Reading Response: Every Day

Everyone makes mistakes all the time, big or small.  The mistakes can affect people in different ways.  Anyone can usually go back and fix what they did wrong, but what A did cannot be taken back.  A, a character in, "Every Day", written by David Levithan, does not have a body.  He wakes up, each day, in the body of a random stranger.  One day, he possesses the body of Nathan Daldry, a quiet sixteen-year-old who keeps to himself.  A, however, wants to do something on that day, using Nathan's body.  What A does while using his body ruins Nathan's life drastically, and I believe that he is the most troubled character out of any other character in this book.

Everyone develops a crush in school, at work, or even somewhere else.  A's situation is different, though.  A is in the body of Justin, and Justin's girlfriend, Rhiannon, catches A's eye.  Ever since that day, A has been trying to somehow connect with Rhiannon.  With connecting with Rhiannon on his mind, A does whatever he can to do that in Nathan's body.  Already with this thought, he used Nathan and went to a party that was a while away from where Nathan lived.  A lied about who he was, and spent some time with Rhiannon.  Right after that, he realized that it was late and he needed to bring Nathan back to his house by midnight, as his body changes.  It was too late, and Nathan was found by the police on the side of the road.  A even says, "Poor Nathan Daldry.  He is going to wake up on the side of an interstate, an hour away from his home.  I can only imagine how terrified he'll be.  I am a monster for doing this to him.  But I have my reason."

Nathan's life was already starting to crumble.  He was interviewed and claimed this: “It was like I was sleepwalking.  The whole day, this thing was in charge of my body. It made me lie to my parents and drive to a party in a town I’ve never been to. I don’t really remember the details. I only know it wasn’t me.  I wasn’t myself,” he said.  He also told the news article that when he returned home, there was a mysterious e-mail on his computer.  Everyone thought he was a psycho when he claimed that the devil made him do it.  This was when I believed that things were really starting to go bad for him.  

Nathan's life was really in trouble when he decides to go seek help with his "possession" to someone that A is intimidated by.  He is desperate for answers, he just wants to know what is going on.  He feels alone in this.  He pushes A for answers with e-mail, for example, "All I ask is for an explanation.  I will leave you alone after that.  I just need to know."  A finally decides to meet up with Nathan, but after that, he just feels empty.  He doesn't know what to feel.  It was too much for him to absorb.

In the end, Nathan had to deal with confusion, and a lot of it, and the feeling that he was alone in his small world.  Nobody believed him about his "possession," not even his own parents.  He was desperate to know what happened to him, and who or what caused this terrifying experience.  He didn't get a happy ending, he was almost as confused at the end of the book as he was when he was first introduced as a character.  He became a different person.  A ruined him, and he will never be given his regular life back.