Review: Another Day – David Levithan

Posted 3 March, 2016 by Linda @ (un)Conventional Bookworms in Reviews / 10 Comments

*I received a free copy of Another Day from Random House Children's via Netgalley. This has in no way influenced my voluntary review, which is honest and unbiased *

Review: Another Day – David LevithanAnother Day by David Levithan
Series: Every Day #2
Published by Random House Children's on 25 August 2015
Genres: Contemporary, Young Adult
Pages: 327
Format: eARC
Source: Netgalley
4 Stars

Every day is the same for Rhiannon. She has accepted her life, convinced herself that she deserves her distant, temperamental boyfriend, Justin, even established guidelines by which to live: Don’t be too needy. Avoid upsetting him. Never get your hopes up.

Until the morning everything changes. Justin seems to see her, to want to be with her for the first time, and they share a perfect day—a perfect day Justin doesn’t remember the next morning. Confused, depressed, and desperate for another day as great as that one, Rhiannon starts questioning everything. Then, one day, a stranger tells her that the Justin she spent that day with, the one who made her feel like a real person…wasn’t Justin at all.

Contemporary - (un)Conventional Bookviews

Another Day is the other side of Every Day, the story seen from Rhiannon’s perspective, and all that happens after she meets A.

Review - (un)Conventional Bookviews

While Another Day is mostly the same story as Every Day, there are some differences as well, as the readers see some of the things that happen to Rhiannon when she’s not with A. All her self-doubts and the choices she makes made more sense to me when I was inside her head, as opposed to reading everything from A’s perspective. I didn’t enjoy Rhiannon as much as I enjoyed A, though, and I think that may be because where A was selfless most of the time, Rhiannon was much more selfish. Not all the time, but she did put herself first, even to the point of possibly putting someone else in danger towards the end of the story.

It was very interesting to see how Rhiannon perceived A and their relationship, though, because I felt so much for A and wanted things to work out between the two of them. Rhiannon was hesitating, and didn’t really see their story moving forward. Every Day showed me that she could very well be right – it’s impossible to have a real, growing relationship with someone who wakes up inside someone else’s body every single morning of their life! How do you explain switching partners every day? But still be comfortable with the beautiful person inside all those different bodies?

Even if I enjoyed Rhiannon a bit less than I enjoyed A, I did like her story, and her growth was tremendous. From being very unsure, and letting her boyfriend treat her less than good, she realized that she deserved better, and with that realization, she also got that she had to change for herself. Taking control over her own life wasn’t necessarily as easy as it seemed, because she didn’t really have a good support system. Two very good friends, who felt pushed away because of her boyfriend, and then A, whom she couldn’t really introduce to anyone made those weeks complicated for her.

Written first person point of view, from Rhiannon’s perspective, and in present tense, the story felt very immediate to me, even if I had already read most of what happened from A’s point of view before. It was very interesting to see how perception has everything to do with our perspective, though, and sometimes, it’s not enough to try to see things differently, some experiences just have to be lived.

Fave Quotes - (un)Conventional Bookviews

The school door opens and the school door closes, and he doesn’t realize I am on the other side. Standing there, I wonder how I can be so full of him while he’s so empty of me.

I’m happy to see him, but also exhausted. It’s just so much work. He looks worse than I feel, staring into his locker like there’s a window in there. In some people, this would mean daydreams. But Justin doesn’t daydream. When he’s gone, he’s really gone.

Real. Real like this is real – Justin listening next to me, the sky above, the sand underneath. It is real in such an intense way that it feels unreal, too. Like I had no idea it was possible to feel so much at once, and have it all be true.

Reading this book contributed to these challenges:

Linda @ (un)Conventional Bookworms

About Linda @ (un)Conventional Bookworms

Linda is an English as foreign language teacher and has a Master's degree in English Language and Literature. She's an avid reader, blogger, compulsive one-clicker and a genre omnivore. Ever since she learnt how to read she has been seen with a book or two in her hands everywhere she goes.

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10 responses to “Review: Another Day – David Levithan

  1. I really like your last sentence, Lex…”perception has everything to do with our perspective…” That is very thought-provoking. I’m glad that Another Day added to Rhiannon and A’s story rather than simply retelling it. And I’m glad you liked getting the story from Rhiannon’s perspective, even if you didn’t like it as well as from A’s. I’m going to have to pick up these books. I’m just so curious!
    Happy Thursday, my dear! The weekend is almost here! **BIG HUGS**

    • Yeah, it was amazing to read about A and how living life with a different body each day just made the whole story unique. It was still interesting to see things from Rhiannon’s perspective, though, just not quite as much as from A’s 🙂

  2. I liked this one too, but not as much as the first book. I read them back to back so I felt like I was rereading at times. The ending left me wanting more. I hope we don’t have too long to wait for the rest of the story.

  3. I still have to read the first book in this series. I once bought it, but haven’t gotten around to reading it yet. I am glad to hear you enjoyed this one! I didn’t realize this was the same story as the first book, but then from another point of view. Those type of stories not always work for me, but they can be great if well written and when they add something to the story. And it sounds like that’s the case here. It sounds interesting how the story feels different when perceived from another point of view!

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