember reading it an really being blown away. Honestly though I felt there was way too much left up in the air in the end. I wish I would've had more closure.
ReplyDeleteHere is my review on it: http://angelasanxiouslife.blogspot.com/2013/08/every-day-by-david-levithan-review.html
Just finished it today and it seriously shattered my heart into a bazillion pieces and induced memories of my first love.
ReplyDeleteHi guys! Thank you for stopping by our blog. We really appreciate it if you've taken the time to leave a comment. Though it will take some time, we will do our best to reply to each one of you. :)