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pforpedrox23 's review for:
Every Day
by David Levithan
I am rare with my five star reviews these days since I am reading so much. I have read both the glowing reviews and the scathing reviews of this novel. But, before I read those things, I slapped down 5 stars. I'm sticking with my five stars, and here's why.
From what I have read of Levithan's style before, I find it very assertive in its beliefs and interpretations of the world, whoever the narrator is, which some people find preachy. If you don't want to be preached at, and that's what you feel, then it's not for you. I particularly don't prefer one or the other. But it's noticeable. You get some "after school specials" (as one reviewer put it) that kind of gloss over many social issues (drinking, depression, mean clique girl...). It's there, but you move past it.
The reason I give the story 5 stars is because his prose is solid. The description of what falling in love feels like, or how our reality can be made up of only memories, really fill the book. I am not going to comment on the concept of the character, whom negative reviewers are sickened by. You know what? "Lolita" is narrated by one of the most infamous and sick narrators in the history of literature, but it contains some of the most beautiful damn prose you will ever read in your life. I give this book 5 damn stars because the author loves the English language. He loves it so much that I only remember in hindsight that the situations of the book do involve exploitation and wrongness trying to pass itself off as survival and "carrying on." I don't remember all that.
I remember the catalog of sensations that make up our memories of a person, or what it means to know a person-- really know them. I remember the discussion of what it means to define self-hood. Existence. THAT was five damn stars.
From what I have read of Levithan's style before, I find it very assertive in its beliefs and interpretations of the world, whoever the narrator is, which some people find preachy. If you don't want to be preached at, and that's what you feel, then it's not for you. I particularly don't prefer one or the other. But it's noticeable. You get some "after school specials" (as one reviewer put it) that kind of gloss over many social issues (drinking, depression, mean clique girl...). It's there, but you move past it.
The reason I give the story 5 stars is because his prose is solid. The description of what falling in love feels like, or how our reality can be made up of only memories, really fill the book. I am not going to comment on the concept of the character, whom negative reviewers are sickened by. You know what? "Lolita" is narrated by one of the most infamous and sick narrators in the history of literature, but it contains some of the most beautiful damn prose you will ever read in your life. I give this book 5 damn stars because the author loves the English language. He loves it so much that I only remember in hindsight that the situations of the book do involve exploitation and wrongness trying to pass itself off as survival and "carrying on." I don't remember all that.
I remember the catalog of sensations that make up our memories of a person, or what it means to know a person-- really know them. I remember the discussion of what it means to define self-hood. Existence. THAT was five damn stars.