Another Day by David Leviathan Review

* This review is spoiler-free *

3.25/5 ⭐

Tropes

➮ LGBTQ+ rep

➮ Body switching

➮ Strangers to lovers

➮ Magical realism

Synopsis

Another Day by David Levithan is a spinoff of his book Every Day. This story follows Rhiannon's perspective. Rhiannon is a high school student who meets A. A is a person who switches bodies every single day. Rhiannon has to learn to come to terms with navigating a relationship with someone who lacks consistency while also trying to balance her own life. 

Best Quote From the Book

“How much of my body is really me? My face is me, for sure. Anyone who looked at my face would know it was me. Even with my hair wet and drawn back, it's me. But after that? If I showed myself a picture of myself from the shoulders down, would I be sure it was me? Could I identify myself that way? I close my eyes and ask myself what my feet look like. I only kind of know. Same with my hands. I have no idea what my back looks like. I let it define me, but I can't even define it.”

LGBTQ+ Representation

2.5/5 🌈

For every book with LGBTQ+ representation, I want to have a section reviewing what the representation is, how well it is done, and how impactful it is to the story as a whole. In the case of Another Day, there is LGBTQ+ representation in three places. The people that A takes over for a day are sometimes trans, lesbian, gay, etc. For A, this is portrayed as completely normal. Rhiannon seems completely fine with different sexualities but has a much more difficult time with varying gender identities. One of Rhiannon's best friends is a gay guy who thankfully is not overly stereotyped. The final and most prominent form of LGBTQ+ representation is A's inherent gender fluidity. Never having a solid identity of their own, A sees themself as agender, or genderfluid. Taking on the pronouns and identities of whoever they inhabit. This concept is one of the biggest things that Rhiannon must approach, as she has moments of questioning her own straight identity.  

My Thoughts

As you can see, I did not rate this book particularly highly. I was honestly surprised and disappointed that I did not enjoy this book nearly as much as other books by David Levithan. In fact, he is on my favorite author list after all. Sadly, this book just wasn't it for me.

I initially read the original perspective for a class I was in. The concept of the story about living a very inconsistent and at times unfulfilling life made for a lot of incredibly insightful discussion. We particularly focused on how the concept of tomorrow shifted throughout the story. It taught me to remember to be thankful for all of the tomorrows I get. Even if I have a not-so-great day, I at least have the privilege of getting to create lasting and meaningful relationships with others. A does not have the privilege. Seeing how they navigate a life with no tomorrows makes that book a worthwhile read.

My main complaint about Another Day was that Rhiannon became very intolerable in the last fifth of the book. A once morally grey character suddenly shifts to be transphobic, fatphobic, etc. I cannot tolerate sitting and watching a character become so awful for absolutely no reason. I would've appreciated if there was a greater push for Rhiannon to shift her thinking as such or to not include that dynamic at all. That said, I would highly recommend the original perspective in Every Day. It is much more insightful for the concept of switching bodies each day because it is from A's perspective. It also answers a few more of the questions raised about how A gets by living a life (or many lives) like that.

The part of the book that I enjoy the most is Levithan's thoughtful words that convey teenage human emotion almost perfectly. There were many moments when I thought how real the writing felt. I truly felt as though we were in Rhiannon's head experiencing the world as she sees it. During these sections, I was reminded why I like Levithan's writing so much. Nobody else has the ability to make you think while not accidentally aging the characters too much or droning on for a bit too long. 

Overall I would highly recommend reading Every Day much more than Another Day. If you are a particular fan of Levithan, this book could be worth reading but otherwise, I consider it to be skippable. I look forward to diving into more of his books that have even more LGBTQ+ representation than this book.