Every Day by David Levithan

Goodreads
324 pages, YA Sci Fi
Standalone
My rating: 4 stars

Synopsis

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.

My 2 cents

I have heard nothing but rave reviews on this book, so when I saw it in my library, I scooped it up.  I really did like the story, but it wasn't instant love like I was expecting.  I think I had trouble suspending my disbelief on the concept.  Normally I love sci fi themes, and this one was a brand new one to me.  I really liked the idea at first, but as the story went on, I started having problems with it.

So A wakes up every day in a different body.  Its always someone who is 16 years old, and geographically within a 4 or 5 hour drive radius.  It can be male or female.  A doesn't really distinguish gender like the rest of us, in fact, he doesn't really have one.  But I felt like he was male, so I'm going to go with that for my review!  The switch happens at midnight, and if he stays awake, he actually feels it, which is painful, so he always falls asleep by midnight.  He has access to the person's memories, so he can get through their day without too much trouble.

He has rules: mainly, to not disrupt their life as much as possible.  One time when he was eleven, he went skiing as a boy and broke the kid's knee.  He felt so terrible, he no longer takes risks.  Until the day he meets Rhiannon.  He is in her boyfriend's (Justin) body at the time.  He feels sorry for her, because its clear to him Justin treats Rhiannon like crap, doesn't really listen to her, and generally just uses her.  They've been dating for a year, and Rhiannon just puts up with him.  Somewhere in this perfect day with Rhiannon, A falls in love. And that changes everything!

I really liked A.  He was a good soul, and obviously cared about people.  He gets himself in lots of trouble throughout the story, but most of the time his intentions are good.  I liked Rhiannon, but towards the end of the story I really saw the difference between them.  When it came down to it, she got pretty selfish.  In fact, all of the characters were selfish in the story but A.  He wasn't perfect, but it made me wonder if that's why he was jumping bodies? 

This is where I really started to lose the story.  Things start coming to light, but not enough to make sense of the whole concept.  I didn't expect everything to fit in a little box, but to really believe in a concept like this, it needs to have some kind of purpose.  That was really lacking in the story.  

The best thing about the book was really all the different bodies A inhabited.  Because he was immersed in their memories, we get to really see what makes different people tick.  The good, bad, and the ugly.  It was really interesting.  The love story between Rhiannon and A was also a huge plus, because it was so different than anything else in YA.

The ending left so many things open and to interpretation, that I though this book might be the first in a series.  I haven't found anything that shows this is a series, though, so I'm a little disappointed with the ending.  I was happy, however, in A's choices at the very end, and staying true to his character.  It really made me think about what kind of soul I would be in the same situation, and I don't know if I could have been as selfless as A.