Events

2014 EVENTS:
Holly Bourne, Non Pratt and James Dawson - 30th October
Becca Fitzpatrick - 15th November

Wednesday 6 August 2014

GUEST REVIEW: Every Day - David Levithan

Wednesday 6 August 2014
GENRE: Contemporary/Fantasy
PAGES: 384
PUBLISHER: Electric Monkey
FORMAT: Paperback
BUY IT: Waterstones
RATING: 5 Stars

SUMMARY
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. Each morning, A wakes up in a different body. There's never any warning about who it will be, but A is used to that. Never get too attached. Avoid being noticed. Do not interfere. And that's fine - until A wakes up in the body of Justin and meets Justin's girlfriend, Rhiannon. From that moment, the rules by which A has been living no longer apply. Because finally A has found someone he wants to be with - every day...

REVIEW
I personally enjoyed this book and thought that the idea was original because I haven’t read a book similar to this. The only book I’ve read by this other is Will Grayson, Will Grayson which is co-authored by John Green- an author I really enjoy reading the books of.

THIS WILL HAVE SOME SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!

This book is about a being who has named themselves A who borrows other peoples’ bodies for a day. This being goes to sleep and wakes up in a different body and this happens every day. A has no gender and no own physical body. 

Click through to read more.

What’s interesting about this book is that A always has tried to make the borrowed body do what they usually do until Rhiannon comes into the picture. A is put into Rhiannon’s boyfriend, Justin’s body. As Justin, A falls in love with Rhiannon and even out of Justin’s body, Rhiannon is all A can think about. This affects the lives of others especially when A is put into the body of Nathan. Nathan is taken to see Rhiannon at a party- the party ends and at midnight A is transferred into a different body and Nathan is left at the side of a motorway, quite some distance away from his own home. This leads Nathan to believe that he was ‘possessed’ by the devil and he amplifies the situation by contacting Reverend Poole who makes a website in which people can add their own experiences of being possessed by demons. Nathan is able to contact A and wants to find out his secret. A has been keeping his secret from everyone since he realized what was happening to him. He did tell Rhiannon because as he professes his love to her, he realizes he doesn’t want to keep any secrets from her. He tries to deny his secret from Nathan but eventually tells him the truth. When he goes to meet Nathan to give him proof, Reverend Poole is there and A gets attacked by this large man when in the petite body of a girl. A is able to get away but Reverend Poole reveals he has the same ability as A, and that A could learn to hold on to a person’s body for longer than just a day. This sparks A’s curiosity and they are left with the feeling of wanting more. Meanwhile A wants to fix the problems that Rhiannon has with A’s body borrowing. A sets Rhiannon up with a boy that he is in the body in for a day so that she can have a relationship with a reliable person.

I enjoyed this book because as I’ve previously mentioned; the idea was original for me and I liked how Nathan was involved in the story line. It is the fact that someone knows about A without A’s intentions, which makes the story so much more interesting. I think the fact that the beginning is catching- it grabbed my attention. There are some books in which I feel that I want to stop reading purely because the beginning of the book is too slow for my liking. Some books start with long explanations about the different characters without actually getting into the story directly. I feel that once this happens, I don’t enjoy the book as much as I could have if the start of it were altered.

I think A is a selfish character however I can see why he would want to keep someone’s body for longer than his usual day. He feels a sense of longing for stable relationships which is something he finds in Rhiannon. Alternatively though I think that he should be more considerate to the people he is ‘ borrowing’ the body from. It is unfair to take someone’s body and then be like you want to stay there or abusing their body and their morals in a way. I feel like this because A takes Nathan’s body and abuses it when he goes to the party and then leaves Nathan in the middle of nowhere because he got too wrapped up in his own interests.

Rhiannon is quite an interesting character because she varies. She varies in the sense that she is sometimes understanding but other times not so much. While reading this book whenever Rhiannon featured I was thinking make up your mind how you are going to react to A. You can’t be happy with him one second and then angry the next. However she is a stereotypical/realistic character dealing with an unrealistic issue. So I commend her for how well at times she dealt with the situation.

Nathan was very different in comparison to what I expected him to be like at the beginning of the book. Honestly I expected Nathan to be similar to many other people after A was in his body and tried to hide it and pretend it didn’t happen. It surprised me when he pursued the matter because usually most teenage boys in books are self conscious. I expected Nathan to be like this however he even went as far as emailing A and posting their conversations on a website.

I think this book deserves more credit than it gets and also David Levithan deserves more credit. I don’t think many people acknowledge he wrote Will Grayson Will Grayson which is an amazing book once you understand the story. I recommend reading it for those interested in books which contain slightly twisted reality.

- Makayla.

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