Your “good morning” consists of accessing memories. You wake up, discover who your family is, who you’re friends with and what bare minimum you are able to do as you live the day. When the stars mark bedtime and you close your eyes, the “good night” you say to yourself is really a good-bye to the people you’ve seen that day.
It’s the same process the next day, only in a different body.
Every Day by David Levithan (The Lover’s Dictionary, Will Grayson Will Grayson) explores and questions if living the life of others is really living. The reader experiences life through the existence of A, who, every day, exists in other sixteen-year-olds. He (the being A is genderless, but for the sake of concision, this review will be defaulting to “he”) is not the people he inhabits; he has his own conscience and mind. But he doesn’t dare disturb the live he’s controlling for a day. He never becomes involved in the personal struggles because he has no way of knowing what the consequences will be for the person after he leaves.
Then he meets Rhiannon.
A is transported into Rhiannon’s boyfriend’s body, and A knows how Justin treats her—as if she’s not there. When he first sees her, A describes Rhiannon as somebody whose determination “surprises” him when she “is so lost in her sadness that she has no idea how visible it is.” In a decision that will bend and break both of their lives, he portrays Justin differently. In breaking his own rules, A discovers that maybe he shouldn’t lock away the desire to live a normal life. A believes there is a spark between Rhiannon and him, and when he closes his eyes for the night, he desperately wishes that he could awake in the same place.
For the rest of the book, in chapters conveniently marked by numbers of day, Levithan builds a relationship between A and Rhiannon. It is one that consists of A trying to convince Rhiannon of the soul that’s always there, no matter if she sees him in the form of a fat, skinny or culturally different body and Rhiannon coming to terms with “who” A is.
Along the way, there are daily struggles A faces besides trying to keep in contact with Rhiannon. With every person he inhabits, every life he undertakes, there is a challenge. From lighter struggles such as colds or excessive stress from homework, to drug addiction and suicidal depression, A has to question whether his “life” of never interfering is still a good option.
Engrossing, humorous, and downright unique, Every Day is a book that will leave all readers wanting more. Though there are blips in Levithan’s story-telling, the story of A’s determination and Rhiannon’s struggle with acceptance is not one to miss. Levithan draws the question of what does every day mean to us.
What will your answer be?
Every Day is a Black-Eyed Susan book and can be found at the Middletown High School’s library.
