Ads 468x60px

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Every Day, by David Levithan

A has no friends. No parents. No family. No possessions. No home, even. Because every day, A wakes up in the body of a different person. Every morning, a different bed. A different room. A different house. A different life. A is able to access each person's memory, enough to be able to get through the day without parents, friends, and teachers realizing this is not their child, not their friend, not their student. Because it isn't. It's A. Inhabiting each person's body. Seeing the world through their eyes. Thinking with their brain. Speaking with their voice.

It's a lonely existence—until, one day, it isn't. A meets a girl named Rhiannon. And, in an instant, A falls for her, after a perfect day together. But when night falls, it's over. Because A can never be the same person twice. But yet, A can't stop thinking about her. She becomes A's reason for existing. So each day, in different bodies—of all shapes, sizes, backgrounds, walks of life—A tries to get back to her. And convince her of their love. But can their love transcend such an obstacle?

Levithan certainly writes some interesting stories, and this one is right up there. It's an interesting premise. Really, how would you cope with each day being a new existence? Never telling anyone who you really are, never really getting to experience life for yourself, just everyone else's, every day.

The story is interesting. While the narrator's voice stays the same each day, his (her?) experience and story doesn't. One day he's a straight teenage boy, the next an Asian teenage girl, the next a homosexual teenager. The sudden shift and instantaneous necessity of adopting a role and "walking a mile in someone's shoes" will grab a lot of readers immediately--number-wise AND across the spectrum.

That's what will grab their attention, but it's also the aspect that will bridge many a discussion. Just what is attraction at it's basest form?

Watch for it to be a little over the top in the prose. The story lends itself to a lot of philosophical meandering, and Levithan takes it there well, but I did find myself occasionally giving the big sigh of "move on already."

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this ebook galley from Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers through the netGalley publisher/reader connection program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

0 thoughts:

Post a Comment

Creative Commons

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed by Jennifer Turney under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
Page copy protected against web site content infringement by Copyscape

 
Animated Social Gadget - Blogger And Wordpress Tips