Every Day - David Levithan

Synopsis: Every morning, A wakes in a different person’s body, a different person’s life. There’s never any warning about where it will be or who it will be. A has made peace with that, even established guidelines by which to live: Never get too attached. Avoid being noticed. Do not interfere.
It’s all fine until the morning that A wakes up in the body of Justin and meets Justin’s girlfriend, Rhiannon. From that moment, the rules by which A has been living no longer apply. Because finally A has found someone he wants to be with—day in, day out, day after day.
With his new novel, David Levithan has pushed himself to new creative heights. He has written a captivating story that will fascinate readers as they begin to comprehend the complexities of life and love in A’s world, as A and Rhiannon seek to discover if you can truly love someone who is destined to change every day. (From Goodreads)

Magical realism is one of my favorite genres, but I rarely come across books in the genre that I actually like. I find it fascinating since it's hard to pull off convincingly. But if it's done well, then those books are truly extraordinary. They also are some of the best books to highlight flaws in society. Every Day is one that was brilliantly executed because the magical elements serve a greater purpose, plus it was a great story.

A wakes up every day in a different body and basically keeps living out the life of that person without trying to draw too much attention. This is such an interesting concept that really makes you sit back and think. If your appearance and gender changes every day, how do identify yourself? Are you still the same person at the core? How do these different lives change the way you are? These are questions that are brought up, but David Levithan is really great about leaving the answers open for the reader to decide what to take away from A's extraordinary circumstances.

There's also a beautiful demonstration of acceptance that can be gleaned from A's story. A falls for Rhiannon, the girlfriend of one of the boys he wakes up in, and they have to figure out a way to be together. And of course, the thing standing in their way is societal convention. How can you be with someone who is physically different every day? And, while it's underplayed quite a bit, Rhiannon has some difficulties with A's changing genders. It's frustrating, because under it all, A still has the same spirit, the same soul, the same personality. It's just a wonderful representation of the core of humanity and what makes us who we are.

David Levithan has the wonderful ability to wrap up the meaning of life in short sentences or passages without undervaluing or over simplifying. I was writing down quotes left and right. There is so much substance and meaning in this book. It'll make you think, it'll make you cry, and it will sit with you for a long time. This book just feels so important and I really hope you'll pick it up.

Don't You Wish - Roxanne St. Claire

Synopsis: When plain and unpopular Annie Nutter gets zapped by one of her dad's whacked-out inventions, she lands in a parallel universe where her life becomes picture-perfect. Now she's Ayla Monroe, daughter of the same mother but a different father—and she's the gorgeous, rich queen bee of her high school. 
In this universe, Ayla lives in glitzy Miami instead of dreary Pittsburgh and has beaucoup bucks, courtesy of her billionaire—if usually absent—father. Her friends hit the clubs, party backstage at concerts, and take risks that are exhilirating . . . and illegal. Here she's got a date to lose her V-card with the hottest guy she's ever seen.
But on the inside, Ayla is still Annie.
So when she's offered the chance to leave the dream life and head home to Pittsburgh, will she take it?
The choice isn't as simple as you think. (From Goodreads)

This book is adorable. Who hasn't wondered how their life would be different if they were born into different circumstances? And this book explores that possibility so well. The characters were great and the fantasy of living the my-sweet-sixteen life is spot on. I want to hug this book for how cute it is, but at the same time, it is exactly what it looks like. You wonder how it is, you go - have a blast, learn a few things about life, and come home from that vacation (or finish the book) and live your life just the way you did before. Still it's worth exploring the possibilities of all the different ways you could be living your life.

Annie/Ayla is such an endearing character. It's remarkable that Roxanne St. Claire completely took a character out of her own body and made her unique. It wasn't the things she did, what she looked like, or what she was surrounded with that made who who she is. Somehow, and it's hard to point out exactly what it is, but this character is specifically Annie - it's like you could spot her no matter what body or life she was put into. You hope that if you were put in Annie's situation, you'd have the strength to remain true to who you are and do what you feel is right. So with all this universe hopping it comes down to that it is what is inside that defines you - something that is really great to see demonstrated in a YA novel.

Image plays a big part in this novel - and it probably says a lot more than I care to go into here - but the representations of image that stand in the foreground are engineered. There is science and thought that goes into creating those images. It creates an interesting battle of popularity vs. geekdom, as well as unnatural beauty vs. natural beauty. Of course, it's hard not to notice these things because they are completely saturated through the entire story line. It's all about how everyone looks.

But there are some really great, mechanical things going on under the surface. The parallel universes need scientific explanation - a feat that was handled gracefully. I'm the biggest dunce when it comes to science and math, but I never felt like I didn't understand what they were talking about. And of course, all this science stuff is wrapped up in a sweet, smart boy and that makes it easier to pay attention.

It's a quick read and it's a lot of fun. You can read it and speculate what your life would be like if you woke up in another version of yourself. You can wonder what you would do if you were Annie and woke up as Ayla. It's a great summer read that's light, but doesn't make you feel like you're losing brain cells. Actually, you might inadvertently learn something - which is always a nice surprise.

Everybody Sees the Ants - A.S. King

Synopsis: Lucky Linderman didn't ask for his life. He didn't ask his grandfather not to come home from the Vietnam War. He didn't ask for a father who never got over it. He didn't ask for a mother who keeps pretending their dysfunctional family is fine. And he didn't ask to be the target of Nader McMillan's relentless bullying, which has finally gone too far.
But Lucky has a secret--one that helps him wade through the daily mundane torture of his life. In his dreams, Lucky escapes to the war-ridden jungles of Laos--the prison his grandfather couldn't escape--where Lucky can be a real man, an adventurer, and a hero. It's dangerous and wild, and it's a place where his life just might be worth living. But how long can Lucky keep hiding in his dreams before reality forces its way inside?


Everybody Sees the Ants is one of those incredible books that is hard to talk about because it holds so much power. It's a relatively short book, yet it encompasses everything - nationalism, pain, coping, love, family, bullying, generation gaps, friendship, feminism, growing-up, and of course, the fabulous ants. A.S. King's book is such an incredible accomplishment and wonderful contribution to the YA field - I won't even scratch the surface of it here. 


Following Lucky is a little heartbreaking. He's regularly bullied, and that in itself is hard to read. However, it gets worse when it becomes clear that the adults in Lucky's life know what's going on and do nothing to stop it. They pity him, but in the interest of not stirring up trouble, they turn a blind eye. It's during a particularly painful bullying incident that Lucky creates the ants, who provide escape for him. They soon become a representation of his subconscious, often enacting how Lucky really feels, but doesn't feel he's allowed demonstrate. The ants are the best part about this book, but they are a little hard to explain, so I suggest reading this book even if it is only to see the ants. 


The ants aren't Lucky's only coping mechanism. He also goes to Laos in his dreams to hang out with his grandfather in the war-ridden jungle of Vietnam. Lucky's grandfather is a POW/MIA who never came home and Lucky's own family is incredibly impacted by it. His grandmother spent most of her energies trying to get her husband back and passed the responsibility on to Lucky's father. This all creates an interesting look at family and generation, but it also brings it into a national scale, examining the break down of our collective conscious - and as always, King calls upon the younger generation to rise up and be strong against the face of everything that came before them and the hands they were dealt. The inclusion of the Vietnam was was interesting, as it's still a recent memory yet is fairly unexplored in YA literature. 


Finally, the women in this novel were an unexpected awesome addition to this story. Lucky's own mother has some interesting psychological things going on. Then there's Ginny, the strong-willed girl who comes barging into Lucky's life, in the trend of John Green's Margo Roth Speigleman, who shows Lucky that sometimes you have to stand up for yourself, and for other people. But, surprisingly, the character I grew to love the most and turns out to provide most of the color to the novel, is Lucky's Aunt Jodi. She's probably certifiably insane, and is quite annoying at first. Yet, as her character is slowly revealed, she becomes pitiable, and then a bit lovable. She provides a great foil for Lucky, who copes in a mental way; Aunt Jodi copes in a physical way with pills and excessive cleaning.  


What's truly remarkable is this whole cast of characters show us that everyone is coping with something. We're all in this together and we just might heal ourselves by helping one another.