"我是A,每天早上在不同的身體醒來,然後在任何人發現之前便離開。我可以擁有100種生活,卻沒有人會知道我的存在,沒有人會記得我… 每天早上醒來,A都會這樣問自己:我今天是誰?因為他每天會住進不同人的身體,過那個人的生活。他當過男孩、女孩、正妹、怪咖,甚至癮君子,他可以體會他們生理上的痛苦,或是內心的寂寞。然而只有一天,他在這些人的身體裡只會待上一天,他無法改變什麼,也不打算涉入這些人生,他不允許自己愛上任何人,因為他知道沒有人會愛上他,真正的他。直到那一天,他遇見黎安娜。生平第一次,他想讓人知道自己的存在,於是他打破規則,每天用不同的面孔接近她,每天用不同的聲音告訴她:是我,我在這裡。他可以找到辦法停止這一切,不再變換游離,永遠留在她身邊嗎?"--P. [4] of cover.
While the concept is extremely interesting and results in a unique read, the logic isn’t examined as much as it should be. Also, I found it the chapter involving the trans individual to be a little.... mmm. I feel like Levithan should have consulted an actual trans person on it.
Note: The narrator of Every Day is essentially genderless, but for simplicity's sake I use male pronouns throughout this review.
David Levithan is an interesting standout in the young adult / fiction world. He seems more than willing to experiment with storytelling forms; his previous book, The Lover's Dictionary, chronicled the ups and downs of a relationship through alternately hilarious and painful entries in a dictionary. His new book, Every Day, is more traditional in form, but still full of the same thrillingly out-there ideas that I loved about his previous work.
Every Day's premise is simple but striking; what if you woke up every day in a new body and a new place? Some essence of your self - your soul, some ineffable store of memory - survives the jump from body to body, which gives you continuity of identity, but you also have access to the memories of …
Note: The narrator of Every Day is essentially genderless, but for simplicity's sake I use male pronouns throughout this review.
David Levithan is an interesting standout in the young adult / fiction world. He seems more than willing to experiment with storytelling forms; his previous book, The Lover's Dictionary, chronicled the ups and downs of a relationship through alternately hilarious and painful entries in a dictionary. His new book, Every Day, is more traditional in form, but still full of the same thrillingly out-there ideas that I loved about his previous work.
Every Day's premise is simple but striking; what if you woke up every day in a new body and a new place? Some essence of your self - your soul, some ineffable store of memory - survives the jump from body to body, which gives you continuity of identity, but you also have access to the memories of your "host" so that you can pass unnoticed in their life. How would it feel to look out from different eyes every day, experiencing the world from an infinite number of perspectives? More importantly, what would happen if, one day, you fell in love... and couldn't let go?
A, the narrator of Levithan's story, wakes up one morning in the body of Justin, a sullen teenage boy who doesn't take care of himself, doesn't get along well with his parents and mistreats his girlfriend. A usually tries not to interfere with the lives of his hosts - who seem to match the age he would be if he lived normally - but something about Justin's relationship with his girlfriend, Rhiannon, makes him decide to try and improve her day. They skip school and go to the beach... and A falls in love. After that, A spends each successive day trying to find Rhiannon, working to get to know her and eventually revealing his body-jumping secret.
Levithan plays with some fascinating philosophical concepts throughout. Once A reveals his identity to Rhiannon, the major question becomes: how exactly do you have a relationship with someone who isn't in the same body twice? A, who grew up unsurprisingly open-minded after experiencing life through the eyes of every possible type of person, feels like there shouldn't be anything keeping them apart, but Rhiannon isn't quite so ready to live outside the norms. For example, A notices that she isn't quite as receptive when he is in the body of a girl or someone who isn't traditionally attractive. Late in the book, the question arises of what it would mean if A and Rhiannon had sex in one of his host bodies, since it has been made clear that the hosts do remember vague details of their lives the next day. All of these complications make A's story poignantly tragic, and the romance compellingly star-crossed.
A's experiences vary wildly from day to day. One particularly harrowing experience involves a day spent in the body of a habitual drug user going through withdrawal; another centers on a girl who is planning to commit suicide. A is almost always understanding and open-minded about the lives of the people he inhabits, although he does admit early on that he doesn't necessarily like everyone whose life he takes over. The only real false note in the book comes on a day when A inhabits the body of an extremely overweight boy. A refers to him as "the emotional equivalent of a burp" and it seems strangely judgmental by comparison.
The author also introduces a subplot about a boy named Nathan who gets in trouble with his parents after A controls his life one night. When Nathan comes home after curfew, he blames his behavior on demonic possession. Eventually the story gets picked up by the national news and a shady evangelical preacher starts asking more of the "possessed" to come forward. Nathan remembers enough about his experience to get in touch with A through his secret email account, and tries to convince A to reveal his true nature. Although this storyline does add some tension to the mix, I felt like the book didn't necessarily need it. Every Day largely focuses on the romance between A and Rhiannon, so when a late reveal implies that the story might slip into thriller territory or start exploring explanations for the body-jumping mythology, it doesn't quite fit. Luckily Levithan avoids straying too far down that path.
That isn't to say I wouldn't be curious to know more about the cause of A's body-jumping experiences, and the book definitely ends on a note that would leave Levithan wide open to write a sequel if he chose to. I'd definitely read it, but I imagine it would need to be a very different book, simply because it would only diminish this book to try and repeat the romantic storyline.
All in all, I highly recommend Every Day. It's a quick read full of powerful emotional moments and thought-provoking ideas, and I definitely look forward to seeing what Levithan comes up with next.
Full disclosure: I received a free review copy of this book from Net Galley.