Summer Reading Season: but maybe skip this one!

(Spoiler alert!)

You have most likely heard of the movie Every Day, the trailer for which flooded the internet in 2018. A few months ago, however, I found out that this movie was based on David Levithan’s 2012 romantic fantasy by the same name, which naturally piqued my interest. Before I embarked on the journey of reading this book my expectations were high, since I had not thought it possible for a popular movie to be based off of a poorly-written book. It was, however, to say the least. 

The book centers around the non-binary main character, A, who is a soul that wakes up in a new body every day. A’s strange lifestyle is inconvenient and often boring, since they are not able to get attached to their new body or make friends, because they would have to forget them and move on to the next day. One day, however, A is moved to the body of a 16-year-old, who has a beautiful and unique girlfriend. Need I say that A falls in love with her? The main concern of A’s life now becomes trying to interact with Rhiannon, as well as convince her that their unusual relationship can work. From this point on, I felt intrigued about the solution that these characters were going to come up with to solve their problem. I was anticipating plot twists and an ingenious way for A and Rhiannon to stay together. I was largely disappointed. 

Not only does Levithan do a poor job creating dynamic and complex characters, but he also fails to include the much-needed plot twists. Yes, A’s interactions with the ever persistent and, perhaps, intimidating Nathan Daldry were thrilling at times—since I was always awaiting the moment when Nathan would take action and either expose A’s “devilish” secret, or aid them in some way—but there were not too many interactions between these two characters that moved the plot forward. For me, most of the story was a flat line with very little exhilarating action.