Another Day by David Levithan

From Goodreads:

The eagerly anticipated companion to David Levithan’s New York Times bestseller Every Day

In this enthralling companion to his New York Times bestseller Every Day, David Levithan (co-author of Will Grayson, Will Grayson with John Green) tells Rhiannon’s side of the story as she seeks to discover the truth about love and how it can change you.

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. 

Rating: 5 Stars

Another Day was provided to me by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I was so happy to get this book as I had recently read Every Day by David Levithan and absolutely fell in love with his writing style, and in particular with the characters from the novel. You can read my review of Every Day here.

I know that Another Day is advertised as a companion novel to Every Day, but I have to respectfully disagree with that term. To me Another Day is the other side of the same coin. Both books are, in my opinion, remarkable reads. I think both novels stand on their own; you don’t need to have read Every Day for Another Day to make sense. Every Day is narrated from A’s perspective, while Another Day is narrated from Rhiannon’s perspective. While I believe that each novel can be read independently of one another, my review might be spoilery if you haven’t read Every Day, mostly because I read both and it’s hard for me to separate them.  If you haven’t read Every Day or don’t know what the story is about and if want to avoid spoilers please stop reading this review now and just know that this is a novel that you won’t regret picking up. It is a beautifully written story, full of depth and wisdom, with a unique mixture of contemporary fiction, romance, and sci-fi. It is a bittersweet love story that emphasizes the power of human connections and the importance of self-identity. Ok, so here starts the spoilery part.

The premise of Every Day is quite simple, sixteen year old A wakes up every day in a different body. A is neither male nor female (I will refer to A as “he” as the review goes on just to avoid confusion); I think of him as a wandering soul. There are no set rules that A must follow and no patterns to the body he inhabits, there are no gender, ethnicity, or physical appearance restrictions; A therefore developed a self-identity that transcends gender, ethnicity, and physical appearances.  The only constant in his life is his age. A is aging at a normal pace and he inhabits bodies of the same age as himself.

Another Day begins with Rihannon going to school and meeting her boyfriend of over one year, Justin. When we first meet Rhiannon we get a sense of how insecure and unhappy she is in her relationship. She doesn’t seem to see that, she constantly makes excuses for Justin, justifying the distant way he treats her and the disinterest he displays for things that matter to her most. While reading this part of the novel, a quote from The Perks of Being a Wallflower popped into my head “we accept the love we think we deserve”. I found this quote to sum up Rhiannon’s acceptance of Justin’s treatment towards her and their relationship perfectly.  However, as the story progresses we get to see why Rhiannon choses to stick with Justin. We get to understand her and sympathize with her, maybe even at times soften a bit towards Justin.

The connection she has with A is instant, but as she discovers more and more about him, she gets to see him in different bodies with lives that she connects with. I like that she manages to help him through dealing with some of the more challenging bodies that A inhabits, by relating experiences back to her life, thus allowing us to get to know her on a much deeper, darker level.

One of the most idealistic love concepts we, as humans, want to achieve is loving someone for who they are, not what they look like. Another Day brings that concept to life when Rihannon is faced with perhaps falling in love with someone who inhabited Justin for one day. But can she really love someone for who they are regardless of the “packaging”? Can she overcome A being in a different body each day and being attracted to him regardless of his body?

I loved reading Rhiannon’s side of the story. I was blown away by the concept Levithan developed in Every Day and I was absolutely ecstatic when I heard that he decided to write about how Rhiannon dealt with A’s revelations and the love she developed for him.

Another Day is an extremely powerful read that will leave its readers’ reevaluating their perspective on life, love, and the power of human connections. As I previously stated in my review of Every Day, David Levithan is an excellent writer who managed to break my heart and put it back together without all the pieces fitting quite the same as before. I would recommend this book to all, regardless of age, gender, and ethnicity, as it has the unique ability to touch everyone in a different way.

·         Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers 

·         Publication Date: August 25, 2015

·         Sold by: Random House LLC