Another Day

by David Levithan

Summary from GoodReads

The eagerly anticipated companion to David Levithan’s New York Times bestseller Every Day

In this enthralling companion to his New York Times bestseller Every Day, David Levithan (co-author of Will Grayson, Will Grayson with John Green) tells Rhiannon’s side of the story as she seeks to discover the truth about love and how it can change you.

Every day is the same for Rhiannon. She has accepted her life, convinced herself that she deserves her distant, temperamental boyfriend, Justin, even established guidelines by which to live: Don’t be too needy. Avoid upsetting him. Never get your hopes up.

Until the morning everything changes. Justin seems to see her, to want to be with her for the first time, and they share a perfect day—a perfect day Justin doesn’t remember the next morning. Confused, depressed, and desperate for another day as great as that one, Rhiannon starts questioning everything. Then, one day, a stranger tells her that the Justin she spent that day with, the one who made her feel like a real person . . . wasn’t Justin at all. 

Thoughts on the Book

After meeting Richelle Mead at BEA my friend Nori really wanted to meet David Levithan and get this book, then we were going to head home after the exhausting two days we had in New York.  I was debating going with her, I pretty much had had it with lines at that point, and I was hemming and hawing over wanting this book since it was a sequel.  Then she started telling me about Every Day and it dawned on me that she had recommended it to me a few years ago after she had read it when it first came out.  At that point I decided, sure, if I get this one I definitely won't forget about Every Day again and I'll actually read it because it did sound really cool (it had slipped way down on my TBR list).  I hadn't gotten it out of my mind since BEA, so when I had to go on a plane to Minneapolis I decided to load it up on my kindle, grab Zeroes since that was the next book I wanted to read and I went to the airport.  I finished Every Day while still in the air, I picked up Zeroes and immediately put it down, cursing myself for leaving Another Day sitting nicely on my BEA pile.  I almost finished Zeroes on the flight home so the next day I finished it them promptly picked up Another Day.

My Review

Another Day isn't really a sequel, it's more of a companion, or a retelling from the other perspective.  It tells the exact same story as Every Day, except from Rhiannon's perspective.  It paints a fuller picture of the events and it's nice to see how Rhiannon reacts to A, and how much he/she affects her.

I didn't like this one as much as Every Day.  Even while reading that one I didn't particularly like Rhiannon, there was just something about her that put me off.  A on the other hand I loved, so it was the fact that it was all Rhiannon and little bits of A  which made me not like Another Day quite as much.

I really enjoyed seeing the other side of Justin, the side that Rhiannon saw and loved, or, saw and put up with.  I also enjoyed meeting her friends for real, Preston is great, as is Rebecca.  I love how much she cares about Rhiannon, I just wish Rhiannon had listened to all her friends.  When everyone you know is telling you that your boyfriend is a dick and you can do so much better than him, you really should stop and take in what they're saying, there's truth to it.  I loved Ben at the football game, when he told Rhiannon she was living in Justin's shadow.  There was no "I told you so" and no coddling, just the fact that she wasn't herself, and she should always be herself, no matter what.

The one thing I loved about Rhiannon was how real she was.  A was the person we all should strive to be, the enlightened one.  Love everyone for who they truly are, not what they look like.  Whereas Rhiannon is the person we all are.  She tried to be open and accepting of everyone; she never really disliked anyone based on their appearance or gender, but she couldn't force herself to be attracted to them.  When A was a girl, Rhiannon couldn't be with her, or when A was a hairy metal head guy or an extremely fat guy, Rhiannon couldn't be with him, it wasn't what she was attracted to even though she loved the person.  She berated herself for it, but also accepted it, she couldn't change herself and it wasn't fair to A.

The ending I both love and hate.  It made me love Every Day's ending much more, I think I understood A's motives more after seeing Rhiannon's side of things.  I love that Alexander is awesome, he's so cute the next morning!  But I hate Rhiannon.  She's horrible.  A is inserted into some one's life every day and tries to leave it as unscathed as possible.  Rhiannon doesn't care about that, she's selfish, she only cares about what she wants, even though she's undecided on exactly what she wants.

I give this book a 9/10.  It was awesome, but I really just don't like Rhiannon, of all people why did A fall for her?  I don't get it.  It was going to be a solid 10/10 for me right up until those last eight sentences.  Ugh.