March 30, 2015

Every Day by David Levithan 4/5 stars

Hey, guys! I've read David Levithan's Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist and Will Grayson, Will Grayson and loved both, so I decided to read another of David Levithan's most popular books, Every Day.  I definitely enjoyed it, reading it in a single day, and its concept was really interesting.

The Cover:
The Cover:
I can only describe this cover as randomly artistic.  Oh, look! Clouds and flying people! I'm also not a big fan of the title, "Every day."  It works with the story (every day A wakes up in a new body) but its a little melodramatic, in my opinion.

Official Description:
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 Review:
I really liked reading this book.  The writing style worked.  I loved the concept behind the book.  Its really cool to have the main character have no gender/ race/ hair color/ body type but regain the same personality. You can't help but be surprised at each transformation.  It was really neat to be able to have the main character randomly thrusted into different situations.
I enjoyed this book and would probably rate it at five stars except for three things (1) the ending (which I will talk about later in a spoiler section), (2) the lack of chemistry between Rhiannon and A, and (3) too much of a message/moral.
Let's start with the chemistry problem.  I just didn't buy that A and Rhiannon were into each other. I believe that A thought that s/he was, but I couldn't quite see it.  There were not a lot of cute moments between the two.  I got more of the feeling of friendship from them than the feeling of a relationship.
Also, the message.  The author was a little heavy handed in laying out the message he wanted his book to give across.  "All types of people, despite sexuality (main point) or race or gender are essentially the same."  It's not that I disagree with his message, but that I disagree with books actively trying to teach me a lesson.  I just end up feeling a little brainwashed.  If you can manage to make your message a little less intrusive to the storyline, I wouldn't mind a "moral of the story" but that wasn't the case in Every Day.  If you've read the book and don't know what I'm talking about, look at the day with Vic.
My last problem was the ending.  (ATTN: SPOILERS IN THIS PARAGRAPH)  The ending was not enough.  I love open endings, but this wasn't an open ending.  It was, in my opinion, the wrong ending.  I would understand if A decided that he and Rhiannon couldn't be together and left.  I get that.  My problem is that he hijacked Andrew's life and hooked him up with his girlfriend.  What was that?  I am also not content that we never learned how A got to be the way he was.  (I would've been happy with a single sentence about it! Maybe from the Reverend?)  Either way, the ending caused me to rethink my evaluation of the entire book. (SPOILERS END HERE)

I just learned that there will be a sequel, Another Day that is told from Rhiannon's perspective.  I don't think that this is necessary and frankly a continuation of a stand-alone book that does not need a continuation, and if it did need a continuation, it's not in the form of a Rhiannon POV.

Phrase:
The devil

Happy Reading!

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