Every Day (2014) (Egmont)David Levithan
Grade: A-
Genre: young adult
Source: own
Young adult RBC 2014: A book with an epic love story
A wakes up in a different body
every day – A doesn’t identify with any gender and has become used to his
abnormal life. Boy or girl, fat or thin, homosexual or straight, athletic or
academic, nasty or nice, A has experienced it all. For the purposes of this
review, we’ll refer to A as a male. A closes his eyes at night and know that
when morning comes, he will be in another body, ready for another day of
pretending to be another stranger.
There’s never been a strong sense
of attachment to a particular body – until Justin. Or rather, not Justin, but
his girlfriend Rhiannon. In Justin’s body, A experiences a perfect day, all the
time knowing that Justin won’t remember a thing and that Rhiannon will be
crushed when her unsuspecting and normally reticent boyfriend won’t have any
recollection of their day. Then A breaks all his rules and contacts Rhiannon
again, from another body, explaining his story and continuing to meet her when
he can in a new body until she understands. For A, this is what love feels like:
finding someone with whom he’s willing to risk everything to tell his life
story.
When A doesn’t manage to get one
of the bodies he’s occupied back home in time for the stroke of midnight, he
doesn’t realise how serious the repercussions will be. The surrogate body was
from a deeply religious family, and they’re convinced that their son was
possessed by the devil. Suddenly, the story that Satan is possessing teenagers around
the country is making its way around the news circuits and A is receiving
messages that he can’t ignore …
This was certainly an original
and engaging plot and genuinely one of the most interesting ideas I’ve read in
a long time. I’m sure there are times when everyone has a desire to step into
someone else’s shoes for the day, but this fantasy is A’s reality. David
Levithan does a fantastic job in literally creating a new character for his
protagonist every day, yet still retaining A’s core identity and love for
Rhiannon underneath.
What could make a more epic love
story? The young adult genre is full of first loves, love triangles and bad
boys falling for the girl-next-door, but what could be more mind-blowing than a
girl who finds herself falling for a person who could be absolutely anyone else
the next day? Each chapter is numbered, marking each new day in his life,
representing a day in A’s life – 6000 days for 6000 people. It’s a chilling
thought and even though A is a completely innocent party, you can’t help but
think that he’s counting out a prison sentence – one where there’s no escape.
This has been one of the more
powerful books I’ve read this year. I suppose it could be classed as a soft
science fiction and it’s like nothing that I ever remember reading. Even though
it’s underlined with dark themes throughout, I still found it a fairly light
read. It’s written in a way that means it’s easy to stop if need be, yet you
don’t have to remember every single detail of every body to understand the
book. I was a little annoyed at the ending, but that’s prone to happen if I don’t
get my way. That said, it was optimistic in some lights and David Levithan left
the novel attractively open to a great number of possibilities. Though not
strictly part of a series, there’s another book titled Six Earlier Days which gives readers and fans an idea of what 6 of
A’s other days were like, before Day 5994 which started this book. I’m
definitely tempted, but as it doesn’t directly impact (so I assume) the events
of Every Day, I'm going to pass for now.
Image courtesy of Wordery
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