Every Day

Every Day by David Levithan

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. (Goodreads)

Well, I’m not really sure how to describe this book.  It’s different.  Odd.  Not in a bad way, just…like nothing I’ve ever read.  Of course, you know David Levithan from Will Grayson, Will Grayson, Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, and a book that I thought was pretty adorable, Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares.  Those books were written with co-authors, but this was the first I’ve read by only David himself.

So, let’s begin.

A is a person who never lives in the same body twice.  He (or she, but since the first body we meet him in is a He, I tend to refer to him as “He”) jumps–without choice or prior knowledge of where he’s going–from life to life, waking each day in a new person’s shoes. This is how things have always been for A. No family, no real friends or attachments, just experiencing glimpses of other people’s existence.  He just tries to live each day without making too much of a ruckus.

Until he meets Rhiannon.  A wakes in the body of her detached, not so nice boyfriend and he is instantly drawn to Rhiannon. He sees how badly she wants love and he decides to give her one day she’ll always remember.  He becomes so attached to her that each day, in each new body, he seeks Rhiannon out (and it’s both sweet and a little creepy). Ultimately, he has to come clean and work to convince her of his true identity and this crazy, wacky life he leads and the two try to forge some kind of a relationship–a strange, inconstant, jumbled thing that neither of them really understands.

On some level it seems like the truest love, because there is little about the attraction that is physical. Yes, Rhiannon stays the same, but A ranges from a beautiful girl, to a metal head guy to everything in between.  What they experience is more profound than mere beauty or physical contact.  It has everything to do with who they are in their truest, most honest forms.

That being said, I had a difficult time relating to A.  Ack! Does that make me shallow? I hope not.  He is a very good, decent person who truly wouldn’t hurt a fly.  He loves Rhiannon completely and pretty selflessly and yet he doesn’t take advantage of the bodies he inhabits (other than hijacking their normal schedules so he can meet with his girl). At the same time, because I couldn’t put a finger on a real description of him (or her), I didn’t feel emotionally connected to him.

Crush Intensity: 3/5 I liked this book. I like Levithan’s writing, as always. And I was very happy with the way it all ended.