Review: Every Day (David Levithan)

What if one day you wake up to a different body? To a different life? To somebody else’s family? Sometimes, I wonder what does it feel to be somebody else. Anybody else.

What does it feel if I wake up one day on the body and life of Georgina Wilson? Whoah! I’d call Borgy right away and spend the entire day him while wearing a bikini!! Or what about Behati Prinsloo?? Gosh! I’d be a Victoria’s Secret angel for a day and not to mention have Adam Levine as a boyfriend!! Would I really love their life? Is it really as wonderful as I make it sound?

But what if I don’t have the power to choose and wake up one day on the body of a stripper? Of a teenage mom with 5 kids in tow? Of a construction worker? Of someone with mental disease? Of an obese woman suffering from diabetes? What will I do? Will I like their lives better?

This book by David Levithan is probably the most unusual love story I have ever read. But I love the unusualness. I love the uniqueness. I love the differences.

“I am a drifter, and as lonely as that can be, it is also remarkably freeing. 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 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.”
― David Levithan, Every Day

A’s life is different from ours. Everyday, A would wake up to a body of a different person. S/he has always been like that. As a kid s/he didn’t realize s/he’s different. He thought all the rest are like him/her. Travelling from one body to another. From one family to another. A’s had a different mother taking care of her/his needs every day. A’s gender is even undefined. S/he’s either a girl or a boy. For one day he’d a boy but then she’d wake up the next day as a girl. Sometimes he’s gay. Sometimes she’s lesbian. S/he calls him/herself as a drifter.

When s/he’s old enough to understand that s/he only exist to borrow somebody’s life, s/he’d learn the art of living for the present and trying hard not to change the life of the person who’s body s/he’s borrowing for that day. That’s his/her rule. And s/he’s okay with it.

But everything changed when A met Rhiannon.

“It's as if when you love someone, they become your reason.”
― David Levithan, Every Day

A fell in love. Fell deeply in love. Every day A would wake up to a different body to a different life but every waking moment now is filled with Rhiannon’s memory. Thoughts of her. A wanted a life with her. And A for the first time in his/her existence, s/he trusted Rhiannon enough and told her his/her secret life. Coz s/he wants to make it work. Is fool enough to thinks/he could make it work.

I would no longer tell you what happened to their love story. All I can tell you is that this book is not just a mere love story. It teaches life lessons. Lessons you’d never learn when you’re reading the life of just one person. This book has opened my eyes on the diverseness of everybody’s personality. Everybody’s differences. It made me realize that each one us has his/her own burden. And A is lucky or probably unlucky enough to experience that.

The way every life was written is a work of art. Waking up to a body of drug addict is so intense. Waking up to a body of a sad sad girl who wants to end her life just brought chills to my spine. Waking up to a body of a 300lb guy and seeing how uncomfortable Rhiannon is for being seen in public with such a guy. Waking to a body of a lesbian with a girlfriend who loves her so much. Waking up to a body of a boy who just lost his grandfather and being a witness to the pain of a family. A family s/he’d never have.

This book is really something…

David Levithan is a genius author. He’s one of a kind and I feel so stupid for not knowing him until now. This one is a great read. It took me months to finish this because I wanna savor every page. I wanna try to understand each word. This book has thought a lot about love and life. And the fact that you love a person – not the gender, not the looks, not the talents but the person as a whole.

And on that note, I am leaving you with my favorite quote from the book.

“It would be too easy to say that I feel invisible. Instead, I feel painfully visible, and entirely ignored.”
― David Levithan, Every Day

And oh! Prepare your kleenex. You’d need them on the final chapter. I did. :)

xoxo,

Reigne