Every Day by David Levithan
A wakes in the body of a sixteen year old, but they're used to that. They wake in a different 16 year old body every day, but they always keep their own memories and know facts about the body they are inhabiting, but not feelings. Today's body is called Justin and he seems like an utter douchebag. He has a girlfriend, Rhiannon, and A falls for her instantly. They skip school after lunch and go to the beach and spend the entire day together, which is not something douchebag Justin would've done. A makes a connection with Rhiannon and learns stories about her life that douchebag Justin wouldn't care about. A doesn't want the day to end but knows not sleeping won't stop them from being ripped from their current body and shifting into the next one. They go home from the beach and A sends themself Rhiannon’s email address from Justin's email and then writes a note to Justin in his own handwriting telling him to remember that he loves Rhiannon.
Several days pass. Each day is different. A is a girl whose brother gets in trouble for drugs. A is a guy who plays soccer. The next day, A wakes as a girl, Amy, who doesn't live very far from Rhiannon so instead of going to school, A goes to Rhiannon's school and pretends that their family is moving there and they're checking the school out. They get Rhiannon to spend the entire day with them with Justin looking on douchebaggily. At the end of the school day, they walk together through the parking lot and A asks Rhiannon to tell them something they've never told anyone else, pretending it's something quirky Amy does. Rhiannon tried to pierce her own ear when she was 10 but passed out. A read Forever by Judy Blume when they were 8 and named their private parts Helena.
The next day, A is in the body of a drug addict and reads a book to avoid leaving their room and taking more drugs. They pee in a bottle. The next day, in another body called Nathan, A checks Justin's email and their own and goes to a party that Justin and therefore Rhiannon might be at that is hours away from Nathan's home. A, as Nathan, pretends to be gay and dances with Rhiannon and trashes her seemingly shitty relationship. They trade emails and hope they can meet up again later. On the drive home from the party, A realizes they won't get home by Nathan's curfew, so instead of calling home and at least telling Nathan's parents where he is, A falls asleep on the side of the road in Nathan's car, leaving him stranded to deal with whatever will happen to him and shifting to another body.
A wakes in another body and sends an email to Rhiannon from a new email address A made up pretending to be Nathan. They make plans to meet up, but A says it might be weird. The next day, in another body, they meet. A tries to explain and Rhiannon kind of believes, especially when A tells her things they could only know if they were with her, like stories from the beach and the quirky Amy secret and the gay Nathan story. Unfortunately, real Nathan has told the police and his family that he was possessed by a demon and his story is picking up traction.
They meet again the next day in another body and A tells Rhiannon their name is A, (which is the first time we learn this as readers, but not naming a character in a summary is difficult, so you've known all along) and they chose it when they were a kid. They explain their life, shifting from body to body, every single day, being afraid to go to sleep when they were little because it meant they had to say goodbye. They thought everything was normal, but obviously they were wrong. They explain how to tell a good life from a bad one and that they know they are in love with Rhiannon and that Justin is not. She doesn't believe that. How could A love her? A doesn't even know anyone for more than one day. Well, A has now known her for several days and five different bodies, so it must be love. Meanwhile, Nathan is trying to get others who have been “possessed” to contact him. He's also been emailing A because A accidentally didn't log out of their email when they were Nathan. A is ignoring him.
A wakes the next day thinking they are in the same body as the day before, but no, that's impossible. A is in that body's twin. A emails Rhiannon but she doesn't reply. A thinks about responding to Nathan and finally decides to tell him the devil is not responsible for what happened and that he needs to think of other possibilities. A also says they are not involved and Nathan must be mistaken.
TRIGGER WARNING SUICIDAL IDEATION
A’s next body Kelsea suffers from depression and bullying. All A thinks about is Rhiannon, but their thoughts get clouded over with darkness. After school, A finds and reads a journal belonging to Kelsea in which she describes all the ways she could end her life. On the last page, she has given herself a deadline. A emails Rhiannon and tells her everything going on and Rhiannon comes over. (There's also emails from Nathan getting a reverend involved to discover the identity of his demon.) A tells Rhiannon that they normally don't get involved in people's lives and try to keep things as normal as possible and maybe they should just let Kelsea continue with her plans. A kisses Rhiannon and she is weirded out by it because one, suicidal ideation and two, A is in a different body and feels different, and three A is currently a girl. They decide to have Kelsea tell her dad and demand he help her tomorrow, no matter what fight she puts up.
END TRIGGER WARNING
The next day, A is in the body of a cute gay boy, Hugo, and is going to a pride parade with his boyfriend. A checks their email, sees tabloids about Nathan's demonic possession and that it's spreading, and then A invites Rhiannon to join them at the parade and spends the day, the boys’ anniversary, looking for her. It's not good for Hugo's life. Rhiannon was unable to attend because she had some “things” to do and Nathan wants A to prove they're not the devil.
A wakes up as Ashley next, a super hot black girl, and spends the day with Rhiannon. They picnic and talk about their lives, Rhiannon's in the same body, A’s life every day. They fight about love and A wants to prove that Justin is a douchebag, so they go to dinner that night. A, as Ashley, flirts with Justin and tries to hook up with him when Rhiannon goes to the bathroom, but he doesn't go along with it and says no. A tries to persuade him but then Rhiannon comes back and says that she doesn't want to do this anymore. Justin kisses Rhiannon and they leave.
Several days and bodies pass but there are no emails from Rhiannon. A worries that they’ve messed up. One day, A sees Nathan at school and realizes that they used to be friends, but now everyone is treating Nathan like some sort of weirdo pariah. A, as AJ, sits with his old friend and asks him how he’s doing and what’s going on, like, really going on, not just what he’s read in blogs and seen in interviews and stuff. Nathan believes that he truly was demon-possessed but he’s prepared for it next time, if it should happen again. A wants to prove to Nathan that they’re not a demon, but decides not to, even though, like… this is the perfect opportunity. A checks out some stories on a website set up by the reverend and sees lots of stories that are clearly drug addicts or criminals pretending they were demon-possessed to explain away things they’ve done, but then they see a story that sounds an awful lot like what A thinks happens when they take over a body for a day, except it’s in a state where they’ve never been before.
A next wakes in none other than Rhiannon's body. A doesn't want to take advantage of her and would never have chosen this, so they go through the day accessing as few memories as possible so as not to take anything from Rhiannon she wouldn't give. A has to spend time with Justin and, though he is definitely a douchebag, A realizes that Justin and Rhiannon do actually have a connection. To avoid having sex with Justin after school, A, as Rhiannon, says she has to take her mom to a doctor's appointment. Justin wants her to score him some pills. Instead, A takes Rhiannon's body for a jaunt up a mountain where they can truly be alone. That night, A writes Rhiannon a note, asking her to remember as much of her day as she can, and then details every single thing that happened.
A and Rhiannon meet up the next day, A in some random dude's body, and they discuss the day before. Rhiannon feels closer to A, almost like they were together all day instead of A having taken over her body, but not exactly. A wants them to be together and stops Rhiannon from saying that can't happen or whatever she was probably going to say. They plan to meet up again.
A is next a mean girl. This day, A emails a lot with Nathan who is obsessed with figuring out who A is. A tries to explain, describes everything that they did inside Nathan's body, says that it'll never happen again and to let it go, but it doesn't seem that Nathan wants to. A then becomes George, a homeschooled boy, who somehow convinces his mother to drop him off at the library for research, aka to meet Rhiannon. A pretends not to know Rhiannon and she gets wildly, irrationally angry, but then they're fine. The kiss whilst hating on The Giving Tree when George's mother arrives, furious at her son for gallivanting around with a whore.
They meet again the next day, A in the body of Xavier, who ditches play practice to be with Rhiannon. They go to her uncle's hunting cabin in the woods and almost have sex, but A decides against it, not because they don't want to, but because it wouldn't be fair to Xavier. A promises to return the next day, but that doesn't happen because their next body is hungover from binge drinking and drunk driving and being upset about killing their brother in a previous drunk driving incident. This body doesn't get to contact Rhiannon and A feels bad about breaking their promise.
A wakes as Michael, a grungy metalhead, who is about to go to Hawaii with his family for his sister's wedding, but he can't go. A leaves a note for Michael's family that he'll still be at the wedding in a few days, and then leaves to get to Rhiannon. When A arrives at her school, she skips a softball game to meet up in the gym. Rhiannon is furious at A for not showing the day before. She semi-nakedly met a hunter with a carcass at the door thinking it was A and was forced to read hunting magazines all day. As they hug, Justin finds them and beats the shit out of A and calls Rhiannon names and they break up. A escapes to a coffee shop and Rhiannon arrives later. They want to be together but Rhiannon says she won't be free of Justin for a long time. Rhiannon drives A back to Michael's where his father is angrily waiting. A makes up the dumbest story about needing to go to a concert and everything seems okay after that.
A, as Vic, assigned female at birth but now handsomely living his best life with supportive family and friends, blows off school and tests and drives three hours to meet Rhiannon. Rhiannon “doesn't even know what it means” referring to Vic and constantly misgenders him. A feels kind of at home in this body because their real identity changes every day. Rhiannon questions if it's fair for A to keep basically ruining everyone else's days, kidnapping people, just to be with her, but they love each other, so they just have to figure it out. Rhiannon makes sure Vic makes it back home in time for his date with a girl named Dawn. Vic and Dawn kiss and A says Rhiannon's name, but then explains it away by talking about the song. It's a good thing Dawn is okay with Vic being so quirky.
A goes to a funeral the next day and cries, not for the grandfather in the coffin, but for jealousy. No one is going to know when A dies. A will have no body. No one will mourn A, except for Rhiannon because she's the only person who knows A exists. A doesn't see Rhiannon until the next day, but it isn't a good day because A is in a body called Finn who is overweight. The day with Rhiannon doesn't go well. We'll leave it at that and skip over all the fat-shaming.
Rhiannon wants to meet the following day and A, as Lisa, meets her in a park. Rhiannon tells A she loves them but can't have a relationship with them because she'll never get to wake up next to them and can't even tell her friends about them and they can't meet her parents. She loves A and A loves her, but it's not going to work out. A has a plan for them to move to New York City, thinking that with so many people who live there, they would never have to travel far to be together again. They could grow up together. Get an apartment that A sneaks out of every night. Rhiannon says that won't work. She wants to stay in A’s life, but wants to wait a few days before they speak again.
Lonely, A reaches out to Nathan, the only other person who knows about them, who has sent lots of emails. They meet and A explains everything. Nathan seems to take it well and asks to meet the next day, too. A agrees and is able to go to Nathan's house where the Reverend is waiting. The Reverend is like A and taunts A with knowledge that they can stay in bodies longer than just one day, but everything is very menacing, so A pretends to have been attacked by the Reverend, hoping that Nathan is a good guy. He is and comes to A’s rescue, helping A leave. A thinks that maybe they should've stayed a little longer to learn more. Later, they read through blog posts, wondering which stories are real and which are the Reverend baiting them. They also wonder about what would happen if they did stay in one body longer. What would happen to the other person?
A spends the next day with a lovely girlfriend and realizes that they can never have that with Rhiannon. They do go to Rhiannon's school, but only to stare at her longingly for a little bit, then they go back to their girlfriend with lots of treats and they go on a date. A asks the girlfriend if she would still be in love if they woke up every day in a different body. The girlfriend proclaims that yes, she would, even if they were green with dog-sized armpit hair. A is very sad when they go to bed that night. The next day, they are too sad to do anything. The next day they get an email from Rhiannon who wants to meet up but is afraid to because she loves A but knows A will always have to leave.
A wakes one day in the perfect body. Alexander has loving parents who are going out of town for their anniversary, no significant other, good friends, lots of guitars. A emails Nathan to get the email address of the Reverend. A emails the Reverend. A emails Rhiannon that they should meet. They do and they pretend it's their first date. They have coffee, they talk about books, they go to the grocery store, they make up stories on every aisle. They cook dinner together and eat it in a treehouse. A tells Rhiannon that they can stay in one body and that there are others like them. She is elated to think that A can finally stay, but A cannot. A can't take over Alexander’s life. It wouldn't be fair to him. But A has set everything up in his mind that he'll remember meeting a beautiful girl, having a first date, really getting along, and everything being perfect. Maybe it'll last one day. Maybe it'll last every day.
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