Each and Every Day

This is a tough review to write because is so many ways this is a perfect, original, wonderful book and I do love David Levithan so much, but there is one really surprising and heart-breaking flaw within Every Day that needs to be addressed. First of all, thank you to Random House and netgalley for supplying the ARC.  I would definitely recommend Every Day but not without addressing the flaw, which was painful.  

A is neither male nor female, A is a spirit, a soul if you will, and A has woken up every day since A was born in a different body.  Now A is sixteen.  Some days A is a girl, some days A is a boy.  Some days A is straight, some days A is gay.  Some days A is transgendered.  Some days A is African-American, white, depressed, anathlete, a scholar, a good kid, a troubled kid, a druggie, a geek.  Levithan's sensitivity to every "kind" of person's humanity and individuality is wonderful and touching...except when A ends up in the body of a fat kid.

The fat kid is more than 300 pounds and there is no understanding for the fat kid, like there is for the gay kid, the transgendered kid, the depressed kid, the nice kid, the troubled kid.  There is understanding for every kind of person in the world, but not  for the fat kid, or the mean girl.  I found it interesting that a mean girl and a fat kid were treated the same way.  Interesting and sad.  

So be that as it may, A falls in love for the first time and while A usually just goes through the day and doesn't get involved and tries to do the least harm, A has found a girl that A loves and A tries to see her as much as possible and A tries to make the relationship work.  

A is a bit selfish when it comes to the relationship part.  One can easily understand why, I mean, A is in a tough spot, moving from body to body every day would be awful.  But the pressure A puts on the girl of his dreams is unfair.  The ending though, is a good one.

So I did like Every Day a lot, I just expected more from Levithan and was very, very disappointed in his treatment of fat kids and mean girls.  It was not the kind of gracious treatment and insight I am used to from him.