Starred review from June 1, 2015
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* Rhiannon has a love-hate relationship with her acerbic boyfriend, Justin. Yet one wonderful day, it's all about love between them, and hate isn't even a blip on the horizon. But then she meets a stranger who explains whathowever improbablehas happened to make that one day so perfect. The stranger is A from Levithan's earlier novel Every Day (2012), the boy who inhabits a different body and persona each day. He has fallen in love with Rhiannon, who gradually begins to return his feelings. But how, given A's condition of being, can they ever be together? What kind of future can they have? And how does Justin fit in? Everything about relationships is examined in this thoughtful, insightful novel of ideas and identities. While this could have been nothing but an offbeat premise, it is so much morea richly developed story that takes readers deep into its coprotagonists' beings. Though Levithan considers this to be the earlier novel's twin, it has a separate, deeply satisfying identity and can be read on its own. Readers will be grateful for that while hoping to hear more about Rhiannon and A, for whom they will surely have developed a deep affection. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: A sequel to the best-selling Every Day will already be on to-buy and to-read lists; the publisher's extensive promotional plan will push it to the top.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)
July 1, 2015
In Every Day (rev. 11/12), we heard from A, a gender-neutral sixteen-year-old character who wakes up in a different body each morning. As readers may recall, the day A inhabited Justin, s/he fell in love with Justin's girlfriend Rhiannon and tried to pursue a relationship with her, which was made complicated by A's constantly changing form. Another Day relates the same events, but from Rhiannon's point of view. A already understood (and described, in Every Day) how strange their encounters must be for Rhiannon, so much of what Rhiannon shares in her narration will be unsurprising to those who've read that book. But Another Day gives us a few insights into Rhiannon's motivations, particularly into why she stays as long as she does with the aloof Justin, whose emotional needs she understands better than most people do. When A inhabits the suicidal Kelsea, Rhiannon thinks, This is the girl I'd be if I hadn't met Justin; she mentioned her past suicidal thoughts briefly to A in Every Day, but it's only here that we learn they were more than fleeting ideas. That glimpse into Rhiannon's past awakens sympathy and deepens Another Day's exploration of one young woman's identity and place in the world. Rhiannon's sense of devotion leads to an ending that's more unsettled than the ending was from A's point of view. Could a (chronological) sequel be in the works? shoshana flax
(Copyright 2015 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)