Every Day
By David Levithan
By David Levithan
![Picture](/uploads/6/8/0/9/6809640/368249860.jpg?250)
Reviewer = Ms. Tracewski
Rating = 4/5
Recommendation = Teens who are interested in a new approach to the traditional love story. Adults who enjoy mature young adult fiction. Not best for people who stress over the details of sci-fi.
“I want love to conquer all. But love can’t conquer anything. It can’t do anything on its own. It relies on us to do the conquering on its behalf.”
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Every Day, by David Levithan, recreates the traditional idea of a romance story from a new perspective: a boy, who wakes up in a different body each day. The result is a fresh presentation on a coming of age story, where the protagonist first “grows down” in order to grow up.
Waking up in a different body each day means that A, the main character, never meets anyone for more than one day, never forming any real relationships. This change to the traditional romance story complicates A, making him the kind of character who is mature, not stressed for love, and completely un-Romeo-like. However, one day he does fall in love, in the magical way that people hope to fall in love where it is both serendipitous and reconciled. But A’s problem is that that love is only reconciled for the day he meets her, Rhiannon. And the next day he’s in a new body. This is where the main conflict in the story comes into play. He begins to “grow down” as he descends into a reckless spiral chasing after her and forgetting the effect he has on others.
What I loved about this is how authentic A feels in spite of his unconventional creation. Levithan creates a character that we could never meet, yet he reacts in a typical teenage fashion - something I am sure most of us are reluctant to admit. Sure, A starts out atypical. He is simply a very mature, smart character. Wow. Very un-teenage-like. By seeing how carefully he acts while in others’ bodies, he seems almost too mature.
And that is how Levithan creates this spin on his traditional role in a teen romance. He starts to slip, starts to act rash, impulsively, without thinking of the consequences. Likewise, the story picks up the pace, pulling us in as we wonder what will come next. In an almost mystery-based way, we try to uncover how he will end up with Rhiannon, or if he will at all. But of course there is the mess of waking up in a new body to complicate this.
Overall, I enjoyed how this novel takes something very typical - teenage love story - and turns it into something unique, where at the end you feel and see a sense of growth. That feeling is one I struggle to find in books anymore, but I found it here. Check it out and see if you agree.
Waking up in a different body each day means that A, the main character, never meets anyone for more than one day, never forming any real relationships. This change to the traditional romance story complicates A, making him the kind of character who is mature, not stressed for love, and completely un-Romeo-like. However, one day he does fall in love, in the magical way that people hope to fall in love where it is both serendipitous and reconciled. But A’s problem is that that love is only reconciled for the day he meets her, Rhiannon. And the next day he’s in a new body. This is where the main conflict in the story comes into play. He begins to “grow down” as he descends into a reckless spiral chasing after her and forgetting the effect he has on others.
What I loved about this is how authentic A feels in spite of his unconventional creation. Levithan creates a character that we could never meet, yet he reacts in a typical teenage fashion - something I am sure most of us are reluctant to admit. Sure, A starts out atypical. He is simply a very mature, smart character. Wow. Very un-teenage-like. By seeing how carefully he acts while in others’ bodies, he seems almost too mature.
And that is how Levithan creates this spin on his traditional role in a teen romance. He starts to slip, starts to act rash, impulsively, without thinking of the consequences. Likewise, the story picks up the pace, pulling us in as we wonder what will come next. In an almost mystery-based way, we try to uncover how he will end up with Rhiannon, or if he will at all. But of course there is the mess of waking up in a new body to complicate this.
Overall, I enjoyed how this novel takes something very typical - teenage love story - and turns it into something unique, where at the end you feel and see a sense of growth. That feeling is one I struggle to find in books anymore, but I found it here. Check it out and see if you agree.