(WARRENSBURG, Mo.) – “Every Day” by David Levithan tells the story of a boy named A who wakes up in someone else’s body every day.
As A goes to school as different people, he meets a girl named Rhiannon. The day he meets her, he gives her his email address and they start emailing for a while, until A finally confesses to her that he changes into someone else each day.
The story continues, with A and Rhiannon falling in love and their struggle to figure out how to spend their life together with A always switching bodies. A feels like their relationship cannot work, but Rhiannon tries to figure out a way to stop A from changing bodies so they can be together.
I really enjoyed “Every Day.” It is unlike any love story I have read. It tells the timeless lesson of how we fall in love more with who someone is and not for how they look. There have been many stories with the same message – like “Beauty and the Beast,” – but not one quite like “Every Day.”
A does not know how or why he changes bodies, but he tries to live his life the best he can in his own way and tries not to interfere with the life of the person whose body he is inhabiting. Since A switches bodies every day, he knows a lot about how people think and is more understanding than most of the other people his age, which is why Rhiannon falls in love with him.
A part in the story I liked was when A wakes up and is in the same bedroom as the girl he was the day before. For a second he thinks he has stopped changing, but he looks over and realizes he is in the body of her twin sister, who shares the bedroom.
I like when A says, “Kindness connects to who you are, while niceness connects to how you want to be seen.” There is a big difference between being nice and being kind.  When someone is just nice, they do things like compliment you or sit with you at lunch. But being kind is when someone actually tries to be a friend to you. They try to include you and ask if you want to go do something with them.
I wanted to read “Every Day” because I heard that a movie based on the novel was coming out Feb. 23 and thought the story sounded interesting. I wanted to read the book before the movie came out. I wonder how much of the movie will stay true to the book.
If you want to read a love story that is very different from other romances, I think you will enjoy “Every Day.”
Merrin Gutherie is a THRIVE intern for the Muleskinner. THRIVE is a UCM program that focuses on young adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities in a two-year residential college experience meant to build the required knowledge and skills to transition from home to independent living,