David Levithan's decision to name A's love interest "Rhiannon" is a surprisingly telling one. The name Rhiannon necessarily calls to mind Fleetwood Mac's 1975 hit "Rhiannon," a song that has grown to represent the free-spirited essence of the band's frontwoman, Stevie Nicks, in the public consciousness. What many people might not know, however, is that a story of spirit possession inspired Nicks to write this iconic song.
A list published by Rolling Stone in 2019 entitled "Fleetwood Mac's 50 Greatest Songs" recounts the story of Nicks encountering a novel called Triad, which tells a story about "a Welsh woman who believes she's been possessed by another woman, named Rhiannon." The book inspired Nicks, who set out to write a song about "a very mystical woman that finds it very, very hard to be tied down in any kind of way." Nicks succeeded in her endeavor, crafting an atmospheric, mystical song that has persisted in popularity since its 1975 release.
Given the subject matter of Every Day, this thematic connection is a telling one. Interestingly, Stevie Nicks's Rhiannon appears to have much more in common with A than with Levithan's Rhiannon. Nick's Rhiannon is a mystical, free-spirited woman who defies categorization and disdains being tied down, and A is a disembodied spirit who never stays in one place longer than 24 hours. In Every Day, A tries to reject this unmoored, inconsistent life, seeking instead to build a more stable, rooted life with Rhiannon. The unlikelihood of A's success in this endeavor becomes more and more clear as the novel draws to a close, and Levithan's reference to Fleetwood Mac's "Rhiannon" serves as a reminder that A, too, is destined to be "taken by the wind," rather than tied down.
