Summary
A disappointedly wakes up in the body of a boy named Skylar Smith, who lives four hours away from Rhiannon. Skylar is an average high school student who plays soccer, and A passes an uneventful day in Skylar’s body. Throughout the years, A has learned to play several sports, so Skylar’s soccer practice is not too difficult. In the past, however, A has woken up in the bodies of people who play more elite, dangerous sports. A knows from experience to sit these sports out. Once, A woke up in the body of a boy on a ski trip and decided to try skiing out. A broke the boy's leg in 3 places that day, resulting in a feeling of crushing guilt. From that point on, A decided to abstain from dangerous sports, such as ice hockey, gymnastics, or horseback riding, in order to protect the host bodies. After the school, A plays video games with Skylar’s friends. Although A usually enjoys these pastimes, constant thoughts of Rhiannon keep A from truly enjoying the night.
The next day, A wakes up in the body of a girl named Amy Tran. A is elated to find out that Amy has a car and a driver’s license, and that she lives only an hour away from Rhiannon. A decides to ditch Amy Tran’s classes and drive to Rhiannon’s school, instead. Although A feels a bit guilty, Amy’s large collection of black clothes and rock-n-roll aesthetic ultimately convince A that Amy wouldn’t mind.
A arrives at Rhiannon’s school and finds Rhiannon at her locker. A comes up with a cover story, introducing Amy Tran as a girl who will be moving to Rhiannon’s town. When Rhiannon asks if A would like to go to the office to find a guide, A explains that this isn’t an officially scheduled visit. Rhiannon understands and offers to personally show A around for the day. Although A is happy to spend time with Rhiannon, it proves difficult to accept that things are so different from the way they were at the beach. Because A is inhabiting the body of a stranger, and not the body of Rhiannon’s boyfriend, A must maintain a frustrating distance. A is also disappointed—but not surprised—to find that Justin still treats Rhiannon poorly and takes her for granted. In an attempt to discern what Justin remembers about the day at the beach, A asks how close the town is to the ocean. Rhiannon answers and talks about the amazing beach day she and “Justin” had, but Justin expresses no excitement at the memory. At the end of the day, Rhiannon gives her contact information to A, but A knows that no lasting friendship can begin, since A will no longer be Amy Tran the following day.
The next day, A wakes up in the body of an addict. A does not reveal any other details about this person’s life and never mentions the host person's name or gender. Throughout the chapter, A refers to this person only as “the body.” Although A has inhabited the bodies of drug users before, A has never experienced addiction to this extent. A spends the entire day fighting the urge to use drugs, warring against the body’s intense compulsion for a fix. Throughout the day, A fights nausea, sweating, and depressive thoughts, remarking on the power that bodies have over minds. A desperately fights to remain separate from the desires and struggles of the body, compulsively reading a random thriller novel (The Bourne Ultimatum by Robert Ludlum) to stay distracted. A also spends time thinking of Rhiannon and tries to remember that A has a separate life outside of this addicted person’s life. Although the body tells A repeatedly that there is only one way to alleviate this suffering, A remains strong and abstains from using any drugs. Finally, after a full day of fighting the urge to give in to the body’s addiction, the body gets tired, and A goes to sleep.
A wakes up the next morning in the body of Nathan Daldry, a nerdy rule-follower who A immediately categorizes as a “good guy.” It is a Saturday morning, so A does not have to go to school. A logs into Justin’s email account and sees that a party is planned for that night at a student named Steve Mason’s house. Nathan’s house is only a 90-minute drive from the party, so A resolves to go. Nathan’s parents are nice but strict, so A lies and asks to borrow the car to see the school play. Nathan’s parents agree, as long as A returns by midnight. In order to avoid the pain of forced removal from each host body, A always goes to sleep before midnight, so A has no problems with this rule.
Justin and Rhiannon arrive at the party shortly after A does. Inside, A sees Justin split off from Rhiannon, leaving her alone to peruse CDs. A approaches Rhiannon and begins to talk to her about one of the CDs she is holding. Rhiannon quickly warms to A, who claims to be Steve's cousin. Rhiannon and A converse easily, and soon the conversation turns to deeper topics. A begins to talk about love, remarking that many people stay in unhappy relationships for the wrong reasons. When A uses the pronoun “he” to talk about a partner, Rhiannon assumes that A is gay. A decides to let Rhiannon believe this, reasoning that this will cause Justin to see Nathan as less of a threat. Just as A suspected, the lie that Nathan is gay placates Justin, who leaves A alone with Rhiannon throughout the night. Rhiannon and A dance together, and A feels all the ecstatic feelings of the day at the beach. At the end of the night, Rhiannon gives her email address to A, and A makes up a fake email account as Nathan. A plans to immediately go home and create an account with this fake address in order to stay in contact with Rhiannon.
A leaves the party at 11:15pm and desperately starts to speed toward Nathan’s house, but by 11:50 it is clear that A won’t make it home in time for the switch. A pulls over to the side of the road and gets ready to fall asleep. Before the switch occurs, A feels intense guilt at leaving Nathan’s body an hour away from home, imagining how terrified Nathan will be when he wakes. A feels like a monster for putting Nathan in this position but reasons that it was worth it to see Rhiannon.
Analysis
In these chapters, Levithan expands upon the types of challenges A faces while inhabiting host bodies. One of these challenges is maintaining the hosts' physical safety. The story A tells about accidentally injuring a host body while skiing illustrates this. Beyond the pain of breaking the host's leg, A feels "the fierce, living weight of terrifying guilt," as if A had "rammed him with a car" (49). Through this description, Levithan reveals A's strong moral compass and deep sense of responsibility, a trait that defines A throughout the novel. Although A does not occupy the hosts' bodies by choice, A feels a binding responsibility to be respectful of each host, prioritizing the hosts' physical safety and committing to leaving each life exactly as A found it. This fierce devotion to doing right by the hosts reveals A's empathetic, caring, and moral nature, a trait that likely results from constantly seeing the world from new and varying perspectives.
Sometimes, the health of the host bodies themselves presents unique challenges, as is the case during the day A spends as an addict. In this chapter, Levithan refers to the host only as "the body," refraining from naming the host or offering any other life details. This reduction of the host's identity to "the body" highlights the consuming nature of addiction. All the other traits that define a person's life—friends, family, hobbies, personality—fade away in the face of the host's overwhelming desire for drugs. Through this metonymic use of "the body" as a stand-in for the entirety of the host's identity, Levithan illustrates how drug addiction can take over one's life.
While visiting Rhiannon's school, A irrationally hopes for "some kind of recognition" from Rhiannon, even though A is occupying an unfamiliar form (55). A wishes that Rhiannon could "see behind this body" to recognize the soul inside (55). Throughout the novel, A returns again and again to this desire, hoping that Rhiannon will be able to look past the inconstant nature of A's appearance to see the person within. Levithan's exploration of this dynamic is a central focus of the novel. If one's true identity exists outside of physical appearance, is it possible to love someone whose appearance changes each day? This question reverberates throughout the entirety of Every Day.
A's decision to attend the party as Nathan is a defining moment in the novel, setting a complex chain of events in motion. Before meeting Rhiannon, A would never hijack a host's life in order to chase a girl, but A's deep feelings for Rhiannon continue to challenge this moral code. A is the kind of person who feels crushing responsibility after accidentally breaking a host's leg, so A's disregard for Nathan's situation is extremely out of character. As A's desire to be near Rhiannon grows, A's feeling of responsibility to leave each host life unaltered wanes, resulting in unforeseen consequences. Although it is clearly wrong for A to cause the hosts harm, Levithan's exploration of this dynamic is nuanced. Just like the hosts themselves, A is a sentient being with desires and hopes. For years, A has suppressed these desires and hopes in order to prioritize the lives of the hosts, acting as a guest in their lives. Meeting Rhiannon leads A to question this for the first time, finally opening up to the possibility that A's own desires matter, too.
