WEEK 4
I am currently reading Every Day, written by David Levithan. It is in the genre of urban fantasy and romance, and is about a sixteen-year-old person named A who wakes up every day in someone else's body. He has been this way all his life, and over the years, has grown used to living without attachments. When he wakes up as Justin one day, however, he falls in love with Justin's girlfriend, Rhiannon. The story is about their relationship with one another as A switches from body to body.
I liked and chose this book because the plot was extremely intriguing and interesting at first glance. I was immediately hooked by the short book summary. Although it is a little clumsily written and poorly developed character-wise, Levithan does a good job with keeping the plot fast-paced, attention-grabbing, and easy to sink into.
One incident from the book that stuck out to me quite a bit was when Justin refused to cheat on Rhiannon with the attractive girl A was for that day. Up until then, he was constantly described and narrated as being a selfish and inconsiderate boyfriend who didn't love Rhiannon at all, but when he rejected A's advances, I was able to better see how 3D Justin was as a character, and that he transcended the common archtype/stereotype of "selfish boyfriend antgonist." To some extent, he does care for Rhiannon and love her. I felt a little more sympathetic for Justin afterwards.
WEEK 5
This week I read and completed Every Day, by David Levithan. The book reminded me a lot of another children's book series by Nancy Krulik called Katie Kazoo, Switcheroo. Obviously, Every Day takes on a much darker and mature theme compared to Katie Kazoo, having been written for young adults. However, they both feature a protagonist who has the unique ability to switch between the bodies of other people, and for a period of time, must live their lives. The entire plot concept is very similar as well, since A is in love with a girl named Rhiannon and Katie is in love with a boy named Jeremy, but neither love interests know about their ability initially. Both A and Katie also struggle with self-identity and living a fairly normal life despite their powers.
WEEK 6
This week, I am reading The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer. I haven't gotten very far, but the general premise of the story is very interesting and the way Filer writes is beautiful. The book is about two brothers, Matthew and Simon, and their relationship. Matthew is the protagonist of the story, and Simon is his older, mentally/physically disabled sibling with a heart of gold. One passage that intrigued me a lot was when Matthew described his brother: "His name is Simon. I think you're going to like him. I really do. But in a couple of pages he'll be dead. And he was never the same after that" (Filer 5). I was completely hooked at that point, because while those sentences were constructed very simply and blatantly, it made me very interested in finding out what Matthew means. He was never the same after that? Wow! I want to know what that means. Does Matthew somehow manage to bring Simon back? How? In what way is he different?
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