Over break I read "Another Day" by David Levithan. It is a sequel/companion to his book "Every Day" which I read a couple years ago. It tells the same story from another character's perspective.If you haven't read these books and plan to, you should stop now because here comes the plot. The basis of the story is that one character (the narrator in the other book), known as A, switches bodies everyday. While inhabiting the body of Justin, A falls in love with Justin's girlfriend, Rhiannon (the narrator of this book). A reveals his secret to Rhiannon and they try to figure out how to make some kind of relationship work.
I enjoyed the first book significantly more than I did this one. Maybe my standards were just lower. The whole concept of it is what intrigued me. The idea of being a whole person but without a body, without a gender.
With this book, I found the characters much less likable. A now comes off to me as selfish for expecting Rhiannon to completely change her life just to be with him/her. Also, for significantly changing the lives of the people whose body he inhabits. For example, he makes one person's body miss a flight to Hawaii, and then that person would have to deal with the consequences the next day. With Rhiannon, while I don't blame her for wanting to cut off ties with A, much of her reasoning is that she can't handle being around, and especially not being romantic with, A when A's body doesn't fit her "type." I would put a quote here but I already brought the book back to the library, whoops. Basically, she just struggles with seeing past A's physical being when they A is a girl or ugly. It comes off as very shallow.
While I didn't like this book as much as its companion, I did enjoy reading it. I would definitely recommend this series.
Here's a video of the author, David Levithan, talking about the first book in the series.
That sounds really good!!! So does he switch like genders too? Does he get to choose who he became? How did you like the book on a scale of 1-5? Ok for ours I did not like the endings or Nick Dunne at all and I hate Libby Day in the book we are reading right now, did you like the ending and were the characters as hatable as you say?
ReplyDeleteA has no control over which body they end up in and can be any gender depending on the day and does not identify as one over the other in their mind.
DeleteIf say about a 3.75. Pretty good but not a favorite or anything.
I did not like the ending. I don't remember how the first book ended and if it ended at a different point. This book ends with A supposedly cutting off contact with Rhiannon and she has to make a decision. That part of the plot seemed to come out of no where and did not seem like something A would do.
I wouldn't say I hated the two main characters. Rhiannon's boyfriend, Justin, I hated, but A and Rhiannon I just didn't really like. I couldn't connect with them and they made a lot of stupid decisions.