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Friday 14 August 2015

Everyday by David Levithan

“Every day I am someone else. I am myself-I know I am myself-but I am also someone else. It has always been like this.” 


Imagine waking up in a different body every day. A different room, a different family, a different life. Sounds crazy, right? This is the life of A (not from Pretty Little Liars!).  

Just from reading the blurb, I had high expectations. It's an interesting idea, and I was curious to see where the author took it. There are so many possibilities, and it had me asking so many questions. What is the reason for A waking up in a different body every day? What happens if A stays up past midnight? Can he/she stay in a body for more than a day? What happens to the person whose body he/she's in? 

Obviously, I won't answer these questions... I don't want to spoil the book for you! If you want to find out you can read it yourself ;)  But just so you are prepared, many questions are left unanswered. 

A is sometimes in a girl's body and sometimes in a boy's body. So I'll just have to refer to A as he/she. I won't summarise the story, but if you read the blurb you'll see that he falls in love with a girl, called Rhiannon, and the story goes on from there. It's pretty cheesy at times- a bit too cheesy. But that just depends on how much lovey-doveyness you like to read. Despite this, the book really got me hooked! Especially from the middle to the end- I couldn't even put the book down! 

Everyday raises a range of issues- depression, family, friendship, relationships, sexuality and more. Since A only stays in each body for one day, he/she inhabits the body of many people throughout the book (about 30-something I think). Each person has so much to tell-and I'm not just talking about the book, in real life too! For me, the issue I liked the most was how little importance appearance has. The book really challenges the value so many people put in appearance, but why should it matter so much? It shows that you shouldn't let your looks define you, or other people. It's not about who you were born as, but who you decide to be. 

While I was reading Everyday, I thought more about the little things we encounter each day. It's funny how there's so much stuff around us, they all have a reason for being there, and hold some significance, but we don't really notice them. It's so easy to take the things and people we have in our lives for granted, so I think it's good to just stop once in a while and think about all the things you are grateful for. If someone were to wake up in your body tomorrow (sounds creepy, I know) what would they think about who you are as a person? How much does your room show about your personality? What makes you stand out from others? What do you have in common? 

As I said at the start, there were so many possibilities for this story idea. I wish the author explored a few things further. There was so much suspense leading up to the end, and when I finished the book, I have to admit I was a little disappointed. Too many things were left unanswered. I don't want to spoil the book for anyone who is going to read it, so I'll end with a quote from the book. “There will always be more questions. Every answer leads to more questions. The only way to survive is to let some of them go.” I still have so many questions-but I guess I'm just going to have to let them go. 





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