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A review by janeleng
Every Day by David Levithan
4.0
I went into this book expecting to hate it, but I was surprisingly moved by the story.
If you don’t get too caught up in the parameters of A’s condition (spoiler alert: you don’t get a ton of answers), I think you will find this to be a very lovely story. Every Day is told in snapshots, giving the reader a brief insight into the many different kinds of lives that exist within a small distance of each other. Most of the lives that A wakes up in are average, but some are exceptionally happy and others exceptionally sad. I felt that this was the real point of the book—for the reader to experience and struggle, like A, with all of the complexities of life. To experience them without judgement. This book is a practice in empathy.
The storyline with Rhiannon I could give or take. I know that’s like the major story line of the book and that there had to be a love story because it’s YA, but I would have been satisfied if it had just been about A’s journey from day to day. There’s a lot of moral ambiguity to unpack here and I would have happily read an entire book about A trying to grapple with that. However, as far as female protagonists go, I felt that she was well-rounded and flawed, so cheers to Leviathan for that.
Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone who is well practiced in the suspension of disbelief and is intrigued by the intricacies of humanity.
If you don’t get too caught up in the parameters of A’s condition (spoiler alert: you don’t get a ton of answers), I think you will find this to be a very lovely story. Every Day is told in snapshots, giving the reader a brief insight into the many different kinds of lives that exist within a small distance of each other. Most of the lives that A wakes up in are average, but some are exceptionally happy and others exceptionally sad. I felt that this was the real point of the book—for the reader to experience and struggle, like A, with all of the complexities of life. To experience them without judgement. This book is a practice in empathy.
The storyline with Rhiannon I could give or take. I know that’s like the major story line of the book and that there had to be a love story because it’s YA, but I would have been satisfied if it had just been about A’s journey from day to day. There’s a lot of moral ambiguity to unpack here and I would have happily read an entire book about A trying to grapple with that. However, as far as female protagonists go, I felt that she was well-rounded and flawed, so cheers to Leviathan for that.
Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone who is well practiced in the suspension of disbelief and is intrigued by the intricacies of humanity.