‘Everyday’ by David Levithan questions morals and intentions

Imagine waking up in a different body everyday. New place; new family; new life. A does this every single day. A is a being who has his own thoughts and actions, but he has to adapt to being a different person every single day. No one is supposed to know that he inhabits their bodies and he isn’t supposed to feel any connection to the people because that would just cause more problems.

However, one day A wakes up in the body of Justin. Justin is one of those cool guys who thinks that he is better than everyone else. As A follows Justin’s daily routine, A meets Justin’s girlfriend Rhiannon. A instantly feels a connection with her and would do anything for her. A realizes that Justin doesn’t treat Rhiannon the way she deserves so he decides to take her on a spontaneous trip to the beach. They spend the day together and A falls even more in love with her but he knows that he shouldn’t have done what he did.

The next day Justin will go back to treating Rhiannon poorly and he will never be able to see her again. The next few days, A does his best to be with Rhiannon as much as possible even though he is in different bodies. One day as A was in the body of Nathan, he accidentally leaves his email on Nathan’s computer. Nathan wakes up the next day and sees A’s email and realized that he was possessed by something. Nathan’s story goes country wide so A tries to deal with Nathan all in the midst of telling Rhiannon his whole story. Rhiannon, to A’s surprise, believes him and sticks by his side because she’s falling in love with him even though she’s not comfortable with the changing of bodies. A has to learn to deal with the complications he caused by trying to be with the love of his life.

The author uses simplistic language that the reader can easily understand and relate to. Although the main character is 16 years old, the author’s word choice allows a younger reader to comprehend and understand what is occurring. The author expresses one controversial topic throughout the whole story. It is about whether you can love someone no matter what they look like or what sexual orientation they are. It is about unconditional love. The simplistic and clean expressions Levithan uses creates a story that is relatable and interesting. “I don’t want to love her. I don’t want to be in love. People take love’s continuity for granted, just as they take their body’s continuity for granted. They don’t realize that the best thing about love is its regular presence. Once you can establish that, it’s an added foundation to your life. But if you cannot have that regular presence, you only have the one foundation to support you, always”(58). This quote is a great example of how Levithan using choppy and simple sentences to try to get his point across.

I thought this book was very thought provoking and it allows the reader to question their decisions and how they want to live their life. This book makes you wonder what it’s like to be A and you question what you would do in his position. I liked the book because it was very simplistic and it had a good story line but at some points it got boring and flat. There was minimal action so for most people, they would stop reading right away. However, if you stick with it, the thoughts you have would be better than the action you expected. I would give this book 3 out of 5 paws.