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A review by kerameia
Every Day by David Levithan
5.0
Imagine waking up every morning in a different body, challenged with having to familiarize yourself with that body to get through the day--and not just the physical (are you diabetic? have you broken any bones? do you have allergies?), but a whole life to lead, all for a day.
This is the "life" that the main character, 'A', faces and has faced for all of 16 years. There's no explain as to how or why, simply that it is the way it is. One day, he wakes up in the body of a guy named Justine and meets Justine's devoted, yet neglected girlfriend, and that changes everything for A.
What I especially liked about this story is the respectful and clever way in which the author features A's weird situation--A can wake up in any body (it tends to be around his age), be it male or female. There're no lewd descriptions, no awkwardness in the physical difference--the emphasis is more on A's mindset as that particular person, navigating his way through the feelings and instincts of that person. And A can wake up in ANYBODY--a "normal" teenager, a druggie, someone who's very depressed and in need of serious help, someone who's happy-go-lucky... ANYONE.
The idea behind the story intrigued me and for that reason I started to read the book; as I kept reading, however, I became fascinated and eagerly kept on reading. It's not a particuarly fast-paced novel, as each chapter is another day in a new body, with A going through the routine. The quality is in the reflective and very real narration from A's point of view--the reader is drawn into wondering about what constitutes personhood, what defines us as male or female and how and why we love whom we love. There's a particular elegance to the author's writing style that creates a comfortable, and thought-provoking, reading experience and that, for me at least, leaves the reader with the true sense of "ohh whooa..." at the end.
This is the "life" that the main character, 'A', faces and has faced for all of 16 years. There's no explain as to how or why, simply that it is the way it is. One day, he wakes up in the body of a guy named Justine and meets Justine's devoted, yet neglected girlfriend, and that changes everything for A.
What I especially liked about this story is the respectful and clever way in which the author features A's weird situation--A can wake up in any body (it tends to be around his age), be it male or female. There're no lewd descriptions, no awkwardness in the physical difference--the emphasis is more on A's mindset as that particular person, navigating his way through the feelings and instincts of that person. And A can wake up in ANYBODY--a "normal" teenager, a druggie, someone who's very depressed and in need of serious help, someone who's happy-go-lucky... ANYONE.
The idea behind the story intrigued me and for that reason I started to read the book; as I kept reading, however, I became fascinated and eagerly kept on reading. It's not a particuarly fast-paced novel, as each chapter is another day in a new body, with A going through the routine. The quality is in the reflective and very real narration from A's point of view--the reader is drawn into wondering about what constitutes personhood, what defines us as male or female and how and why we love whom we love. There's a particular elegance to the author's writing style that creates a comfortable, and thought-provoking, reading experience and that, for me at least, leaves the reader with the true sense of "ohh whooa..." at the end.