Every Day

After reading and enjoying "The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle," (another Quantum Leap-style novel) I was eager to read this as soon as I discovered it at 2nd & Charles. I got it used for only $5.

The story follows a protagonist who wakes up every morning in a different person’s body, unable to maintain relationships or possessions for more than a day. The concept is fascinating, and the author does a fantastic job of drawing you into the emotional and psychological toll and the ethical concerns of such an existence. It’s thought-provoking, unique, and utterly engrossing.

What if you woke up in a different body every day of your life? That’s what is happening to “A”- waking up in a strange house, in a new city, in a boy’s or girl’s body. Would you try to change the life you were borrowing and try to create a life of your own every single day? Author David Levithan challenges young adult readers to consider the meaning of love and gender as "A" navigates the unique difficulties of being in love with a girl while changing from a young gay male, to a suicidal goth chick, to a "Beyoncé" look-alike, and more. The object of "A's" affection, Rhiannon, struggles with the previously unconsidered concept of loving a different person every day. Can her developing love for "A" surmount the daily parade of show more "A's" changing outward appearance- is her attraction more dependent on the person inside. Levithan's compelling text opens the doors for an honest discussion about what it means to love someone for who they are. show less

David Levithan who so often writes about love -- in all of its manifestations -- trumps himself in this highly readable story of "A".. a boy who wakes up in a new body, a new life, every day. While the identify-tripping isn't fun, A is at least used to the pace of things. That is until the day he fall in love. A then tries to transcend his situation to be with Rhiannon. The relationship is doomed, of course, but Levithan provides a nice spin at the end. (Okay: A arranges for one of his nicer identities to fall in love with Rhiannon instead.) There is a less-successful side plot about a preacher claiming A is possessed by the devil.

The identity-wheel allows Levithan to muse on relationships in all genders, classes, sizes, and show more situations. Between the pages of the main love story between A and Rhiannon are some lucid observations on what it means to feel different (transgendered, gay, plus-sized, etc.) The book concludes with the resounding message that everyone seeks and deserves love. show less

There are books, and then sometimes there are books. And, Every Day, my friends? Is a book. It's a story that I guarantee (for most) won't leave you. Ever.

Every day A wakes up as a new person. A lives their life with the goal of just making it through the day going unnoticed, making sure the person's life A is borrowing goes as smoothly as possible. And then there's Rhiannon. She makes A want to break the rules. A starts to disrupt the lives of people he lives as to see her and be with her. And then A makes a mistake. He left his email connected to a computer of one of the people he lived as. Using A's email, Nathan makes it his goal to find and expose A to the public. Between A's developing feelings for Rhiannon, and dealing with show more Nathan's accusations, A has a mess to deal with. A has to suss out what's right and wrong, and ultimately what's fair for not only himself, but for each new life he controls the next day.

I put off writing a review for this book for so long for a few reasons. Mainly it has been really hard to put in to words how I feel about this book. Obviously, for the most part, it's all positive. This book makes you consider who you are as a person, and what makes the person, without gender binaries strictly guiding one's life. Once you've stripped someone of their strict gender identity, what's left? What makes a person? This is just one of the bigger questions I considered while reading this novel. Who is A? A is a culmination of every person A has ever lived as, taking bits and pieces of them, while striving to be a separate entity. A may live as another person, but A is still an individual being with thoughts, feelings, and emotions.

As for characters (because I'm a character-driven reader) I have to say I really loved A (as if my last paragraph didn't show that enough). To make my life easier I'm going to call A a "he" -- I know this is sort of a cop-out since A is genderless... but it'll make writing this review a little easier. I enjoy A's insight, and how he handles the different challenges that are thrown his way. You experience the story through A's eyes (so... same mind, but different eyes each day). You get to see other people's lives form an outsider's perspective as he's forced to be an insider. It's just... fascinating. Some people complain that you're supposed to just automatically feel bad for A, and ignore the fact that he's taking over other people's lives. I don't think that's true. A makes you think about the people he "takes over" for a day as well, sometimes in quite a lot of depth. While reading I did feel bad for A, but I also felt bad for the people that lose a day of their lives. I think A does a good job in regards to thinking people he "invades," and does his best to make it as easy as possible for them.

And then there's Rhiannon. I really wanted to like her a lot... but it's difficult. I felt she was developed okay, and for all intents and purposes as a character she does what she's supposed to do. I guess if anything I liked that she didn't necessarily just jump in to everything... but at the same time I found her kind of dull, and at times I had a hard time figuring out why A was so enamored with her (so I guess it's good that the book was from A's perspective because I'm not so sure how I'd fare if it had been from Rhiannon's). There were times that I really wanted to shake her (mostly in regards to her thought processes and how she dealt with A). But ultimately? She's human, and I think her role in the novel was done well -- all her actions and thoughts accurately reflected how I think many would feel if they were in her situation.

In the end I really loved this novel. It made me question what it means to be human, let alone a ton of other things too. I thought it was beautifully written, and ultimately just wonderful. I was recommending this book to a bunch of my friends before I had even finished it (which says a lot, at least for me, really). This book will pull at your heart strings and make you question. And that makes it a great book, in my opinion. (Warning, if you're like me, you'll probably need some tissues along the way... tears did happen.) show less

picked this book up from the library on a whim. I volunteer there twice a week, so I spend a lot of time walking past books, and this one caught my eye. The author wrote another book that a friend of mine has been telling me to read and the summary on the back sounded good, so I borrowed it. I was glad I did because even though it is a “young adult” book and a quick read, I enjoyed it.

The premise of Every Day is that the protagonist, a 16 year old who has taken the name A, wakes up in a new body (of zir own age) every day. Ze (ze is a gender neutral pronoun) can “access” the host body’s memories and generally tries to go about zirs day without disrupting the life of the body’s owner. A’s life has been like this for as long show more as ze can remember. Furthermore, A has no idea why or how this happens, just that it does. A also doesn’t know what zir original body is: boy or girl, straight or gay. A has experienced all types of genders and doesn’t feel anymore at home in one type of body than another. Each chapter of Every Day tells us what day A is on. The book opens with day 5994 with A inhabiting a boy named Justin. This leads A to Rihannon, Justin’s girlfriend, with whom ze immediately falls in love. On that day, A breaks zirs own rules and disrupts Justin’s life, skipping class with Rihannon to drive to the beach and get to know each other. The next day, A is desperate to meet Rihannon again. Luckily, A seems to stay within a relatively small geographical area so on any given day our protagonist isn’t too far away from the love interest. The book chronicles A’s efforts to meet her and get her to see A’s inner self, apart from the physical trappings. They deal with issues of attraction and sexuality and try to figure out what it means to be with someone who is a different person every day.

I felt that it had some strong themes that would be good for teenagers who are still trying to figure out who they are. Feeling like you’re a totally different person every day is not uncommon for a lot of teenagers (or, let’s be real, 20-somethings) and Every Day plays with that concept quite literally. At one point, A tells the reader, “Part of growing up is making sure your sense of reality isn’t entirely grounded in your own mind” and I have to agree. You can always spot the mature children based on how aware they are of things that go on that have nothing to do with them. And from a perspective of advanced reality-awareness, being able to navigate the world around you without basing all your decision on your immediate feelings or hormone situation really is the secret to being a level-headed adult.

Another identity-related theme is our protagonists attitudes about sexuality. I know that not everyone is going to agree with this sentiment, but there is a part in the book where A expresses that zir preferences aren’t based on what sex organs people have, but on the person as an individual. Or, as I like to put it: love the person, not the parts. Again, I know that not everyone will feel this way, but I feel like for young LGBTQI (especially for the “questioning” part), the message that it’s not a big deal which gender the people you like are is an important one. It’s okay to just like people for themselves and not based on your considerations of how to have sex.

As a practically inevitable counterpoint to A’s genderless attraction preferences, ze is thrown into contact with some people who strongly disagree with those ideas. A ruminates on the family of one boy whose body he inhabits; the children are homeschooled in the extreme Christian way (not the cool, learn what you want and experience life way) and the mother goes berzerk when he catches her son (so it seems) kissing a girl–the beloved Rihannon. A remarks on the lecture ze received about “the sins of the flesh” and comments, “I want to tell [the mother] 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.” Speaking as an ex-Mormon, I find this to be totally true. Control of one’s sexuality is an all too common tactic that religions use to keep people down. Even though A feels this way, ze also expresses a lot of empathy for people who go to church. As a by product of zir life, A has been to all kinds of religious services. A emphasizes to the reader that religions have about 98% in common, and it’s that other 2% that everyone wants to focus on. Even though I am not a religious person, I liked that bit of perspective. It is a good point and I think that we do focus on the differences when we disagree with someone, rather than on the vast amounts we might have in common. And that’s really the point of Every Day. A wants us to focus on the commonalities of human experience as a way to come together, rather than dwell on the minute differences and let ourselves be dragged apart.

As a fan of science fiction and fantasy, I enjoyed the premise (a new body every day), but I did want there to be more to it. Of course, that would make it a dedicated genre novel, rather than more of a YA work. The way I see it, there are two ways to interpret A’s condition: either ze is some kind of “soul” that isn’t linked to a body, or A body swaps every day, with the essence of the host body going to A’s body somewhere. Based on A’s description of how the mind of zir host works (the host seems to remember the day how A wants him/her to remember it, A can access memories of the host’s life), the latter interpretation seems unlikely; however, it is the better launching point for telling an alternate perspective of this story. Imagine, A’s body somewhere waking up everyday confused and alarmed. Parents come in and ask “What’s wrong, Liam?” (or whatever A’s possible “real” name is). The guest consciousness panics, “Liam? Who’s Liam? My name is Ashley. Wait … who are you and WHERE AM I?” You’d get various levels of hysteria from different personalities. Frustrated, Liam’s parents seek professional help, seeing a new doctor every week it seems like. Every day, Liam is someone else and the people are so detailed. Liam is so young, where does he get these ideas? Even worse, Liam never recognizes his parents. Eventually, unable to cope, Liam’s parents send him to a psychiatric institution. Every day, the psych tech wakes Liam up and sometimes she’s frustrated and sometimes she laughs at him. He sees the doctors who ask, “Who are you today?” Every day, Liam is someone new. I think that is a story that would be fun to write, perhaps I will look into that, although it’s likely that the premise has been used before. Even though Every Day didn’t delve deep into the genre stuff, I still liked the system created around A’s talent, if you will. It was consistent and it was interesting. This book might be disappointing if you’re looking for serious science fiction or fantasy, but if you think the premise sounds interesting and you like young adult literature, you will probably enjoy this book.
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Have you read Every Day yet? It was really unexpected for me. I had no idea that this concept, a soul that slips in and out of a body day after day, a different body, never the same one twice, I just didn't expect it to be able to impact me like it did. You too? What got you? For me it was A's ability to exist as anyone. Girl, boy, black, white, Asian, Hispanic, jock, nerd, gorgeous, ugly, morbidly obese, plain, smart,caustic, suicidal. That, that was the one that broke through all my barriers and put me right there in the story. A has to experience all of these people's lives as they are. He can't change them in a day. So when he wakes up in the body of a girl that is deeply depressed he talks about his past experiences being in a body show more that is fighting mental illness. (I use he and yet there is no gender, only that of the body A inhabits each day.) That's the part that gets me. It's the page and a half before, that describes what mental illness is. It was an "Aha moment" for me and I've lived with mental illness my entire life (since 4th grade). I actually bought the book so I could quote the page so forgive me. This is paraphrasing pages 116-117

Some people think mental illness is a matter of mood, a matter of personality.
It is, they believe, something that you have some choice over.
I know how wrong this is.
....the cause of the feelings was a matter of chemistry, biology.
It is a hard cycle to conquer. It takes uncommon strength to live with these things.
But I have seen that strength over and over again.
I have to keep reminding myself---this is not me. It is chemistry. It is biology.
It is not who I am. It is not who any of them are.

Now, you might want to know why did that pull me into the story? Because I could identify with the character A had become. I knew exactly what A was talking about though I'd never considered myself strong. The "Aha Moment" was Chemical Imbalance=Feelings. It's incredibly hard to understand and yet I have to remind myself that's what it is when that little tape starts playing telling me all the negative feelings and the downward spiral starts. Chemicals, that's what causes that. It's still hard to believe even though I live with it. But more than that. Someone understood me. A knew who I was, am. A has lived my life probably several days. And it almost made me cry that someone understood what every day is like for me. I don't know how David Levithan knew the right words, but he said what I wish I could have said so many times. Only he got the words so perfect. It reads like poetry to me it's so true and beautifully stated.

So, I identified with A about a third of the way through. But, actually, I'd already started identifying with him much earlier. How can you not identify with someone who is everyone and no one? I admired the hell out of A. For never caring what kind of relationship A was in. The how and why was less important than the lesson. A just accepted anyone. Wanting something for himself/herself, some sameness, it would seem that wouldn't be too much to ask. And to want and love something so much, was amazing to read about. There is a slight bit of mystery in the book, and the ending is a bit heartbreaking but you know it's coming. There just isn't another answer because A is all giving, unselfish, and in the end, all accepting of the situation of it's life

I challenge you to read Every Day. Find your Aha Moment. See which character you identify with, or maybe characters. And maybe see the world through A's eyes. Seeing the similarities in us all, instead of the differences. Find your Every Day in the book. There may be a passage in there or two that speaks to you as much as the one about mental illness did to me. There are a lot of Every Days. When you find yours, share it with me.

This book is recommended for YA readers and adults. I received a complimentary copy of the ARC from the publishers for review from NetGalley, but I also purchased my own copy.
I highly recommend this novel. show less

"In my experience, desire is desire, love is love. I have never fallen in love with a gender. I have fallen for individuals. I know this is hard for people to do, but I don't understand why it's hard, when it's so obvious."

Absolutely amazing. To me, the line above is the heart of this story.

I read every word, hung on every page, inhaled every chapter and held my breath through every day of A's life. I skipped meals, missed hours of sleep and just couldn't put this book down. It's an absolute favorite of mine and one I will read again and again.

But I can see why there are some reviews with lower stars. I can understand them.

Because I can see how this book can make someone uncomfortable.

Was the discomfort at the thought of someone else show more in your body for a day and you just the bystander? The thought of losing control? Or is it close to Poole's assessment - the devil made me do it?! Is it that he is open to love no matter if he is boy or girl or which they are either? Or is it the idea that someone would have to love him each day, see his soul through the body he inhabited and love him through it?

For that exact reason, is why I loved the book. I only saw the love. A's clause every day before we opened his eyes was essentially a doctor's oath to "Do no harm." He spent so much time every day trying to do just that - do no harm - but also to try to leave the day better. To "end it on a good note" He was filled with so much compassion and love and he sprinkled it through every life he was in just by being there for a day.

But I also love the idea of soulmates - of loving someone no matter the color of their skin, their race, nationality, religion or - yes, even gender or sex they were born as. Loving who they are inside and knowing that their soul connects with your soul in a way no other can.

Because, to me, that's true love. Knowing someone through their eyes and the way they look at you.

Tomorrow," she says, a little less than a promise, and a little more than a chance.

Don't forget to seize today. It's the only chance you have with it and no one can promise another. show less