Another Day by David Levithan – REVIEW

9780385756204Another Day was sent to me by Random House via NetGalley to read and give an honest review. Thank you guys!

I read this on my Kindle.

Another Day is the companion novel to Every Day. CLICK HERE to read my review of the first book.

Published: August 25th, 2015 (July 30th, 2015 in the UK)

Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf Books For Young Readers

Pages: 336 (hardback)

Audiobook length: 9 hrs and 27 min

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Synopsis by the publisher:

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.

levithan
David Levithan

The Review

“It was nice to get to know Rhiannon as a character more, but this novel didn’t add as much to the story as I was hoping for.”

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The Writing 

I did enjoy Levithan’s writing very much in Another Day, but not as much as Every Day. That might be that I liked A’s voice more than Rhiannon.

He has ways of explaining feelings and situations that makes it so easy to connect with them and feel like you’re actually a part of it all.

I also really enjoyed the dialogues.

The Characters

It was interesting to get to know Rhiannon more in-depth than in the last book and we also got to see A and all of his faces from a different perspective which I enjoyed.

We were also introduced to some of Rhiannon’s friends as well and her family.

Justin as a character irritated me with his mood swings and very often lack of sympathy. But there was also another side to Justin that showed a more emotional depth to his character that we didn’t see in Every Day, and that was something I really appreciated.

The Plot

The thing about reading a companion novel that tells the same story as the first novel, but from a different perspective is that it doesn’t have the same grab effect on me. I didn’t feel as invested in the story and lost my concentration at times mostly because I knew where the story was going.

There were few surprises when it came to the plot line but I really did enjoy following Rhiannon through the same timeline as I followed A a little while back.

Additional Thoughts

Can you read Another Day as a stand alone? Yes, I think you could without a problem, but I also think that you wouldn’t fall for A and Rhiannon’s relationship as hard as I did when I read it from A’s perspective.

It was nice to get to know Rhiannon as a character more, but this novel didn’t add as much to the story as I was hoping for.

That being said I really do hope that Levithan writes another novel about A and Rhiannon where we find out what happens after the ending of these two. There’s a story there that I’m hoping will be told soon.

3-stars-out-of-5

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Every Day by David Levithan – REVIEW

9781405264426I read a paperback edition published by Electric Monkey. 

Published: September 10, 2013

Publisher: Ember

Pages: 384 (paperback)

Audiobook length: 8 hrs and 30 min

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Synopsis by the publisher:

Every day I am someone else. I am myself – I know I am myself – but I am also someone else. It has always been like this. Each morning, A wakes up in a different body. There’s never any warning about who it will be, but A is used to that. Never get too attached. Avoid being noticed. Do not interfere. And that’s fine – until A wakes up in the body of Justin and meets Justin’s girlfriend, Rhiannon. From that moment, the rules by which A has been living no longer apply. Because finally A has found someone he wants to be with – every day…

David Levithan
David Levithan

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The Writing

This was my very first Levithan novel and all I’d ever read from his beforehand was his short story in My True Love Gave To Me. I’d heard so many great things about his writing and now I really do understand why. His writes beautifully and in such an engaging way. There’s something very poetic and different about it and it had me mesmerized.

The Characters

A was a very interesting character. I could definitely relate to a lot of A’s thoughts and I think one of the things that really made me appreciate A was the way A talked about love, no matter what gender. A was very reflected and smart. So many could learn from A when it comes to not being so judgmental.

What made this book so special was the fact that the reader get to meet so many characters. You get to know the people that A turns out to be every morning I that made it all so interesting.

So many interesting and real characters and a very special inside look to all of their lives.

The Plot

This novel had a very steady pace to it and I flew through it. It was wonderfully unpredictable and so original.

I had no way of knowing where this story would end up and in that way Every Day had me glued to the pages all the way!

My Thoughts

This is another book that I went into blind and was so pleasantly surprised! It was so different and interesting. A wonderful story about love and finding yourself in it.

Highly recommend and I can’t wait to read Another Day!

Another Day (the companion novel to Every Day) is out on July 30, 2015 (UK) and August 25, 2015 (US).

five-stars

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My True Love Gave To Me – REVIEW

My True Love Gave To Me is a collection of short stories by twelve different authors that have a winter romance theme to them.

My True Love BW's 65Let’s start of by mentioning all of the authors of this book:

Holly Black, Ally Carter, Matt de la Peña, Gayle Forman, Jenny Han, David Levithan, Kelly Link, Myra McEntire, Stephanie Perkins, Rainbow Rowell, Laini Taylor and Kiersten White. The book was edited by Stephanie Perkins.

So there are a bunch of authors in here that are in the wind these days. That combined with the gorgeous cover (both the American and the British one. I have the british cover) has made this such a popular book of 2014. And like so many others I chose to read this one around Christmas time.

I don’t read a lot of purely romance novels as I am a fantasy and science fiction kind of gal, but there are some fantasy elements and such in some of these short stories which made me really curious and made it a good read on my part.

I think I went into this one with a little too high expectations because of all the hype that’s been surrounding this book and I did end up a bit disappointed even though I really enjoyed some of the stories. That being said, I think it is amazing that so many fantastic writers can come together to do a project as this one. I love myself some short stories from time to time and I think it was a brave move for them to go all in with this one. Well done! I would love to see more of similar kinds of short story collections.

The stories that I enjoyed the most are:

  • Midnights by Rainbow Rowell
  • The Lady and The Fox by Kelly Link
  • The Girl Who Woke The Dreamer by Laini Taylor

This collection was definitely entertaining but I felt like it had potential for so much more awesomeness!

I ended up giving it a three out of five stars (maybe a 3,5). An easy and light hearted read to get into the Christmas spirit, just don’t expect too much.

3-stars-out-of-5

One of my favorite quotes:

“She wanted to be free, and if she could never be free, at least she wanted to be brave – brave enough not to sell herself, no matter what the payment, or the cost of refusing.”

 

-Laini Taylor

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Do you have any favorite short story collections? I would love to hear your recommendations 🙂