August 15, 2018
A's not the only one who moves from body to body every day. There are others. And one of them wants to track A down.A month after A's disappearance, Rhiannon is now dating Alexander--the last body A inhabited before taking off. While Alexander makes a great boyfriend, Rhiannon isn't quite over A. Soon, Nathan (another body A inhabited) shows up at Rhiannon's door, seeking information. The two band together to devise a plan to get back in contact with A. But their meeting also brings danger, as the malevolent X (formerly introduced as Poole) threatens and harms Nathan on his own quest to reconnect with A. Does he really just want to talk? Or are X's intentions more sinister? The fast pacing and lyrical prose will draw readers in, but the philosophical questions will linger. Levithan's (The Twelve Days of Dash & Lily, 2017, etc.) latest expands on its predecessors by including multiple body-switching narrators while retaining a main focus on Rhiannon, A, Nathan, and X. Using his ability to gain privilege and wreck the lives of those he inhabits, X serves as an unsettling foil for A. A more peacefully inhabits a diverse cast of humans, whose experiences briefly touch on the likes of bullying, mental health, and poverty.More self-reflective morality tale than star-crossed romance, this sequel brightly illuminates the world beyond A and Rhiannon. (Fiction. 12-adult)
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October 1, 2018
Gr 9 Up-The saga of A, a teen who awakens each day in a different person's body, comes to a close. In earlier installments, A, who identifies as neither male nor female, fell in love with Rhiannon while in the body of her boyfriend. The two attempted to forge a bond, but A assumed a relationship between them could never work and disappeared. Now Rhiannon looks for A with Nathan, a teenager left reeling when A inhabited him-a rare misstep for A, who's scrupulous about leaving their hosts unaffected. Enter X, a malevolent body swapper hell-bent on teaching A to use their abilities for ill. Though X is at times cartoonishly evil and his fascination with luring A to the dark side goes unexplained, he infuses the narrative with some much-needed conflict, as the romantic angst of the first two books is wearing a bit thin. Notably, Levithan expands the world beyond Rhiannon and A. He draws parallels between other body swappers living in the margins and communities hit hard by President Trump's policies and the rise of hate groups. The recent March on Washington is a vibrant backdrop for the story's climax, but the quieter victories that conclude the tale are far more powerful, encouraging readers to take pride in what sets them apart. VERDICT A must for libraries with patrons eager to see A and Rhiannon's tale through.-Mahnaz Dar, School Library Journal
Copyright 2018 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
August 1, 2018
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* Here is the third thought-provoking novel about Levithan's intriguing character A, the 16-year-old boy (or is he a boy?) who wakes up each day in a different body. As before, he is in love with a girl named Rhiannon, but, given his here-today-gone-tomorrow condition, he wonders how anything could come of his love for her. Accordingly, he has cut off contact and she misses him terribly so she?in concert with Nathan, whose body A had once occupied?begins to search for him. Unfortunately, someone else is also searching for him: X, a psychopath who had previously occupied the body of the evil Reverend Poole, who is now dead. Happily, Rhiannon and Nathan find A first and he and Rhiannon reconnect. But there is much to think about in their reunion. What does the word relationship mean for them? Can they maintain their connection? A also questions his condition of being, the ethics of occupying someone else's body, and whether or not there are others like him (there are, and Levithan takes readers inside their lives). Things become even more complicated when X, whose condition is identical to A's, finally tracks him down. Like the other two books about A, this is a novel of ideas that challenges readers to wonder if someday there will be another novel about these wonderful characters. One hopes so.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)
September 1, 2018
In Every Day (rev. 11/12) and Another Day (rev. 7/15), we learned that A wakes up each morning in a different person's body. Someday alternates between A's point of view and the perspectives of those affected by A (love interest Rhiannon; former host Nathan) as well as other body travelers ?including X, who inhabited Reverend Poole in the earlier books. X has learned to game the system, controlling how long he stays in each new body and treating the bodies' original inhabitants with disregard, at best. (Though A is gender-neutral, X identifies as male even on days he presents as female.) X's creepy quest for power adds tension without sacrificing the series' emphasis on character; the more-considerate A offers insights into each day's host. The presence of multiple body travelers also brings perspective on how the traveling works and how it intersects with personal identity. Some preachiness combined with an Equality March on Washington make the continued themes of people's commonalities and the need for understanding of differences easy to spot, but at the same time, suspense makes it easy to keep turning pages. shoshana flax
(Copyright 2018 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)
January 1, 2019
In Every Day and Another Day, gender-neutral A wakes up each morning in a different person's body. Someday alternates between A's point of view and the perspectives of those affected by A (love interest Rhiannon; former "host" Nathan) as well as other "body travelers"--including X, who's learned to game the system. As the series continues its themes of people's commonalities and the need for understanding of differences, suspense should keep pages turning.
(Copyright 2019 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)