Review of Every Day by David Levithan

Title/Author: Every Day by David Levithan
Publisher/Date published: Random House Children's Books, August 28th 2012
How I got this book: received it from the publisher through NetGalley

Goodreads summary: "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."

I must confess that I've never read anything by David Levithan before. I know, I'm a bit ashamed myself. So with everyone raving about his other books and this one being hyped as well, I was trying so hard not to have high expectations. And I succeeded, though I don't think it would have been a problem otherwise, because this book was really good!

The writing style sucked me in immediately. David Levithan made me connect to A right from the start, even before I knew he called himself A. It felt like sitting down with an old friend, reconnecting and curious to find out what's been going on with the other.

I know there's some discussion going as to whether people think A is male or female. I'm not really sure that it matters, but I've been picturing A as a he, his character felt male to me, I don't know why that is. So I'm gonna go with that, because I can't call A an it and otherwise it's kinda difficult to talk about him (read her or it, whichever you prefer instead of him).

I liked that through A we experience a million different stories in one. A is in a different life every day and must adjust to it and use the knowledge of the body he's inhabiting to get through the day. I LOVED the days when we got to know more about the person whose body he was in for the day. I loved that there was this huge diversity in them and their circumstances.

The problem for me was that I wasn't really feeling A's relationship with Rhiannon. I thought it went a little fast on his part with the whole falling in love thing. I mean, I absolutely get the wanting to belong to someone for more than just a day and the attraction to someone you've just met, but for someone who never forms attachments, who is actually actively trying not to, it all progressed very quickly.

Instead of it being so focused on the relationship, I'd have liked more answers on WHY A was constantly switching bodies and didn't have one of his own. And HOW do you stop this? The whole idea of this happening was endlessly fascinating to me and I wish I could have learned more about the mechanism behind it.

Also: SPOILER, LIGHT UP TO READ: THAT ENDING! Seriously, I KNOW it couldn't have possibly ended well, because A would have had to betray everything about himself to effectively murder another person, but it tore my heart out! There was such a sense of hopelessness and despair and I was just staring and going NO! YOU CAN'T LEAVE ME LIKE THIS! Poor A...

The writing itself was SO GOOD and engaging and made me kept turning the pages, wanting to find out what would happen next! What life would A be entering in today? I really liked both A and Rhiannon, I think they're good people and I love the message this sends of falling in love with a PERSON and not a gender, while you might be sexually attracted to a gender, it's the person you come back for.

My rating: 4,5 stars