Another Day
by David Levithan
Middle School, High School   Knopf   327 pp.
8/15   978-0-385-75620-4   $17.99
Library ed. 978-0-385-75621-1   $20.99   g
e-book ed. 978-0-385-75622-8   $10.99

In Every Day (rev. 11/12), we heard from “A,” a gender-neutral sixteen-year-old character who wakes up in a different body each morning. As readers may recall, the day A inhabited Justin, s/he fell in love with Justin’s girlfriend Rhiannon and tried to pursue a relationship with her, which was made complicated by A’s constantly changing form. Another Day relates the same events, but from Rhiannon’s point of view. A already understood (and described, in Every Day) how strange their encounters must be for Rhiannon, so much of what Rhiannon shares in her narration will be unsurprising to those who’ve read that book. But Another Day gives us a few insights into Rhiannon’s motivations, particularly into why she stays as long as she does with the aloof Justin, whose emotional needs she understands better than most people do. When A inhabits the suicidal Kelsea, Rhiannon thinks, “This is the girl I’d be if I hadn’t met Justin”; she mentioned her past suicidal thoughts briefly to A in Every Day, but it’s only here that we learn they were more than fleeting ideas. That glimpse into Rhiannon’s past awakens sympathy and deepens Another Day’s exploration of one young woman’s identity and place in the world. Rhiannon’s sense of devotion leads to an ending that’s more unsettled than the ending was from A’s point of view. Could a (chronological) sequel be in the works?

From the July/August 2015 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.