Reading some of the reviews on a well-know website known for having reviews, I found that I was not the only one who thought Every Day V02 Another Day by David Levithan had several weak parts. This is not a true sequel to Every Day but the companion of how the several months the characters A (a person who leaps into a person’s body for the day) and Rhiannon (high schooler) meet when A was in the body of her boyfriend, Justin, and the aftermath, but told from the point of view of Rhiannon.
My biggest issue is how slow the pacing was. We spend over half the book dealing with the boyfriend Justin and what an a-hole he is. Yes, we KNOW he’s an a-hole but pick it up Levithan. Please?? (And thank you.) There are some wordings that, due to the time the book came out, is not contemporary and some people might take offense to that, even though it was the best at the time for a subject (gender) we were still learning about. I had issues with the fact that the character A was “highjacking” people and their lives, yet A never sees the problem in this, or the problem in the fact that for a day they change these people’s lives. And Rhiannon enables that. And now that I see the ending from her perspective, two things shout at me that if I wasn’t really sure before, they seal why I’m not a fan of either character now. She is STILL blaming herself for hurting Justin, even though he is a major, manipulative a-hole and A “gives” the last body they are in “to” Rhiannon because A sees that they would be a good fit for her.
I was excited to read book two as I like the idea of identity understanding, and the idea of attraction, and the idea of seeing The Driver and not The Car (ie: why can’t Rhiannon like A in a female body? Or the plus sized boy’s body? Or not white?) but the book is dated. Having read Every Day in a graphic novel format changed the way people and the subject is presented. And I am assuming that things were updated in terminology such as less dead gendering and more acceptance of They being used However, understandably Rhiannon’s dilemma is valid as we are attracted to who we’re attracted to and A really doesn’t fit the mold. However, it just did not work out as hoped.
Book three, Someday, but I am not sure if I want to. However, due to how everything is connected, reading the trilogy does help keep the non-main characters straight and the second story pieces fresh. So… I have some thinking to do!