Review: Every Day by David Levithan

Every Day by David Levithan
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers (Random House)
Release Date: August 28th, 2012

There’s never any warning about where it will be or who it will be. A has made peace with that, even established guidelines by which to live: Never get too attached. Avoid being noticed. Do not interfere.

It’s all fine until the morning that 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—day in, day out, day after day.

I'm going to start off truthfully. I didn't finish the book. But I'm still rating it. Why? Well, I'll get into that.

The thing is, I don't think this book is bad by all means. I think it was more of a "it's me not you" situation. The premise of the story is really intriguing, and that's what drew me to this book. (Also the fact that so many people were saying such great things about it.) It's new, and it's interesting. But in the end, it felt lacking in the actual story. Things weren't always explained properly and the reader is left with a million questions that are only answered if it's important to the plot.

I also felt that the plot itself was just.so.slow. Maybe that's because I've been reading such fast-paced books lately. Perhaps it's because I couldn't connect or feel for A. This leads me to my next point. A few characters were actually interesting, particularly Rhiannon. But the problem that comes with the premise is that, with a few exceptions, you don't know other characters long enough to connect to them. Plus, A is so focused on Rhiannon that that's all the book seems to be about (besides the ordeal with Nathaniel, but that's a different story). And I just couldn't make myself like A, and when I read something, I need to have at least some glimmer of liking the main character or narrator (which is also why I'm not a fan of THG). The way that he thought about Rhiannon was honestly a bit unsettling. It didn't feel like love. It felt more like stalking. And maybe a lot of other readers never took it this way. But I did.

About halfway through the book, I realized that this would only keep dragging on for me and that I have tons of other books to read. I couldn't let this book bog me down. Which is why I ultimately decided to drop it. I desperately wanted to like this book, which is why I kept reading it for so long. But I don't even feel that bad about putting it down now. Maybe one day, I'll give this another shot when I'm not reading so many action-packed books. Or maybe I won't.

And lastly, I will give it a small rating because there were some things that I did like about it (mainly the premise and Rhiannon's character) even though I didn't finish it.