Okay, so this October book of the month club pick is royally messed up by Hurricane Sandy. See, the last Monday of the month (my preferred time to list the book of the month) was thwarted by not having a working internet connection. My apologies to readers but maybe I can claim it as an “Act of God” on my blogger’s insurance.
Anyway, October’s pick was/is Every Day by David Levithan. I chose it then because the plot (about a form-less teenager who wakes up in a different body every day but never the same body for two days) was perfect for Halloween, a time when we get to try on a costume or a mask to become someone else for a day. I’m still choosing it because, well, the book is excellent.
Every Day is the perfect example of a high-concept book that has a fantastic, tantalizing premise, but actually knows what to do with it. [How many books/movies/TV shows start out with something that sounds great as a sentence, but doesn’t pan out so well in final form?] It keeps finding new ways to toy with its central premise. What happens when A (which is what the first-person narrator refers to themselves as) takes on the form of a suicidal girl? A drop-dead gorgeous Beyonce look-a-like? A pair of jocular twins? A gay teen? A drug addict? A bully? A nice guy? Every chapter is literally a day spent as someone else, new, different, and therefore we’re constantly playing catch-up, same as the hero (or heroine? the character has no gender either).
And then, the central question: What happens when A falls in love? Because, right from the first day we’re A, that’s exactly what happens. A girl named Rhiannon enters A’s life (as A inhabits the form of Rhiannon’s boyfriend first), and the poor teen falls head over heals, even though A keeps taking a different form every time Rhiannon sees him/her.
This book will break your heart. This book will make your heart. It has the power to teach a bully empathy as it asks the terrific question “What’s it like to be you? If only for one day?” I was hooked on finding out the answer.