Another Day by David Levithan

I was given an ARC of this book by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Title:  Another Day
Author:  David Levithan
Publisher:  Random House Children's/Knopf Books for Young Readers
ISBN:  9780385756204
Price:  $17.99 U.S./$20.99 CAN.
Pages:  336
Publish Date: August 25, 2015
Target Audience:  Teens & YA

Another Day is a companion book to Every Day by David Levithan. In an author's letter at the beginning of the book, Levithan explains that this book, although labeled as companion, can be read before or after Every Day, or it can even stand alone.  I completely agree.  This is such an original and interesting concept for a book; one that I do not recall ever seeing before.  The main characters are the same.  The story is the same.  Every Day is from the point of view of "A," while Another Day is from Rhiannon's point of view.  Of the same story!  How cool is that?  We already knew how amazing David Levithan is, but to be able to write the same story from two different character's points of view, is just brilliant.

In Another Day, Rhiannon is a high school student in desperate and desolate relationship with Justin.  Justin has a lot of issues and is an unhappy person in general.  Rhiannon seems to be the only person to have any compassion or understanding for Justin, and she loves him despite his many flaws.  Rhiannon herself seems to be a needy person, constantly needing Justin's attention and affection. One day, Rhiannon and Justin have a fantastic, absolutely out-of-the-ordinary day.  A perfect day.  They go to the beach.  They laugh.  They genuinely have a good time.  Rhiannon is reminded why she is in love with Justin.

Except, it's not Justin she just spent the afternoon with.  It's "A."  A can only be described as a soul.  He's not a human being.  He's not male or female.  He inhabits a body for one day, then moves on to another body. Every day.  A has learned not to disrupt the life of the body he's living in each day, but when he meets Rhiannon, he cannot help himself.  He goes out of his way to see her every day.  One day he's Justin, another day, he's an Asian girl who is into Anime, another day he's a beautiful meangirl, another day he's a heavy metal kid, another day... another day...  A eventually reveals himself to Rhiannon, and as odd as it is for her, she eventually falls in love with A.  Not a particular body, but the soul of A.  You can probably imagine the problems that arise with being in love with a soul and not a whole person.  The main one being, A wakes up as a new person every. single. day.

I think I've already conveyed to you how much I love this book.  I had already read Every Day before reading Another Day, so I already had somewhat of a connection to the characters, but I think I loved this book even more than it's counterpart.  I think it's more the originality of the concept than the actual story.  I did not read the two books back to back, though I do think it would be fun to do that.  I did not remember a lot of the specifics of Every Day but all of the situations that occurred between Rhiannon and A also occurred during Another Day.  We just get to hear Rhiannon's side of the story.  I think the most interesting revelation to me was her relationship with Justin.  In Every Day, we see Justin as an asshole.  In Another Day, I get a more wounded puppy-vibe from him.  As Rhiannon and A's relationship unfolds, the reader begins to see A's love for Rhiannon and just how deep it goes.

A beautiful love story that teaches us that love does not have a face, color, or gender. Another Day by David Levithan gets 5 stars from Reader Rach.