Every Day [Review]

Every Day

By: David Levithan

⭐⭐⭐⭐

A is a boy.

A is a girl.

A is transgender.

A is a cheerleader, a nerd, a football player, a twin, an only child, a good student, a drug addict.

A is religious, suicidal, gay, straight, gorgeous, overweight.

A is white, black, Portuguese, Hispanic, Asian.

Every day of A’s life they have woken up in a different body, and for the entire day they live as that person. It is always someone the same age, and it is always within a few hours of the location of the last body they inhabited. A is the only one like themselves that they know of.

A is all alone.

A has always lived carefully, making sure to follow as closely as possible along the path of the life they’re living for that day. They can access parts of the person’s memory to help them identify people, addresses, and routines. Over the years it had gotten easier for A to accept the fact that they could never have a tomorrow with anyone; they could never form lasting bonds and create memories with another person. All of that changes the day that A wakes up as Justin, and meets his girlfriend Rhiannon.

A quickly learns that Justin is a jerk to everyone, Rhiannon included. He doesn’t treat her very well, and there is a noticeable change in her demeaner around him, but she still tries to make things work. A feels sorry for her and decides to give Rhiannon one good day with Justin. What A didn’t expect was to find themselves falling in love with Rhiannon.

Much of this book is A inhabiting different bodies, experiencing different lives and social experiences every day, all while desperately trying to see Rhiannon again. While in the body of Nathan Daldry, A concocts a story to get access to the family car and then drives to a party that they know Rhiannon will be at. A pretends to be the gay cousin of the host and ends up having a really good time with Rhiannon. So good, in fact, that they don’t leave the party with enough time to get Nathan’s body back home before A is ripped out of it (at midnight) and deposited into a new one.

The next day, in the body of Roger Wilson, A uses the family computer to send a quick message to Rhiannon after convincing her to give them her email address the night before. What A didn’t expect was an email from Nathan as well. Nathan had woken up in his parents’ car on the side of the road with a police officer at his window. He had no drugs or alcohol in his system and only vague memories of what had happened the day before. Panicked, A does a quick internet search of Nathan’s name and finds a news article about the incident. In this article Nathan states that he was not in charge of his body or it’s actions, and that he believes it was due to demonic possession.

A continues their mission to somehow win Rhiannon over whilst jumping bodies every 24 hours, and Nathan continues his search for answers. I thought the concept for this book was very interesting and it did not disappoint. Not only did David Levithan make me laugh with sarcastic lines like

“Eyes bloodshot… Eating a lot of Cheetos. Staring into space. Eating more Cheetos. It must be love. What else could it possible be?”

but he also wrote deep and thought provoking things like

“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.”

Levithan created a character whose lifestyle taught them to be nothing but open-minded about many things, and I feel like I have gained a greater understanding of things through A’s point of view. I truly enjoyed this book and really feel like I took something away from it intellectually, (not just the good quotes, though there were many!) I will definitely be adding Every Day to my list of books I’d recommend to people.

Violence Rating:  PG 13 (Some physical fighting)

Romance Rating: PG 13? 15? (Non descriptive nudity)

*I feel it's important to also note that this book has one chapter in which A finds themselves in the body of someone who is addicted to some kind of drug and wakes up in what we can only be assume is a crack house. It's a little scary, but A forces the body to stay clean while they're in it.

Favorite Quotes:

This book had many, but first I'd like to share this entire page with you because I found it very enlightening and thought provoking.

Yes, I write in my books. I'm sorry if that bothers you.

"I feed her the right words, but she suspects they're threaded with hooks." -Page 5

"I will never define myself in terms of anyone else. I will never feel the pressure of peers or the burden of parental expectation. I can view everyone as pieces of a whole, and focus on the whole, not the pieces. I have learned how to observe, far better than most people observe. I am not blinded by the past or motivated by the future. I focus on the present, because that is where I am destined to live." -Page 7

"Some people think that mental illness is a matter of mood, a matter of personality. They think depression is simply a form of being sad, that OCD is a form of being uptight. They think the soul is sick, not the body. It is, they believe, something that you have some choice over... It is a hard cycle to conquer. The body is working against you. And because of this, you feel even more despair. Which only amplifies the imbalance. It takes uncommon strength to live with these things. But I have seen that strength over and over again." -Page 119 (On depression)

"In my experience, desire is desire, love is love. I have never fallen in love with a gender. I have fallen for individuals. I know this is hard for people to do, but I don't understand why it's so hard, when it's so obvious." -Page 142 (On Hetero/Homo/Bi/Pansexuality)

"This is what love does: It makes you want to rewrite the world. It makes you want to choose the characters, build the scenery, guide the plot. The person you love sits across from you, and you want to do everything in your power to make it possible, endlessly possible. And when it's just the two of you, alone in a room, you can pretend that this is how it is, this is how it will be." -Page 175

"George's mother stops in to give me a lecture about 'sins of the flesh.' I hope that George doesn't internalize her scare tactics. I want to argue with her, tell her that 'sins of the flesh' is just a control mechanism-- if you demonize a person's pleasure, then you can control his or her life... But I see no sin in a kiss. I only see sin in the condemnation." -Page 223

"It is an awful thing to be betrayed by your body. And it's lonely, because you feel you can't talk about it. You feel it's something between you and the body. You feel it's a battle you will never win... and yet you fight it day after day, and it wears you down. Even if you try to ignore it, the energy it takes to ignore it will exhaust you." -Page 254 (On being transgendered)

Losing A Beloved Pet [Trigger Warning]

 There's something missing in my home,

I feel it day and night,

I know it will take time and strength,

Before things feel quite right.

But just for now, I need to mourn,

My heart-- it needs to mend,

Though some may say 'it's just a pet'

I know I've lost a friend.

You've brought such laughter to my home,

And richness to my days...

A constant friend through joy or loss,

With gentle loving ways.

Companion, pal, and confidante,

A friend I won't forget,

You'll live for always in my heart,

My sweet forever pet.

RIP Enrique
9/7/07-10/3/16

My apologies to anyone who actually follows my posts, I had to take a short hiatus. A lot of things were happening to my family at once, the hardest of which being the loss of our dog, my first baby, to cancer. We had no idea that he even had it until it reared it's ugly head and rendered him blind, deaf, and imobile in less than 24 hours. It was a very traumatic experience for me and even two and a half weeks after his death I still find myself expecting him to be places he is isn't (and then crying for him all over again).

It really is like John Green says in The Fault In Our Stars:
"There's no way of knowing that your last good day is your Last Good Day.

At the time, it is just another good day."

I gave Enrique a bath, he ran around like a psycho trying to dry off, the kids laughed. He probably did something to make me yell at him later, or I might have kicked him out of my bed because he was laying on my pillow; I don't remember. The day was so normal and uneventful and yet, that was our last good day with him. And I am stuck with the guilt that I may have taken that day, and him, for granted.

On Enrique's first day with us we wrapped him up in a blanket and carried him like a baby. It only felt appropriate to spend his last the same way. ❤

Our kids responded a lot better than I thought they would. While Jonathin (3) slept on his dad's lap throughout the entire procedure, Sophia (5) didn't seem to understand what was going on until I laid the dog on the table. I started crying and she asked if I was sad for Enrique. I told her yes because he's sick. She sounded a little emotional as she began to rub his head and tell him that it was ok and not to be sad. I told her that Enrique was going to 'go sleepy', and that he wasn't going to come home with us.

"Yeah..." she said, sadly. Then, "Mommy, I want a cat!". 😐😑
So don't worry, she's fine. She won't need therapy for this later in life.

If you ever have to have a pet put to sleep, and I sincerely hope that you don't, I cannot recommend enough that you take them up on the offer to do a memorial footprint. We were pretty tight on money at the time, and the euthanasia and cremation already cost upwards of $100 (and we went to a cheap clinic) but I decided to say yes when asked if I wanted to buy an imprint of his paw for $15 more. I ALMOST said no, but then I decided that I'd rather regret spending $15 that I could easily earn again, instead of not creating this memory that can't be done later.

When they called us a few days later to pick it up I was amazed by how nice they made this for us. It is so much more than I ever thought it would be. I didn't think it would be this cute, and I NEVER expected they would add his name to it! I am still so very happy with my decision, and highly recommend getting one made of your pets' little paws. 🐾

2012 & 2014

Enrique has always loved snow. I'm glad he and Jonathin got to share this moment (and the proceeding wipeout as they tried to cut that corner to fast) during our last snow of last year.
 

First snow and last snow.❄

This was a joke, but I swear he's acting like he can read.

"Privacy? What's that, mom?"

While waiting for our appointment at the vet's office, I laid on the bathroom floor with Enrique and pet him. By this point he couldn't see or hear, but I held my hand in front of his nose so he could (hopefully) smell me.