Levithan, David: Every Day
Every Day (2012)
Written by: David Levithan
Genre: Young Adult/Speculative Fiction
Pages: 325 (Hardcover)
Why I Read It: Despite having Will Grayson, Will Grayson in my TBR, I still haven't read anything by David Levithan. However, when I discovered this book, the premise was too awesome for me to resist. Between that and the high praise the book's been receiving, I plunked this on my Amazon wishlist and hoped for the best. The best happened and I got the book for Christmas, and I wish I could've read it before now, but despite it taking me a few weeks to get to, I'm glad I finally was able to settle down and give it a go.
The premise: ganked from author's website: Every morning, A wakes in a different person’s body, a different person’s life. 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.
David Levithan 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.
Spoilers, yay or nay?: Yay. Not in that I tell you exactly how it ends so much as I tell you how it doesn't end, so in that sense, there's spoilers. Feel free to skip to "My Rating" to stay safe. Everyone else, onward!
Discussion: So yes, I love this premise. To pieces. And the opening, despite opening with the dreaded "character waking up and thinking about life," is actually quite compelling because of the premise. A's life changes every morning when he wakes up (I'm defaulting to he, sorry. We never really learn if A is male or female, but we meet A as Justin, who is male, and when A gives him/herself a name, it's Andrew, so….), and he has to figure out who he is and how he's going to get through the day without screwing up his host's life or body.
But because the premise is so cool, as a reader, I immediately wanted answers: what causes A to body-hop? Is his real body in a coma? Is he actually dead? This is what I was hoping the book would somehow address, all the while weaving in the love story that takes hold of A's life and makes him break all of his rules. Before, he had a no interference policy. After meeting Rhiannon, he's in insta-love and starts using his hijacked body to interact with her as much as possible. Which, of course, leads to problems.
What I was really hoping for was less of a love story and more of a mystery that solved via the love story. That Rhiannon would, once learning about who and what A is, would want to help him figure out how this was possible, perhaps even doing research to discover his real body. I assumed that the end would be about him jumping into his OWN body, and then he and Rhiannon could have their HEA. Well, maybe not happily-ever-after, but happy-for-right-now-cause-we-think-it's-forever.
That didn't happen. In fact, we get so few answers and only tantalizing clues that A isn't the only one. That there is a way to stay in a body instead of jumping from day to day. Short of resolving the love story (which, I admit, I think was rather nicely done), this book feels like a set-up to something more. A sequel? A trilogy? I don't know. Honestly, if a sequel did arrive, I'm not convinced I'd want to check it out without thoroughly researching reviews first. For starters, I wouldn't want Rhiannon to come back. At all.
But before I discuss that, let's back up a bit: it makes sense that A is bi-sexual. After all, we don't know the sex of A's body, nor do we know what gender A considers himself. That A is attracted to boys and girls makes sense because he's living the life of both boys and girls. So yay. But less sense, in hindsight, is the fact that A is such a moral person. Let's face it: he's been body-hopping since he was born, with a different set of parents every day. How on earth does he have any real sense of right and wrong? He's got this great moral fiber: it's one of the reasons he chooses to run at the end so that he won't get used by Reverend Poole. But really, where did that fiber come from? Was he lucky enough to have mostly good parents during his run? We don't get that impression, and while I'm sure he was stuck in some sort of church almost every Sunday, the question still stands: why isn't he more selfish?
I also found it extremely unlikely that out of 6024 days, he's only ever been to one funeral ever. Granted, I know individuals who've never had to deal with death until they're in their twenties, but A is living the lives of 6024 people. No funerals until day/person 6024? Really?
I liked the rules of his ability, like how he body-jumps at midnight. There was a definite modern-Cinderella vibe when he's in Nathan's body and he's rushing to get "home" on time, but utterly fails. I also like how he learns that if he focuses, he can leave memories behind for his host's body, to ease the transition. This comes nicely into play when resolving the love story. I thought it was really well done. Yet the very end, when he hijacks poor Katie in order to get away? Not satisfying. Not by a long-shot.
There is the issue too in the inherent message of the book: A is the same no matter which body he is in, yet Rhiannon couldn't wrap her head around that. Even more disturbing are her struggles dealing with A depending on A's body. If A is female, she's uncomfortable. If A is an unattractive guy (especially when he's poor XXXL Finn), she can't connect and is still uncomfortable. Yet when A is attractive, she wants to kiss him. She wants to have sex. This is why I didn't like her. Not because her reaction wasn't believable: I think it was (she brings up great points on page 278 about why this is), and I do think she was right about how wrong it was for A to hijack lives for a day just to spend time with her. But her disgust and discomfort was so obviously apparent that by the end, I didn't want A and Rhiannon to have an HEA. I just wanted her gone and I wanted A to devote himself to discovering who he is and why.
Then there's the whole subplot with poor Nathan and Reverend Poole. Oy, that was painful. Not because poor Nathan was a stereotypical religious fanatic, but because the story just scratched at the surface of interesting (Poole is a body jumper too!) and then gave up. This is where I really hope that this book and this subplot is all set up for a sequel. Because if not, what a horribly wasted opportunity.
Some quotes. On page 9, when A is interacting with Rhiannon for the first time:
I have seen this too many times before. The unwarranted devotion. Putting up with the fear of being with the wrong person because you can't deal with the fear of being alone.
Nicely said. Not necessarily artful, but it does define the fears a lot of people have. Fears I had when I was that age but didn't have the ability to give voice to.
On page 223, which really speaks for itself:
It's like Cinderella in reverse. I've danced with the prince, and now I'm back home, cleaning the toilets. That is my punishment -- every toilet, every tub, every garbage pail. This would be bad enough, but every few minutes, George's mother stops in to give me a lecture about "the sins of the flesh." I hope that George doesn't internalize her scare tactics. I want to argue with her, tell her that "sins of the flesh" is just a control mechanism -- if you demonize a person's pleasure, then you can control his or her life. I can't say how many times this tool has been wielded against me, in a variety of forms. But I see no sin in a kiss. I only see sin in the condemnation.
Out of context, that's a little preachy, isn't it? But it didn't bother me, and it's another area where I think Levithan gets to a point that his targeted audience really needs to hear straight-up and unadorned with fluff.
My Rating: 6 - Worth Reading, with Reservations
Despite being in total love with the premise, I really didn't get the satisfying story I was hoping for. In that regard, I'm really hoping this book is a set-up for a bigger story, because there's more to A and more to A's story than falling in love and resolving that conflict, and by only focusing on that conflict, I feel the book missed a lot of opportunities in favor trying to stuff a message down the reader's throat. Granted, I'm not the target audience. If I were the target audience, I might find that message a little more palatable and relatable. And some portions of the message were easy to swallow, but yet I found myself finishing this book more interested in what I didn't get than what I did get. One of which was the people whose lives A inhabited were often far more interesting, and I think I could've read an entire book just about body-jumping, without the love story to give it shape. But that's me, a 32-year-old woman talking, not a teen. Still, there were other arcs this story could've had that would've made it just as exciting, if not more so. The premise is awesome, and there are some good nuggets in the book, but considering how much I was looking forward to it, it was a wee bit of a letdown. That said, I think it's worth reading so long as expectations are in check, or so long as you're the target audience.
Cover Commentary: I really like this cover. The coloring is lovely, and the falling through the clouds is so much more effective here than it was in Julie Cross' Tempest. Well, it is to me. I've never liked the Tempest cover, so maybe I'm biased? :)
Next up: Star Wars: Republic Commando: Hard Contact by Karen Traviss